Ok, I’m the first to admit that I completely misunderstood drip irrigation before I researched it and started working with drip systems. I thought, what good does “dripping” water onto your plants possibly do? I mean, really how much water can possibly come out? Well, a lot! And frankly, the science of how water moves in the soil is very interesting and perhaps more importantly to us gardeners, it makes perfect sense how drip irrigation is really effective.
Very briefly, water not only moves down (by gravity) into the soil but it also moves sideways or horizontally. The type of soil you have determines how far water will move horizontally. In sandy soil water moves less far than in clay soils. So, basically water comes out of the drip location on the tubing and then spreads out, and if you’ve done your homework, properly setting up your drip system, the water will reach your plants.
Drip systems are awesome on so many levels. I’m not going to get into the components of drip irrigation because there’s plenty of information already on the internet about this topic. But I do want to emphasize how convenient having your  garden set up for drip irrigation is, especially once you’ve included either a mechanical, or preferably an automatic timer. Your plants’ growth is limited by the amount of water received and honestly, I believe most people don’t water enough. I know I wasn’t and this became very apparent when I set up my first system. The garden area with automated irrigation had significantly larger plants and was more lush in general than areas I had to hand water. Between this demonstration and the convenience of having my garden watered for me, I was hooked on drip irrigation after the first bed I installed drip irrigation.
So, the moral of the story is, a little drip goes a long way. West Coast Foodscapes has the expertise to evaluate you irrigation needs and set you up with a personalized system that will give you more free time, help create larger plants which in turn create more vegetables and fruit and isn’t that the point? Contact us for a free consultation.
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