Tucson Low Care Landscaping
March 12, 2007
Post Tags: Drip-System-Watering-System , Tucson-landscaping , Tucson-Low-Care-Landscaping
We often get questions from people visiting Tucson from other parts of the country about the strange tubes they see growing out of most people’s yards.
Those tubes are part of the drip system for the yard. These systems can be very simple from a single main run usually of half inch plastic pipe with small feeder runs off the main run going to each plant or planter. Up to several main runs going to the front yard, the side yards and the back yard. Each on their own programmed cycle and run-time.
Sometimes those tubes are simply cut off and the water drips out of them. If the tube is close to the main run and water is coming out too fast you can put a “flag” in the end of the tube. You can buy flags rated for a certain amount of drip per hour.
You can also buy variable drip ends that will drip between 1 and 10 gallons an hour. They are more expensive than the single drip rate flags but they are more flexible in your landscaping theme.
As plants and scrubs grow larger you will want to increase the rate of flow to those plants.
You can do this by:
- increasing the drip rate
- adding additional tubes
- increasing the timer settings to run the drip for a longer period.
Most people don’t want to spend a lot of time watering their yard in the summer. For those that are winter visitors a drip system is a must. It keeps them from having to landscape every fall when they come back to Tucson.
Drip systems and parts can be purchased at Home Depot, Lowes, Ace Hardware etc. For some it takes the place of a model train or erector set. They aren’t expensive to setup and because we don’t have deep freezes here the lines are buried 4 to 6 inches underground.
A drip control panel is attached to the outside of the home. Most models come with a variety of settings making it possible to keep plants, trees, and shrubs watered according to their needs. I love the drip system we have at our home. It makes keeping the yard green and the plants alive an easy proposition even here in Tucson’s desert climate.
Below is low care landscaping and what happens when you put a house on the market and have the water or drip system turned off. Now it is very low care landscaping.
