· Michael Blair
Beds and lawns want different things. A lawn needs uniform coverage across an area; a bed needs water at specific root zones, and delivering it as spray wastes most of the difference.
Why drip suits beds
Water goes to the root zone rather than onto foliage and mulch. In Middle Tennessee humidity, keeping leaves dry meaningfully reduces fungal problems.
It also loses far less to evaporation and wind, and it does not water the gaps between plants, which is where weeds germinate.
Converting an existing zone
A spray zone serving a bed can usually be converted with a head-mounted drip conversion kit, which adds the pressure regulator and filter drip needs.
Drip runs at much lower pressure than spray, so the regulator is essential rather than optional.
- Pressure regulator and filter are mandatory on drip
- Convert bed zones, keep lawn zones on rotors
- Emitters at the plant, not evenly along the line
- Run drip zones much longer than spray zones
- Flush the line at the end each season
Run times are different
Drip applies water slowly, so a drip zone runs far longer than a spray zone — often an hour or more where a spray zone runs fifteen minutes.
Leaving a converted zone on its old schedule is the most common mistake and produces underwatered beds.
Maintenance
Emitters clog, particularly with Middle Tennessee water. Flush the line ends annually and check the filter, which is the component most often ignored until the zone stops working.
Drip under mulch is protected from ultraviolet light and lasts considerably longer than tubing left exposed.