Try these techniques to conserve water while you quench plants' thirst - Special Issue: Spring-Summer 1994 Garden Guide - Planting & Maintenance Guide

If rains don't replenish soil moisture, you can quench a tree's thirst by deep watering. One good way to do it is with a root irrigator. The needlelike probe shown at right is available at nurseries and garden supply stores. It injects water into the root zone without runoff.

To use a root irrigator properly, insert it into the ground slowly, at an angle so that the top layer of soil gets wet. Don't go deeper than 12 to 18 inches or stay in one spot for more than a few minutes. Work in concentric circles around the trunk, gradually moving outward toward the drip line until you have used the injector about every 3 feet.

Soaker hose hookup keeps water off paths (B)

Easy to weave through planting rows, flexible soaker hoses are popular low-flow irrigation systems for vegetable and flower gardens. But water is wasted where soaker hoses run across paths.

Bud Stuckey uses the method shown at right to keep paths dry in his Los Altos, California, garden. He cut the soaker hose where it crossed a path and inserted a length of garden hose--as wide as the path plus 3 inches on each end. He crimped the soaker hose ends so they slip about 3 inches into the garden hose, then secured them with metal hose clamps sized to the diameter of the garden hose.

If the hose is a larger diameter than the soaker hose, you can simply slip it over the soaker hose and then clamp it in place.

Basic drip system (C)

To make every drop of water count, Suzie Chamberlain saves sink and shower water as it warms up in her Eagle Rock, California, home. To deliver it to thirsty plants without using an irrigation system, she devised the system shown at bottom right. Water drains from the 4-gallon bucket through 1/4-inch drip tubing with 1/2-gallon-per-hour emitters; a full bucket supplies the emitters for about 4 hours.

She made a hole in the bucket slightly narrower than the diameter of the tubing, then used a small screwdriver to push the tubing through the hole. Inside the bucket, the tubing is connected to a female thread-to-tubing adapter with a screen washer, which stops any debris from clogging the system. The length of tubing from the bucket branches (with a T-fitting) to two pieces of tubing cut to reach the base of the plants. Pressure-compensated emitters fit onto the tubing ends.

Chamberlain used scrap drip tubing and a bucket she had on hand; the remaining supplies cost less than $5.