How to Irrigate a Garden Bed

To irrigate a flower bed you need a sprinkler system designed correctly to ensure an even distribution of water, with a fine enough droplet size that won't damage the plants. This guide will go over both the products and installation method to irrigate your flower/garden bed, keeping it healthy and beautiful.

Have a look at the categories below at the recommended products for the different systems.

Micro Sprays

Micro-sprays offer the advantage of fine droplets, which won’t harm flowers or plants in the bed. In contrast, larger sprinklers, like Impact Type Sprinklers, can damage foliage. Micro-sprays can be attached to adjustable stakes, allowing you to raise the spray above the plants for even water distribution.

For flexibility, Vari-Jets are attached to a Rigid Riser, which snaps into an Asta Stake, and connects to the lateral line via poly tube. This setup gives you excellent control over both height and positioning.

However, the downside of micro-sprays is their smaller spray radius, requiring more sprinklers to cover a larger area. In such cases, a Pop-Up Spray may be a better option. Additionally, the stakes and tubing for micro-sprays are above ground, so gardeners should be cautious to avoid damaging the lines during planting or maintenance.

Bad Set-up

If bumped when gardening it can enlarge the connection into the pipe
If connection wears, leaks will occur at the join.
Will have to remove the spray, plug the leak and find a new position for the spray.
Nozzle will quickly get overgrown, becoming ineffective
Hard to keep the spray vertical due to lateral line twisting
Spray directly into the nearby plants causing puddling.

Poor Set-up

All points from bad set up AND:

If plants get too high you will have to fit an extension to keep the nozzle above the plants
No way of keeping the sprayer vertical due to lateral line twisting

Best Set-up

If bumped when gardening it won't affect the pipe connection due to the flexible tube.
Adjustable heights with the Asta Stake and Rigid Riser.
Adjustable height of sprayer means you can always keep it just above the plants, to ensure even coverage and not being an eyesore.
The position of the micro-spray can be adjusted depending on plant growth, due to the flexible tube connection

Each micro-spray has a different size throw distance, so make sure you read each product for their specifications.
The Vari-Jet Micro-Spray that we are using has a spray range of 1.5m Radius.

Pop-Up Sprays

Hunter sprays are ideal for flower bed irrigation due to their fine droplets, which won't damage delicate flower petals. For lower plants, you can use 300mm pop-up bodies to ensure the nozzle sits above the foliage, providing discreet irrigation. If the plants are taller, switch to poly riser posts, which raise the nozzle above the plants, similar to micro-sprays, but are visible above the ground.

Spray nozzles come in a range of throw distances, from 1.2m to 5.2m. If you need more height, consider using a poly riser stake with a shrub adapter. The advantage is greater height, but it’s more visible.

For narrow flower beds, placing pop-ups in the lawn area to spray onto the beds can avoid having any pipes or sprinklers within the flower beds, reducing the risk of damage when digging or preparing the area.