Drip Irrigation for a Phoenix Yard: What to Buy First
The four parts of a drip system that survive a Phoenix summer, and the two mistakes that kill new gardens here.
Most of what the internet says about drip irrigation is written for places with a spring. Phoenix has ten weeks a year where the ground reaches 130°F in the sun and the air is drier than an oven. A system that works here has four parts, in this order: a pressure regulator and filter at the bib, half-inch main line run along the bed, quarter-inch tubing with emitters to each plant, and a timer. Everything else is optional.
The two mistakes that kill new gardens here
Watering on a schedule from somewhere else. Once a day at noon is fine in Ohio and fatal in Laveen. Water at dawn and again at dusk, deep and short, so the roots go down instead of sitting in hot mud.
Leaving emitter tubing in the sun. The thin quarter-inch line is the weak link; two summers of UV and it snaps when you touch it. Mulch over it, or route it under the bed edge.
What we would buy
The Rain Bird starter kit has the regulator, the filter, the half-inch line and enough fittings for one bed, and it uses the same fittings the Ace on 35th Avenue sells, which matters when a coupling fails at 6 PM. Add the Orbit timer so the schedule runs without you, and a 50% shade cloth for June through September, when nothing sets fruit in full sun anyway.
One thing we would not buy: the kits with “misters” for vegetables. They lose most of the water to evaporation before it reaches the soil and they feed the powdery mildew you are trying to avoid.
The picks
Rain Bird 1/2" drip tubing starter kit
Pressure-regulated, standard fittings, and every hardware store in the Valley carries the same parts when you need one more elbow on a Sunday.
- Best for
- A first bed or a row of pots on a hose bib.
- Watch out
- The included 1/4" emitter tubing bakes brittle in two summers in full sun; bury it under mulch or plan to replace it.
Orbit hose-end digital timer
Twice-a-day cycles at dawn and dusk are the difference between a garden and a graveyard in July; a timer does not forget.
- Best for
- Hose-bib systems without a controller.
- Watch out
- Batteries die in the heat faster than the manual says; change them every spring.
Coolaroo 50% shade cloth
Tomatoes and peppers stop setting fruit above about 95°F; a 50% cloth over the bed from June to September keeps them producing.
- Best for
- Any bed that gets afternoon sun.
- Watch out
- Get the grommeted edge; the cut-yourself rolls fray in the wind.
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