Drip Irrigation vs. Sprinklers: Which System is Best for Your Garden?

Drip Irrigation vs. Sprinklers: Which System is Best for Your Garden?

Drip irrigation and sprinklers each have their place in landscapes but serve very different purposes and each has their advantages and disadvantages. In recent decades drip irrigation has become the standard for almost all landscape applications, but as trusted specialists for irrigation maintenance in Sonoma County, we believe there is still a time and place for sprinklers as well. Additionally, many homeowners inherited properties with existing sprinkler systems and aren’t sure if it’s worth the investment to replace them with drip irrigation. Here is our expert advice of when and where to use each type of system in your landscape.

Trenching and lateral lines for lawn sprinklers

Should I Use Drip Irrigation or Sprinklers for a Lawn?

Let’s explore some of the pros and cons to these two watering methods:

Sprinkler Pros

  • Provide even coverage over a lawn area
  • Utilize shorter run times than drip, allowing for more flexible programming
  • Easy to identify where there are issues with routine visual inspections.
  • Come in a wide range of spray patterns to cover all possible shapes/sizes of lawns
  • Relatively easy to install both the valve and sprinkler heads
  • A small amount of sprinklers can cover a large area, leading to savings on installation.
  • Sprinklers spray patterns are easily adjusted by hand without tools or the need to excavate the area.

Sprinkler Cons

  • Less efficient as some water can ‘overspray’ into non-lawn areas or be blown away in the wind, may need to look at other ways to incorporate sustainability into your landscape design
  • Can leave walkways wet after running, can stain fences and buildings with water damage, particularly if the water has a high iron content as most groundwater in Sonoma County does.

Drip irrigation Pros

  • Slightly more efficient than sprinklers
  • Underground drip eliminates ‘overspray’ of sprinklers into areas outside the lawn
  • No ‘wet lawn’ to walk through after sprinklers have run reducing staining on shoes and walkways

Drip irrigation Cons

  • Very hard to identify leaks or breaks until the lawn begins to suffer.
  • Requires digging up the lawn to make repairs.
  • More complex installation which requires more parts and calculations of water flow, especially in sloped areas.
  • Valves require additional filters increasing costs.
  • If blockages occur, large expensive repairs could be required.

Our Suggestion

Inspired Landscapes recommends using sprinklers for lawn irrigation due to their ease of installation, maintenance, and even distribution of water. Lawns are greatly affected by dryness in their shallow root systems; drip irrigation that needs to be installed below the ground can lead to more frequent issues that are harder to diagnose and repair. The efficiency of drip, specifically in lawn applications, is outweighed by its technical issues, difficulty in maintenance, and increased cost of installation.

Surface run in-line emitter drip tubing for a vegetable garden

Should I Use Drip Irrigation or Sprinklers for My Vegetable Garden?

Let’s explore some of the pros and cons to these two watering methods:

Sprinkler Pros

  • Can apply a lot of water quickly, allowing for more flexible programming.
  • Easy to visually inspect for proper operation
  • Can cover large areas with only a few sprinklers

Sprinklers Cons

  • Spraying above ground growth with water leads to a variety of pest and fungal issues.
  • Vegetable beds generally have compact shapes/sizes making sprinkler configuration more difficult.
  • Overspray out of the beds leads to weed growth in surrounding areas as well as vegetable beds.
  • Far less efficient use of water
  • Little control over distribution rates of water leading to over watering some areas, and underwatering others.
  • Taller plants can block the sprinklers from reaching plants behind them causing a ‘rain shadow’ effect which leads to stressed out and under performing plants.

Drip Pros

  • Far more efficient use of water by applying it directly to the root zones and nowhere else, helping you conserve water like a pro
  • Reduces growth of weeds by applying water only where it is needed.
  • Easier to control distribution of water to each plant type needs.
  • Slow rate of application of water leads to a higher rate of absorption by the soil

Drip Cons

  • Can be hard to see tubing once plants are mature making repairs challenging.
  • Frequently bitten by rodents or smalls animals causing small leaks that require repair
  • More parts required to install tubing

Our Suggestion

Inspired Landscapes recommends using drip irrigation for all vegetable gardens. Spraying above ground growth of vegetables is very problematic for pests and fungus. Use of drip irrigation dramatically reduces weeds in the garden. Use of drip irrigation is far more efficient and leads to less water use and healthier plants.

Surface run point source emitter drip irrigation for perennial and shrub planting

Should I Use Drip Irrigation or Sprinklers for My Shrub and Flower Beds?

Let’s explore some of the pros and cons to these two watering methods:

Sprinkler Pros

  • A single sprinkler can apply water to a large area, reducing installation costs
  • The wide range of coverage per sprinklers means time to check for proper operation.
  • Water can be applied quickly to allow for shorter irrigation cycles and more flexible programming.

Sprinkler Cons

  • Very inefficient as water is lost to evaporation, wind, and is applied to areas where it is not needed
  • Irrigation spray is often blocked by taller plants leading to ‘rain shadows’ where no irrigation reaches causing plants in those areas to suffer
  • Dramatically increases weed populations due to water being sprayed all over the surface
  • Many plants dislike having their foliage become wet during hot days, leading to dead branches and disease
  • Houses, fences, and walkways often become stained from being sprayed by water, particularly water with a high iron content as most groundwater in Sonoma County has
  • Requires trenching underground piping which is costly
  • Repairs to underground piping often go unnoticed causing costly water loss and more challenging repairs

Drip Pros

  • Easy to install surface run drip tubing to plants in a landscape
  • All plants in the irrigation zone get equal water as the ‘rain shadow’ effect doesn’t apply.
  • Cost effective to install as it requires few parts and simple technical knowledge, helping you transform your garden more easily
  • Far more efficient than sprinklers lowering water bills and increasing environmental responsibility
  • Reduces weed growth by only applying water to the root zones of plants you intend to water
  • Breaks are easy to identify and repaired quickly and cheaply with simple easy to use parts.

Drip Cons

  • Rodents and animals sometimes bite into drip tubing to gain access to water causing small leaks
  • Small emitters can become clogged if you have water with high iron content or other debris.
  • Tubing can pop up above mulch and be unsightly in the landscape.

Our Suggestion

Inspired Landscapes recommends installing drip tubing for all perennial and shrub gardens as the benefits of efficiency, ease of installation and maintenance, and horticultural benefits of precise control of quantities and location of water applied far outweigh any possible benefits of using sprinklers.

Get Your Irrigation Problems Solved with Inspired Landscapes

At Inspired Landscapes, our certified and experienced landscaping technicians work with you to understand your landscape’s irrigation needs. Contact us today or give us a call at (707) 395-7474 to set up a consultation and get our professional recommendation. With expert service from Inspired Landscapes, your gardens, lawns, and landscaping can flourish!