I'm in the process of having a Landscape Architect design a planting layout for the beds in my backyard. I have an extra zone avaliable that I could use to water the trees, shrubs and perennials, but am wondering if I should plan on using shrub spray heads, or bury drip hose for each plant instead. I've done so much work with irrigation, either method would be extremely easy for me to do. I'm a Newb when it comes to trees, shrubs and ornamentals, so I'm not sure which way I choose to satisfy their watering needs.

Thanks for any help with this.

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Drip would be the way i went if you don't plan on adding anything else like annuals.

Drip and/or microspray depending on what you want would be my choice. Microspray tends to clog more, not really an issue if you have a good filter on the system, but it's great for areas that have perennials and annuals where things will change over time. Yep, I water parts of the bed that may not require it at that moment, but just wait a month or so.

I also used long enough line to move the sprayers considerably if I need to since I re-design that bed every year on a new theme and with new plant heights. I used extension wands to confound the height variance issue.

I service my shrubs with drip irrigation off the same line (some careful balancing on water amounts is required, but the sprays also hit the shrubs, so it all works out pretty well).

I dislike the shrub sprayers as they tend to knock over the smaller plants. Plus they deliver water too quickly for the ground to deal with it on a raised bed and for shrub roots, which are much deeper and wider than the grass we're used to. This would be less of a problem with lower outputs and sturdy perennials, but my lacier things tend to object strenuously.

I may be a dissenting vote here...

If we were talking about smaller shrubs and annuals alone, I'd say go for the drip system. But you mentioned trees. Now, I don't know how many trees require watering, but I'd plan for the size of the tree(s) at mature size if I planned on watering them. A drip system ain't gonna cover a mature tree, no way. Either ignore the tree(s) and concentrate on getting the smaller stuff water, or use a spray system.

Or, for larger trees, use the tree watering stakes: http://www.sprinklerwarehouse.com/Tree- ... s/7848.htm

For larger trees, I tend to follow the maturity rule. If small, they get watered and prepped for hot weather as mine did today. For larger ones, watering with the lawn is fine, and the rare extra watering if the weather's about to turn brutal.

I really appreciate the help guys. I guess I should have offered more information. I have a 26' by 18' main bed in the middle of the backyard. In the middle of that bed, the Architect is going to select a smaller specimen tree (probably the size of a Serviceberry). To fill out the bed, he'll probably utilize mid-sized, to small evergreen shrubs like Globe Arbs and, or Mugho Pines. I'm sure he'll include deciduous shrubs too and colorful perennial shrubs and flowers of course. There won't be any annuals.

My intention is to be able to purchase juvenile plants and allow them to grow to mature size. Having a way to automatically irrigate them would obviously be a huge aid when Nurse Maiding juvenile plants. Even after the plants have matured, it will still be nice to be able to automatically water the less drought-resistant ones. Obviously, once the tree gets to a certain size, it should be able to fulfill its own water requirements. When it's recently transplanted though, it will very convenient to let my irrigation system assure its water requirements are sated.

The smaller beds will maybe have something like a Japanese Maple, or Fat Albert Blue Spruce for specimen plants and colorful shrubs/flowers to round things out.

This should give you a better idea of what I'm looking to do.

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Well... I did some homework on drip systems today and found out that really hard water like mine tends to clog drip irrigation hoses. It looks like my only option is gonna be sprays, or micro sprays.

Thanks for all of your feedback on this guys. It looks like I have a lot of homework to do. I don't know a thing about regular shrub sprays, OR micro sprays. I've seen the tall shrub sprays that stick up about a foot out of the ground, but I've never even SEEN a micro spray.

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If you've seen a photo of my garden, you've seen a micro-spray. Or barely seen one as they're not obvious.

Something like an umbrella sprayer might be best for you if you want near-invisibility: Click here for more information

Those stick right into the ground, have a few inches clearance, are nice and black, and throw a nice umbrella up to about eight to ten inches around or so. Twenty gallon an hour max output. I tend to use them at a whole variety of outputs and they do well.

I'd love to see any pics you have of your beds Eric. I'll bet they look great. I sure can't wait until mine are done.

I checked out the link you posted. The term "drip spray sounds like an oxymoron to me though.

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Click here for more information

I just posted one on my blog today. On the general garden shot of the back gardens, there are at least two watering spikes showing (there are three I can easily ID, but you'll never notice the third).

One is down from the edge of the first Thuja next to the rose. Not the yellow ball, that's just for show, to its left. That one's a micro-sprinkler, 7' radius, and does a great job.

The second is to the right of the closest pot (the one with the slightly sad looking sunflower I have to cut back), closer than the lamp, with a bit of 1/4" spaghetti line that I seriously have to conceal when I don't melt out there. That's a 180° sprayer, about six foot radius, that services the top of that part of the bed. It has copious extra line so I can shift it laterally year by year.

None of the other images caught a sprayer. That sunflower grows in the mailbox bed, watered by another 7' sprinkler and drip around the outer ring as I change that every year and re-design. The rose shot actually did catch several umbrella drippers, but you'll never see 'em in the mulch and I can't find them in the shot.

Wow Eric! I really like your arrangement. Did you design that layout? I saw the microsprays you were ralking about. It looks like your micro sprays are keeping all your ornamentals really happy.

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Yeah, I redesign it every year. This year I'm actually not quite as happy with it--the yellows are a little too dominant, and I wasn't expecting that. The zinnias are producing more and larger flowers than I thought they would. The blues aren't as dominant as they were intended to be because of that.

I know, terrible problem to have--plants that bloom too much...

Most of the water service in that bed you don't see. The over-the-top sprayers are the only ones visible, the drip is in the mulch and the umbrella sprayers are at the soil surface and not visible among the plants.