Most of us will simply water our container gardens by hand, and enjoy doing it. However, increasingly people do need to travel during the flowering season and may need to irrigate their plants during their absence. If you have considered irrigating your container garden, read on for our introduction to the systems available.

Irrigation systems are designed to supply an adequate amount of water in a timely manner to plants. Keeping this in mind is important when designing an irrigation system. 

There are two types of systems sprinkler/spray head and drip or trickle irrigation systems. Both can be used for container watering. 

However, drip irrigation systems are a great way to provide constant moisture to container grown plants without saturating. Drip irrigation works by applying water slowly, directly to the soil. This type of irrigation is highly efficient. 

Drip irrigation kits are available at most garden centers. They allow you to water plants separately with emitters, or water groups of plants with micro-spray stakes or tapes that ooze water along their entire length. 

Unfortunately, drip emitters suffer from a handicap as they are easily plugged by silt or other particles not filtered out of the irrigation water. Emitter blockages also can be caused by algae growing in the tape or by chemical deposits at the emitter head. 

As a result, on a farm scale drip irrigation systems usually require more filtration and require higher water quality than sprinklers. If the water source is surface water (for example ditch, reservoir), high quality filtration stages should be used. If a borehole source is used less filtration may be possible. 

However, when for the home and garden, the source is a potable water supply the problem of filtration does not usually arise, so the drip type systems usually work well. 

Emitters come in many different flow rates and styles. Some emission devices are designed specifically for dense plantings and are considered to be broadcast emission devices. 

The alternative for container plants is of course the use of automatic sprinkler controllers. At the top of the range these can include electric control valves, pop-up spray heads and/or the use of pop-up rotors. This can make keeping your landscaping or yard maintained in your absence a simple matter, however, such automatic controls are unnecessary for short absences with drip systems as these can be left to run continually once set up.