Drip Irrigation for Every Landscape and All Climates, 2nd Edition

Drip irrigation is the best way to help any plant flourish and survive tough times, especially short or long droughts. Pick the wrong “stuff” and you easily can feel overwhelmed. Robert Kourik’s Drip Irrigation for Every Landscape and All Climates clearly explains how to use less water yet increase the yields of vegetables and promote the growth and flowering of all plants – trees, shrubs, and container plants – in any climate, even where it rains irregularly.

In the tradition of the original groundbreaking book, this fully revised edition incorporates new information essential for gardeners, including how to manage limited water supplies with precision and efficiency, without the clutter of hundreds of widgets and gizmos, and the knowledge is shared in Kourik’s inimitable, friendly, down-to-earth, and easy-to-understand style.

Drip Irrigation for Every Landscape and All Climates reveals how to:
• Utilize drip irrigation for everything you grow–trees, shrubs, hanging plants, container plants, and vegetable and flower gardens –and save up to 50 percent of your water compared to sprinklers.
• Use a streamlined configuration of hardware and tubing.
• Choose the best, sturdiest hardware that will last for decades in your home landscape and vegetable garden.
• Pick tubing that has no emitters punched on the outside–these have a tendency to break off–and use this tubing buried beneath the surface to irrigate without losing any water to wind or evaporation.
• Roll out a drip system in a very short period of time, avoiding tedious hours punching in emitters or adding smaller tubing to reach each plant.
• Capture and reuse gray water and cistern water for irrigation.
• Construct a system in which the main parts are effectively hidden or can be simply attached to an existing garden faucet.

Individual projects are carefully detailed and include: how anyone can construct a system by attaching it to an existing garden faucet or the main water supply, constructing larger assemblies for big gardens, irrigating all sizes of potted plants, easy ways to irrigate a vegetable garden, and how to lay out tubing for the best health of trees and shrubs.

Robert Kourik installed his first edible landscape in 1978, and is the author of Drip Irrigation, Understanding Roots, Designing and Maintaining Your Edible Landscape, and Lazy-Ass Gardening

In the course of his 40-plus years of first-hand experience in sustainable horticulture, he’s received many accolades. Sunset magazine described Robert’s Drip Irrigation book as “The last word on drip irrigation” and “infused with good humor.” Paul Hawken extols his work as “uncommonly valuable.” Rosalind Creasy calls Robert’s books “encyclopedic.” All of Robert’s work and writings were oriented towards sustainability long before the term became popular.

Robert’s books, articles, and essays have covered organic, natural, sustainable and integrated systems; permaculture; water conservation and drip irrigation; environmentally sound homes; and edible landscaping. His articles have appeared in national publications such as The New York Times, Garden Design Magazine, Landscape Architecture, National Gardening, Fine Gardening, Horticulture Magazine and Mother Earth News.