First, you’ll need to plan the system. On a piece of graph paper, draw your house and where the plants will go. Also, indicate where the valve is located, then mark where the main drip line will go.

Put down a layer of cardboard (to block weeds) out past the drip line, and cover the cardboard with a couple of inches of No. 2 or No. 3A crushed stone, the washed kind that won't compact.

Enter Gene Goldstein. He has extensive experience in drip irrigation and has settled on 1/4″ spaghetti tubing that you connect to the main line wherever an emitter is needed.