Bringing water and additional humidity to your desert garden

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One of the many things that makes the Phoenix, Arizona area such a wonderful place to live is the low humidity and the sunny skies (not much rain).  For humans, this is wonderful, because, as you know, high humidity is very uncomfortable, and you really can't play much golf in the rain. But plants, especially tropical plants, like humidity, and rainfall. Here at The Tropical Paradise I deliver water to my plants through two systems, one being a traditional "drip" system, and also a mister system.

In the picture you can see my setup. On the left is the mister system. This is an ordinary misting system, the kind you usually see along the edge of patios. I have it set to a timer that allows it to go on and off for short periods several times a day. No, it doesn't make The Tropical Paradise so humid that alligators would be comfortable there, but it does help. The white tubular thing is the filter, which I change yearly, and it goes to a standard misting line, which has fittings every few feet. I keep it at the regular household water pressure, and the mist rises up a couple of feet, just enough for the plants. The white stuff that you see everywhere is plumber's tape, which I use generously. The trick with a system like this is to make it leak-proof, which means doing everything right. This is tucked away in a corner, so I have to make a special effort to check it on a regular basis.

On the right is a low-pressure drip-line system. The first part drops the household pressure down to 15 psi, then there is the timer, which I just changed for the summer to come on every 48 hours, then the filter, and then to the 1/2 inch main tubing. From that, I run "spaghetti tubing" with sprayer heads or drip heads, depending on what works best in a particular area.

Yep, all of this is ordinary stuff from Home Depot.

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