Skip to main content

Are sprinklers good for your garden, or could they be damaging your plants? Here’s what you need to know

Should you use sprinklers to water your garden? Find out here

If you’re interested in gardening, there’s a good chance you also appreciate proper lawn care and landscaping. Lawn sprinklers are a common tool in lawn care, but how do they impact your garden? If your plants are close enough for the sprinklers to hit, should you move them, or can sprinklers actually benefit your garden? Here’s what you need to know.

Difficulty

Easy

Duration

1 hour

What You Need

  • Drip irrigation system

  • Tarp

Sprinklers spraying tulip flowers
Hadrian/Shutterstock

Do sprinklers help your plants?

The main benefit sprinklers provide is consistent water. Since sprinklers are often on a timer, your garden can receive water at the same time every day. This is especially helpful if you travel, have a busy schedule, or have difficulty getting out in your garden regularly.

Additionally, you can adjust the sprinkler’s schedule relatively easily. If daily watering is too much for your plants, you can lower the frequency of your sprinkler. You can even adjust the sprinkler head to provide a more concentrated spray or a fine mist.

A large lawn sprinkler
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Can sprinklers harm your garden?

Unfortunately, there are downsides to using sprinklers to water your garden. Depending on the size of your garden, some of your plants might not be getting enough water, while those closer to the sprinkler may be getting too much.

The other problem with sprinklers is that they are an overhead watering method, meaning the water is hitting the leaves, flowers, and fruit of the plants. Most of the water won't reach the soil, evaporating directly off the plant instead.

Additionally, wet leaves and fruit cause fungal infections such as blossom end rot. The water comes into contact with fungal spores on the plant, prompting them to grow. The water drips down, spreading the spores from leaf to leaf, infecting the entire plant.

A circular lawn sprinkler
Image used with permission by copyright holder

How can you avoid the negative impact of sprinklers?

Here's how to keep your lawn sprinklers from harming your plants:

Step 1: Move your plants away from the sprinklers, if possible.

This may be possible if you have plants or flowers in pots outside.

Step 2: Switch to an alternative watering method.

Watering by hand is always an option, but there are also drip irrigation systems that offer some of the same conveniences as sprinklers.

Step 3: Inspect your garden regularly for fungal damage.

Step 4: Limit how often your sprinklers run.

Step 5: Cover your garden before running your sprinklers.

Laying a tarp over your garden is a simple solution to keep the water off your plant's leaves.

Sprinklers can be a big help for homeowners who aren’t able to manually water their lawn and live in an area with low rainfall. However, they aren’t a great choice for watering your garden. If possible, you should rely on other watering methods and keep your plants away from the sprinklers.

Editors' Recommendations

Cayla Leonard
Cayla Leonard is a writer from North Carolina who is passionate about plants.  She enjoys reading and writing fiction and…
How to store compost: Tips and tricks you need to know
Keep your compost fresh longer with these storage tips
Compost in brown bag on a floor

So, you’ve learned how to make compost. It’s ready for spreading, but your garden can’t hold all that compost at once. What do you do with the extras? When your vegetable garden produces too many vegetables, you store the extras to keep them fresh as long as possible, but what about compost? Does it need to be stored a certain way, and will it go bad if it isn't stored properly? If these questions have ever crossed your mind, we have the answers in this guide to how to store compost.

Read more
6 plants you should cut back to keep your garden thriving this fall
To cut or not to cut? Here are the plants to trim in the fall
A sage plant with purple flowers

Fresh spring growth is a welcome sight in any garden, and it all starts with getting ready at the end of fall and the start of winter. Cutting back plants is one way to prepare your plants for new spring growth, and many plants can benefit from this severe pruning. This form of pruning might sound intimidating, but it doesn’t have to be. If you're wondering how to cut back fall plants, which plants to cut, and why cutting your plants back is effective, then this is the guide for you! We'll answer all your questions, so you can feel confident as you cut back fall plants.

What is cutting back and why do it?
Cutting back is a type of pruning. Typical pruning involves removing specific branches that are diseased, damaged, or growing too closely to another branch. Cutting back, on the other hand, means pruning away all or most of a plant. This provides a few key benefits for your plants and your garden as a whole.

Read more
The colors of fall flowers can be striking: 11 flowers that’ll have your garden bursting with autumn colors
Keep your fall garden gorgeous and colorful with these flowers
Beautiful light purple asters

When you imagine a beautiful flower garden, you might picture it in spring or summer. The colors of fall can be just as striking, though! As your summer garden fades, why not replace it with a stunning fall flower garden? No matter the climate you live in or the colors you prefer, there are plants that will look great in your autumn garden. These 11 flowers can satisfy any gardener, whether you’re looking to fill a full flower bed or just one or two containers to spruce up your porch. Here are our favorite flowers to bring the colors of fall to your home or garden!

Celosia
Celosia, also sometimes called cock’s comb or wool flowers, are sure to stand out in any garden. These unique flowers come in shades of pink, orange, red, yellow, and purple. They can be shaped like fox tails (triangular and bushy) or like coral, wide and wavy. They grow easily in containers or gardens. Celosia are low-maintenance flowers. They enjoy full sun, although they will tolerate some shade, and do best in well-draining soil. Celosia won’t tolerate standing water or wet feet, so let the soil dry between waterings.

Read more