I'm putting in a small rock garden. Very hot, direct southern exposure, sandy soil. I couldn't find any conversations in previous threads about putting in drip or soaker irrigation. Anything I should know specific to this application?

@dirtorphins: spent quite a bit of time reading your old posts. Entertaining and informative.

Hi Zoë!
Irrigation is my biggest woe it seems--sorry, I don't have good answers. Maybe someday I'll get it figured out, but, as of now, I'm still trying different methods with variable successes and failures.
Here's what I can tell you from my experience--I really like the idea of drip/soaker--in theory a person should be able to hide the water delivery method from view, deliver the water right where it needs to go, and set it and forget it.
But it doesn't work like that for me. I have such dirty irrigation water that it clogs soaker hoses instantly and drips almost as fast; with filters I can get a week or two. Not worth it for me.
With sandy soil, also consider that the water won't spread out from the source much at all before it heads down to wherever it goes...

Thanks for things to consider, Dirt. I figure if it's a mystery to you then it doesn't have an obvious answer, so I'll experiment. Yes, I'd like to hide the system. The beds where I currently use drip emitters have amended soil so water spreads a bit more horizontally, but even so I have to augment with hose watering to get even coverage. I obtained some 1/4-inch (or so?) soaker lateral tubing for this new project, thinking it might distribute the water more evenly. Haven't tried it yet. I might need to add more compost than I'd planned to.

This patch has always been a problem child for various reasons, not the least of which is that it's located at the very limit of my hose length ( ). We'll see how this goes.

One more question, if you don't mind: Mulch? Are small woodchips too gauche for a rock garden? I'm not a purist—this will probably be a hybrid of sorts, but I'm having trouble visualizing the look of chips among the rocks. Gravel? Doesn't it shift and get buried? Thanks again for the help.

My neighbors just removed all their gravel mulch that the landscapers put in around their new rock wall and sandstone patio/garden area and put in small chips sold as 'soil pep' in these parts. It really looks good actually. A nice dark contrast with their light rocks.

I do a mix with my soil, rather than a mulch per se, that has gravel and small chips throughout so they don't really shift and get buried much and I don't really care how gauche it looks because within no time it all fills in and the only 'bare spots' are the big rocks anyway

Good to know. Thx.

I would think you would want to stay away from dark colors, even though everything will bleach to a gray from the sun with time. You are hot there already, no need to make it hotter with dark colors absorbing even more heat. A friend and I had lunch this summer at a restaurant this summer outside. It was 88F and sunny, and there were no more tables with umbrellas, so we sat in the sun. Our silverware got too hot to handle, and we had to move inside.

Just think about those poor plants, and you making it worse with a dark color!

Yes @Leftwood, we do get heat, but the altitude is the more significant factor. I store pots and supplies along the south side of my house and sometimes the cheaper black plastic nursery pots melt. Many plants touted as "full sun" need part shade here. I'm a California transplant, and even after 9 years in this climate I still underestimate the intensity of this sun.

I use all types of mulches in various beds (amended, veggie, semi-amended, lean)—leaves, compost, shredded bark, wood chips, chopped native grass, and pecan shells—the latter are quite effective in my lean beds (yarrow, lavender, salvia, etc) even though they are dark. Anything that adds even the slightest bit of organic matter to this deprived alkaline soil is beneficial. But all of those are level beds and my planned rock garden will be mounded, so I want something that will stay put. I am leaning toward small rock, but not gravel, which tends to disappear.