Whether you need an irrigation system depends on which plants you pick and, "succulents, california natives, and other drought tolerant plants," is not specific enough. Most plants in those categories will like some irrigation and many will need it. If you have the Perry book, look for plants with a (L/VL) requirement instead of (M/L). (L/VL) means that the plant requires low (25-50%) amounts of water in the winter and very low (0-25%) amounts of water in the summer relative to reference evaporotranspiration. Average reference evaporotranspiration (ET0) for Los Angeles in July is about 6" for the month. That means that even at VL, I would plan on giving the plant about .75" of water over the course of the month. With L I would plan on giving about 2". Now you might thing that is a lot of water, but compared to a lawn fescue which is the reference at 6" it is quite a bit less.

Also, where in LA is important. So giving us a sunset zone would be very helpful.

Soaker hoses are a waste of money in LA. Our water is liquid rock and will clog soaker hoses very quickly. Use drip tube like Netafim. That kit from home depot seems like it would get awfully expensive for a large area. I recommend Ewing irrigation and Netafim if you are going to go the drip tube route. But 1500 sqft is a lot of drip tube. Depending on soil type, you need to space the tubes at 1-2ft. For large areas I like to use MP rotators but if the planting is complex those can be problematic. Hunter adjustable spray emitters are a great way to get even irrigation. I tend to only use drip tube for awkwardly shaped beds that would be very difficult to irrigate with sprays.

If you want to save money on irrigation, the way to do that is to keep things simple. Have as few zones as possible. Irrigate those zones with sprays that throw as far as possible in order to minimize the number of sprays. Remember, PVC is very inexpensive and so is day labor to dig trenches. You don't have to get an expensive $100+ controller. They just make setting things easier. You can get away with cheap controllers if you have to.

When you say 'rental', I'm assuming you are the landlord right?

Thanks nil. Sorry took a while to reply. I went to ewing got some cheap tubes, drippers etc.

You're correct I did it with some day labor etc for fairly inexpensive.

i'm doing a lawn to drought tolerant conversion through the city so they limit the types of sprinklers I can use. I have to use something with drip irrigation .

I'm have two main PVC pipes going to large sections of plants. From there I have a bunch of small black dripper tubes for individual areas. It's all drip irrigation.

The plants I'm using are a mish mash of plant's I've been propagating and some that I purchased.

I suppose I should look at the Perry book some more for the zones. That's a good idea

Yes it's a house we rent out in long beach. I'm the landlord.

THANKS!

ps. also the soil is so packed with heavy clay. I brought in a lot of decomposed granite and have mixed it throughout the soil. I hope the deegee was a good idea cuz I got a TON. It's about 1500 square feet when you include the city parkways surrounding the property

This post was edited by yorkiemiki on Mon, Aug 25, 14 at 12:29