We read with great interest the book "Gardening with Less Water" by David A. Bainbridge, which describes several watering techniques to increase the amount of water reaching the roots, many involving various forms of in-ground plumbing.

We have a few plantings that suffer too much during the hot droughts of summer, no matter how much we try to water them, so we decided to test such "deep watering" methods.

The first patient was Syringa vulgaris "Ludwig Spaeth", planted in dapple shade as European lilacs will not do well in full sun here. But its location at the top of a slope and several trees nearby makes this shade too dry in July/August when leaf wilting and sometimes branch dieback occur.

First we dug with a post hole digger a 2ft hole at a 45 degree angle to get close to the root ball:

We used a 2 in PVC pipe which had a wire mesh cover attached at the top:

and the bottom covered with plastic sheeting (not sealed, to allow water to seep out) and a few holes drilled:

The pipe was inserted and immobilized with gravel so that the top angle cut aligns with the ground:

Finally the hole was backfilled with soil mixed with sweetgum balls (to encourage
root penetration) and a watering ring filled with mulch was left around it to help rain
water flow into the hole.

We may still add more shallow watering on the sides by burying 1/2 gal milk jugs.