Drip Watering System planned

I've been in our Florida villa since the first of February and it's been interesting to see the differences in lawn care. One of the first things I noticed was the irrigation system we have installed. I didn't realize it could be weeks between short showers. In Ohio our irrigation system is called rain...and it's difficult to turn it off!

I know I'll want to grow herbs and maybe a tomato plant or two, our walled villa courtyard should be fine for a small container garden plot. Right now the courtyard is concrete and landscape stone for ease of care - I found a small metal "baker's rack" type stand to place pots on. Now I have to find a method of water flow restriction and a timer so we can hook up a drip irrigation system. Any suggestions would be welcome. I'll be going back to Ohio in June and returning in September so I'm not going to do anything right now.

Here's all I've got in the way of herbs right now....thyme & parsley

I'll be interested to see what you come up with. My drip irrigation is a soaker hose with a manual off and on switch (me ).

I'd be afraid to leave something like that operating while I was gone for that long. One time my sprinkler system got stuck on one station and ran from the time that it came on in the morning until that afternoon when I returned from work...what a mess and waste of money.

We have to use a drip irrigation system. In AZ we can go for 4 or 5 months without any rain and we're not in one place long enough to use soaker hoses. Knock on wood, we haven't had a problem with it yet.