The invention relates to a water-saving irrigation method for large-scale planting of ecological protection plants in arid desert regions. For water saving in large-scale planting of tamarix chinensisand populus bolleana, based on the irrigation time arrangement, the suitable irrigation water amount and the irrigation frequency for an artificial tamarix chinensis forest, an optimized drip irrigation pipe network mode and irrigation management measures for planting ammania gracilis in a large scale to produce cistanche are obtained through summarization. It is proved in many years' practice that the irrigation maintenance management workload and the total irrigation amount can be further reduced by conducting drip irrigation on a populus bolleana forest belt with drip irrigation pipes. Inthe method, deep experiments and analysis are conducted on the irrigation pipe network layout, the reasonable irrigation amount and the reasonable irrigation cycle for a populus bolleana forest network, construction of the populus bolleana forest network and a drip irrigation pipe network system therein is completed, and the reasonable irrigation method and the reasonable irrigation cycle for thepopulus bolleana forest network are determined.