Lawn Sprinkler Tips

With Summer in full swing, certain areas of the country are experiencing excessive drought conditions. Here locally we are about 30″ below our normal rainfall for the past 2 years. Several shallow wells are “drying up” as the water table slowly drops and the soil saturation is being used up at a faster rate than it is being replenished. This is a tough situation for the client as most will need new wells drilled deeper, or in certain areas where drilling deep is not possible or not allowed, the client will have to connect their sprinkler system to a city or municipal water supply.

We can all pitch in and try to help the situation by conserving water on your current lawn sprinkler systems. Please take the following steps to not waste water on your lawn irrigation system:

1. You don’t need to run your system everyday unless you’ve just planted new sod or seed! Once every 2-3 days with a properly designed system is all that you need to water your lawn. With the systems that I design, I like to program a Monday, Wednesday, Friday schedule with a very early start time that varies from 4:00 AM and 6:00 AM. Watering early in the morning will reduce the evapo-transpiration rate which allows the lawn and landscape to absorb up and use as much water as possible.

2. Fixed (not moving) spray heads need to run an average of 15 minutes, that is it! They have a higher precipitation rate and put down water over a certain area much faster than other heads.

3. Rotor (rotating) heads need to run an average of 45 minutes. Since the heads rotate they have a lower precipitation rate and take longer to water an area.

4. Certain shrubs may require much less water than your lawn and can be converted from sprays to drip, or just eliminated and capped off completely. Make sure that you are watering your shrubs and lawn on separate zones

5. Use Drip irrigation where ever possible such as shrub & plant beds. Drip is not complicated when you understand the basic techniques and materials! Drip has many advantages and it is worth learning about. Weather you’re using landscape drip-line with pre-installed emitters, individual emitters that come from the drip-line with “spaghetti tube” 1/4″ black vinyl tubing, or perhaps micro-sprays. You will be conserving water and lowering your water bill!

Until Next Time…

Scott
http://www.autolawnsprinklers.com/

I have just recently had the pleasure to speak with Mr. Craig Borglum of Irrigation Repair, Inc. Craig has developed a comprehensive irrigation repair step-by-step DVD that I believe will help many people. In his video, Craig explains everything from basic head adjustment on virtually all sprinkler models, to splitting a zone that is to large.

Craig brings to the table over 25 years irrigation experience and several certifications from the IA (Irrigation Association). If you are looking for how to replace your timer, how to fix a broken pipe or head, or almost any other kind of lawn sprinkler problem then “How To Repair Your Home Sprinkler System” by Craig Borglum is for you! Visit Craig’s site here: http://www.irrigationrepair.com/dvd_course.html

Scott
http://www.autolawnsprinklers.com

Drip irrigation has been used for thousands of years by many different cultures to provide precise and efficient watering of crops and landscapes. Drip irrigation is the process of delivering water very slowly directly to the root base of plants. Drip uses hundreds of times less water than conventional spray and rotor heads. Drip irrigation is best used in flower/shrub beds and is not intended for most lawn areas.

There are several different types of drip products on the market today. You have the option to provide external, individual emitters, micro-spray heads, or drip tubing with pre-installed emitters for easier and quicker installation.

I’m a big fan of the drip tubing with pre-installed emitters. The Rain Bird Landscape Drip Tube that I use has emitters inside of the tube that deliver 0.9 gph (gallons per hour) each. The tubing can be “doubled up” or looped to provide more emitters to each root base for “thirsty” plants. Also, all drip irrigation should be installed on its’ own zone and not mixed with a spray or rotor zone. This will allow you to control the watering for the drip separately and prevent you from over or under-watering your plants or lawn.

Drip irrigation can help save water, money, and cut down on unwanted weeds. The process of drip irrigation is pretty simple with the right knowlege and the proper materials. That’s all for now, I’ll give some more information about drip on my next post! Have a good week!