What Your Yard Wants You to Know About Your Sprinklers

Most homeowners understand the push & pull dynamic between enjoying their homes and maintaining them. The best of both worlds involves enjoyable homes that sustain themselves as much as possible.

That’s when many resort to installing automatic lawn sprinkler systems in their front and back yards to enjoy the beauty and luxury of verdant, green lawns without the constant attention to watering that’s needed to keep lawns green. Enter the ultimate solution: automatic and programmable sprinklers.

Sprinklers can make watering any area much easier on you and more efficient for your lawn or garden. There is such a wide variety of types, styles and professional installers that consumers need to be fully aware of their options before starting down the path of equipping your home with one.

One of the most important parts of an irrigation system is the controller. The controller is the "brain" of the system and instructs your sprinklers when and how long to run. The video below shows you a great way to determine how to program your sprinkler controller.

Find the Best Sprinkler Professional for You

In the long run, rotor sprinklers can be a great choice for almost any size of lawn or garden. Most homeowners are delighted with the way that rotor sprinklers can save time and energy in taking care of a lawn or garden.

Ultimately, a variety of factors such as the slope and run off of your lawn (to name a few) suggest that a professional sprinkler system installer should be consulted to handle all aspects of your irrigation project. This expert will be able to pinpoint strategic locations in your yard where sprinklers can be put to the most advantage and handle the wiring and hydro-zoning aspects of a well-installed system. Remember, the electric controller and clock system for programming daily watering are critical in making your system perform as it should, with or without your attention.

Fortunately, most sprinkler systems can be installed quickly and efficiently thanks to the evolution of the designs of these systems. These factors, more than anything else, will pay off in the end when contracting a sprinkler system professional who can ensure that your sprinkler system is ideal for making lawn & garden beautification easier and less stressful.

Install the Irrigation Yourself?

Yes, DIY lawn sprinkler design information does exist, and even non-experts can do it. According to Craig Borglum, owener of LakeMaryIrrigation.org, it is highly recommended to hire lawn care experts for the following reasons:

1. Irrigation professionals, such as those with I.A credentials, are more knowledgeable about lawns and all their complications. They take time to analyze your yard, gather information about the grass and soil types, density, insects, diseases, weeds, and even pet damage. Thus, you are assured that whatever it is that your service provider delivers is customized according to you lawn’s needs.

2. With experts, you do not need to worry about the design of your lawn. Lawn sprinkler system designers work with you so that they get a clear picture on what it is you want to accomplish with your outdoor area. Afterwards, they will install the necessary products that would give your lawn the edge that it needs in order to survive.For instance, when designing (or redesigning) lawn’s irrigation system, many people think that it is all about lawn sprinklers. Actually, it involves sprinklers and a whole lot more. You are actually investing in a system that not only involves watering your property as it is now, but also your future plants and their future water needs.

3. Only qualified professionals know where to properly put a specific sprinkler head so that a high degree of distribution uniformity can be achieved. A proper lawn sprinkler design involves keeping the grass green, making your plants grow, and keeping your trees healthy. Designing an irrigation system needs to be individualized to the property. Water requirement of new trees is not the same as the requirement of your fully-grown shrubs. It is paramount to have a properly designed lawn sprinkler system to keep your plants vibrant and healthy. Low water pressure, erosion, flooding, and other water-related problems are eliminated.

4. Expert irrigation designers know aspects of your area to make their work successful. Irrigation needs are unique to every plant, soil condition, and region. For instance, if you are living in southwestern areas, landscape plants and turf are restricted since water is scarce. At the same time, lawn sprinkler design is complex since you have to know such things as pipe materials and sizes, water pressure, plumbing and hardware, safety, and water quality protection.

Planters, gardeners, landscapers, and farmers may have divergent job duties, but each environment requires a singular factor: irrigation. No matter if a sprinkler, drip watering, or an older method is employed, irrigation must supply the precise amount of water – less to some plants and more to others – for proper nourishment, a good crop, or a beautiful lawn. Although setting up and maintaining such a system is time consuming, it’s essential to the task.

Out of all options, sprinklers and drip irrigation are both popular in the present. The latter is ideal for plants, flower beds, vegetable gardens, trees, or ornamentals, as a smaller but focused amount of water is aimed at the root system. Also called “trickle irrigation,” this system allows water to go further down into the soil.

Considered an in-ground system, drip irrigation spreads out water through a network of sprinklers, which are attached to risers connected to pipes going through the surface of the lawn. A drip system, with water piped from emitters to target plants’ roots, may additionally be added. Considered more cost-effective and convenient, drip irrigation is more precise, offers a better balance of water and air at the root level, and circumvents the effects of evaporation and wind – both of which are negative factors for standard sprinklers. Once drip irrigation is operating, water waste is 70 percent less, and weed growth is reduced.

Sprinklers, on the other hand, are ideal for lawns. Unlike the focused motion of drip irrigation, sprinklers spray water into the air. Then, the droplets fall onto vegetation and the ground. But, even within this basic motion is a wide-range of possibilities, from a single, focused stream to a programmable network of sprinklers.

Best Sprinklers for your Yard?

What options does a homeowner or landscaper have? Fixed models tend to be better for smaller areas, while oscillating, impact, and rotating sprinklers move back and forth or in a circular pattern to cover a medium-sized or larger area. Tractor, or traveling, sprinklers are a better choice for odder or less-typical lawns, while in-ground or pop-up systems involve multiple heads that can be programmed for automatic timing and flow control. Hose sprinklers assist with watering localized or smaller areas.

As certain watering systems benefit some yards and not others, a homeowner or landscaper must consider multiple factors: the amount of area, the frequency of watering, climate, any difficult to reach spots, and the amount of time available to tend to the sprinkler or irrigation system and grounds.

Once the new irrigation system is installed, it doesn’t stop there. As your landscape matures and shrubs and trees grow taller, the irrigation design has to change with it. That is why it is a good idea to have an irrigation professional go through your system once a year to keep it at optimal performance.