Wednesday, September 20, 2017

Planning And Installing An Automated Yard Irrigation System

By Rebecca Hall


Having a verdant, lush lawn doesn't just happen. It takes numerous hours of fertilizing, aerating, mowing, weeding and watering in order to have that gorgeous green, manicured finish. These long hours are often why many people settle for simply having an average looking yard. But quite often even the average yard can look better with a watering schedule that is designed to work with the type of grass and your climate. One such way to do this is by implementing a yard irrigation system.

The factor, other than pressure calculations that should determine the number of taps is the type of plants that make up the garden. The first rule of water conserving gardening is to estimate the annual water consumption of the different plant groups. The second rule is to plant these groups separately so that thirsty plants like annuals or citrus trees are not next to drought-resistant plants. The third rule, obviously, is to install a separate watering line for each plant group, so that an independent watering regime can be applied to each one.

It's easy to set up a makeshift above ground drip watering system with nothing more than the flexible garden hose and a few pressure regulators. It shouldn't take more than a couple of hours to cut a few holes in a length of garden pipe, and connect it to a pressure regulator. It's easy to buy ready-made rigid piping with holes cut at equal distances too. That could make for a better design.

A lawn watering system will, contrary to what you might think, actually reduce the amount of water used to water your lawn. Your system can be programmed to just the right amount of water for the various areas of your yard, so shaded areas and sunny areas will not be treated equally. Having a lawn watering system will save you time. You won't have to spend time dragging out the hose or moving a sprinkler around your yard in order to water the lawn. Simply set the timer, and the system will do the rest.

When you place piping within the ground, you bring water directly to the roots of the plants, and there is no water at all lost to evaporation. It makes for the best kind of use of your water. No one will oversee you watering your lawn; they'll just to see how beautiful the results are. You do have to put in a little extra work, in the beginning, to bury all the pipes though.

Next, you'll need to refer to the pipe friction loss charts to determine what size pipe you'll need for the system to work properly. 1" class 160 pipe (thin-wall pipe) can carry up to 16 gallons per minute without exceeding 5 feet per second velocity.

If you try to push to much more water, you would increase the velocity or speed of the water and thus cause excess friction and pressure loss. Also, you would increase water-hammer which is bad for the system.

With the lawn irrigation system targeting the roots of a lawn and decreasing run-off, a homeowner is also helping their surrounding environment. A homeowner develops a personal relationship with their lawn and knowing the slope, the soil, and the needs of your lawn is a first step to having a beautiful lawn all summer long. A healthy lawn helps the air, the surrounding yards, and even supplies for the birds and other plants that accumulate around the home.




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