Water Adds Beauty + Function.

Water is your plant’s lifeblood. Naturally, it is paramount to have a properly designed irrigation system that will keep your plants healthy and vibrant. This also means your system should reduce risk of pest and disease damage and even protect the quality of your soil, all while reducing workload.

Poorly designed systems are failure-prone, can over- or under-water, and can even flood or erode landscaped areas. In most cases, low water pressure is the main reason for irrigation problems. Before you plant, your soil should be tested for drainage and absorbencies, and this will also help identify optimal ways to provide irrigation to the area.

Irrigation design is fairly complex, requiring expert knowledge of pipe size and material, ways of boosting water pressure, routing and concealing irrigation plumbing and hardware, safety and water quality protection. Building codes may require anti-siphon or back flow devices, so surface water won’t be pulled back into water lines and residential plumbing. That sort of problem is not unusual; anytime dogs run in yards with sprinklers, contamination may occur.

Our goal for a landscape irrigation plan is 100 percent survival rate of plants, using the minimum amount of water to do the job. Underground and aboveground pipes, valves, drains, controllers and electrical wiring are all elements in a landscape irrigation system. Today, most new landscape irrigation systems utilize timers and remotely operated valves, saving gardeners the repetitive task of turning irrigation on and off.

Generally, watering should be done every other day and programmable units can be set for this or any other duration and frequency. Our landscape designer will walk you through the programming process and once it is up and running, how to fine-tune it, as needed. Flood-type, micro-drip and spray, rotary, and conventional sprayers are the four main types of landscape irrigation systems used. Which is best for you depends on many factors.

The most common type of landscape irrigation system uses traditional sprinkler heads. Officially known as spray irrigation, these systems tend to work best in small, regular-shaped landscape areas. Sprinklers don’t require a lot of maintenance, except where the water supply is heavily mineralized. In these cases, plan to budget for periodic replacement of sprinkler heads and other irrigation system components.

For larger areas of landscape or turf, rotary sprinklers are better suited, because they can cover more area, as much as 100 feet from the sprayer.

Bubblers, bed sprayers and jet systems are types of flood irrigation. These work best in situations where conventional sprayers or micro irrigation systems are not effective.

Low volume drip or micro irrigation is a water-saving technology that has come into its own in recent years. Tiny emitters drip or trickle directly onto the plant root zone, so only as much water as needed is used. This is also an excellent irrigation method for plants susceptible to leaf mold or other diseases.

Our professional landscape and irrigation specialists can help you decide how to best plan and execute your landscaping's irrigation system!