WATERING TIPS

For all of you who have sprinkler systems, you can appreciate all of the advantages that  having one gives you. For example, you no longer have to move your hoses all over the yard and straighten out all of the kinks and twists; you don't have to listen to the sprinkler hit the house each time it passes by, or wake up at 2am and realize that you forgot to turn off the water. Now, you wake up in the morning and the lawn is already watered. You come home from vacation and see a green lawn instead of a brown one. The four hours of time it required before is now spent golfing, spending time with your family, shopping, etc... Because the system is more efficient your water bills are lower!! What? Your bills aren't lower? You mean they are higher? Well, hopefully, the following information gives you good advice on how to best regulate your system to achieve proper watering and a reasonable water bill.

    The first thing you must do is understand how your system works. Sprinkler systems only help mother nature, not replace it. The water a system puts out supplements rainfall. The more rain, the less you need to water. Less rain means more watering. Unfortunately, your system isn't equipped with a weather station that could monitor weather conditions that affect your watering schedule. The amount of sunshine, wind, and temperature all have an impact on your landscape. The timer for your sprinkler system isn't advanced enough to figure it all out for itself. It needs someone to tell it how much to water and when to water. A few townships have water restrictions that only allow you to water every other day. That doesn't mean you have to water every other day, especially in the spring and the fall. You want your system to run often enough to replace the water being evaporated out of the ground or percolating through it. Remember, systems do not apply water in the same condition as rainfall. A rainy day is cool and cloudy. When you water, it is usually warmer and the sun will already be out or just rising. Wind is also a factor because it carries the water away from where it was intended.

    Another factor to consider is the type of soil in your yard. Different soils soak up water at different rates. You need to be able to determine how fast your soil absorbs water. if you water too much at one time, the excess will run off into the sewer or neighbor's yard. Clay soils, for example, are slow to absorb water while sand absorbs very quickly. Soil type is very important because it most effects the way you water. You want to water for extended periods of time, less frequently. This will allow for deep penetration of the root system and promote deep root growth. With a deep root system, your lawn will be healthier and more drought tolerant.

    Once you take into account the factors that determine your watering schedule, you are ready to program your timer. When setting the number of minutes to water each zone, keep in mind what you are trying to accomplish. Each time you water, you want to saturate the ground completely to help deep root growth without over-watering and creating run- off. We recommend, for every watering cycle, that you water spray zones (heads that do not rotate) for 10-15 minutes at a time, part circle rotor zones (rotate less than 360 degrees) 25-35 minutes and full circle rotor zones (all heads on zone rotate 360 degrees) about 45 minutes. For zones that have one full circle head, treat it like a part circle rotor zone. These are very general times and each yard can be watered differently. You may find that your lawn can handle more water at one time, which is better. if this is the case, then increase the zone times until you find the lawn's saturation point. On the opposite side, you may find that it is too much water. Remember, you don't have to put all of the water down at the same time. if your lawn needs time to soak up the water, you can schedule the timer to repeat a watering later in the same day (ex. 4am and again at 7am), with each watering half of the total desired time. Yards that are heavily sloped should be treated in special way as well. If water is applied too quickly, it will run-off before it can soak into the ground. To accommodate these conditions, each zone should run for a short period of time (about one third of the total time desired) and be repeated three times, one after another. This will give the water time to percolate into the soil between waterings. Each lawn is different and can have multiple conditions (flat areas, hills, clay soil, sandy soil etc.). The idea is to find a happy medium so that every area gets what it needs.

    To determine if enough water was put down, a good way to find out is to walk across your lawn. if the ground is really soft and mushy with bubbles coming up around your foot, then it is too much. If it is not enough it is harder to tell. A good thing to do is to dig a small hole and scoop up some soil. Test the soil at different depths to see how far the water is percolating (6- 12 inches is good). To test, squeeze the soil in your hand to see if it keeps it's shape. if it does, then you have watered correctly. if it doesn't, then there is not enough moisture to hold it together.

    After you have programmed the zone run times, you need to add up the total amount of minutes the system will water. once you have done this, it is time to figure out when you want the system to start watering. The biggest factors are township restrictions and personal water use in the morning. it is always best to water early in the morning because it is the coolest time of day with the least amount of wind (less evaporation). Also, it reduces the risk of fungus problems. Once the lawn is watered, any remaining water will be evaporated by the sun. If you water at night, the water will lay on the grass for several hours creating fungus conditions. We recommend that you begin watering between 3am and 5am and finish between 7am and 9am. Of course, most people are doing their morning routine by this time. Brushing your teeth or flushing a toilet will not affect the system long enough to make a difference.

    However, taking a shower, running the washing machine or dishwasher can have an effect because of the extended time that the water is being used. This will shorten the spray of the sprinklers and affect the coverage of the lawn. Some areas have high water pressure (above 70 PSI) and the affects on the system are small. Taking these factors into account, you have to decide how you want to program the start time(s). A simple way is to subtract the total run time from when you want the system to stop (ex: 2hrs. 45min. of run time subtracted from 7am is a start time of 4:15am). if you do not want the system to run while you are showering, you can water all zones half of the desired time before and half of the time after (ex: 3:30am to 5:00am and again at 6:00am to 7:30am for a system with a 3 hr. watering time). Cut the zone times in half and have two start times, number one at 3:30am and number two at 6:00am. Try to stick to the time of day suggested as close as possible because it gives you the best chance for a healthy lawn.

    Now that you have the zone times and the start times set, it is time to look at how often you need to water. Not all timers are alike and they cannot all perform the same functions. You may need to alter the following information to suit your timer. The biggest factor here is the weather. The hotter it is, the more often you need to water. Another factor is township restrictions (odd or even days). just because a township says that you can water ever other day doesn't mean that you need to water that way, especially in the spring and fall. if restrictions are in place during these cooler times, you can set the timer to water every four or six days to keep it watering on your odd or even day. When it heats up, then go to an every other day schedule. During extreme heat and dry spells, every other day schedules may not be enough. The solution is to add a watering in the early evening hours on your watering day, between 5pm and 8pm. Where there are no restrictions you can water whenever is better for you, regardless of the day. In the spring you can set it up to water every fifth day or so and as the weather changes you can increase it accordingly. During a drought, it may be necessary to water every day. Because there are so many factors in how often you should water, the best and most efficient way is to decide each day if you should water or not. Leaving the system on a general schedule will be more wasteful because the tendency is to over-water. Of course this isn't what most people want to do. if you pay attention to your lawn and change the timer as needed, then you can still be water efficient.

    The lawn will give you warning signs when it is thirsty. You may have noticed in the past that the grass was really green along the edge of a sidewalk or driveway and the rest of the grass wasn't as green or tall. This happens because water will run along the edge of the concrete when you wash a car, use your sprinklers or when water runs off from your neighbors house. The same thing happens around the sprinkler heads in the middle of your lawn. These areas are getting more water than the rest of your lawn. Grass under stress will not grow as fast as healthy grass or sometimes it will stop growing altogether. Also, when you walk across it, the blades of grass will hold your footprints and not spring back. These things will happen while your lawn is still green. If these warning signs persist and you do not increase your watering, your lawn will quickly turn brown. A lot of customers will tell us that their yard was green and then all of the sudden it turned brown. If you notice the lawn not needing to be cut as often as it used to, then it usually means that the lawn is thirsty. A healthy lawn can be cut as often as every five days. Once a lawn turns brown, it is very difficult to get the lawn back to green without the help of mother nature (rain and cooler temperatures).

    We hope that if you follow these guidelines your lawn will be greener and healthier. Of course, water is not the only important part of keeping a green lawn. Fertilizers and lime are also extremely important. Lime your yard twice a year because it will keep your soil from becoming acidic. Every time you fertilize you add acid to the soil and your lawn prefers it to be neutral. The fertilizers strengthen the root system and provide nutrients which keep the grass greener.

    You must also keep an eye out for fungus related problems. A common mistake is to assume a brown spot is a dry spot. If you add more water to the problem, you are only making it worse. Fungus needs water to create the conditions it needs to thrive. The quicker a fungus is detected, the easier it is to rid your lawn of the problem.

    There are some other problems that you may run into that you can handle yourself if you know what to look for. Brown spots, for instance, can be caused by many things and with a little investigation, can be simply corrected. A couple of causes are a lack of water and fungus which we already covered. other things are sprinkler heads that need adjustment or are broken, plants that have grown over a head or block the spray, grubs and motes, dog urine, gasoline or oil spills from lawn mowers and too much fertilizer. Depending upon the problem, it could be as simple as cutting back a shrub or adjusting a sprinkler a little to the left or right.

    If your system simply won't work, here are some possible reasons. The first thing to check is the water supply. Look inside the house and outside at the backflow preventor to make sure nobody shut the water off. if the water is on, ask yourself "Did it rain recently?" It may be the rain sensor shutting off the system. Some timers have bypass switches which allow you to water even if the sensor is activated. Bypass the sensor and see if the system comes on. Another thing is that the outlet which your timer is plugged into can be on a GFI breaker. They are the ones with test and reset buttons and are located in bathrooms, kitchens, garages, and outside outlets. if any outlet breaks the circuit, then none of them will work. Depending on the type of timer you have, the display might not say that the power is off. if you try to water manually and nothing happens, test the outlet first to see if you have power. If you have power, then the problem could be out in the yard. Was there any work done on the house or in the yard recently? if so, somebody may have have damaged the wire to the system. Either way, it's time to give us a call so we can come out and fix the problem.

    With proper maintenance and a watchful eye, sprinkler systems can save you a lot of time and money. We hope we have given you enough information to help you accomplish this with your system. Remember, sprinkler systems will only do what you tell them to do, nothing less, nothing more. Give your system a little attention once in a while and you'll have a beautiful, happy lawn.

    We would like to thank you for your business and look forward to continuing our relationship. if you have any questions, please feel free to call us and we will help you out as best as we can.