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Category: Sprinklers
Learn from the experts at Alternative EarthCare how to get the most of your Long Island sprinkler irrigation system. Here you can find the best placement, time of day and amount of water to use for your sprinkler system.
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Placing Your Sprinkler Heads in Your Yard
Where you place your sprinkler heads in your yard is highly important. You need to be sure of these key things:
- Every area of lawn gets watered by the sprinkler heads, with the water stream reaching every area.
- No area of lawn gets overwatered by water streams crossing too often in one particular area, flooding that area, which can lead to fungus and the death of shrubs and grass.
- Placement of sprinkler heads allows for trees and shrubs to also be watered with the lawn.
- Be aware of elevations and where run off will go–don’t set up a sprinkler head at the very bottom of a hill if that’s where the run off travels as it will flood the plants down there.
When you choose Alternative EarthCare for your irrigation system installation, we will provide an evaluation for your landscape. During our evaluation we will map out your yarn and determine exactly the best placement for sprinkler heads to optimize the health of your lawn, shrubs, and trees.
What Time of Day You Should Water Your Lawn
Ideally, the best time to water your lawn is between 6-10am. However, if that is not possible due to a work schedule or such you should wait until 4-7pm. The key in timing is to be sure to avoid the afternoon as the water will evaporate more in the high heat and the lawn and shrubs will not get the proper amount of watering.
Factors that Determine How Long to Leave the Sprinklers On For
Precipitation Rates
Did you know that different sprinkler systems have different precipitation rates (the amount of water each sprinkler head applies to your landscape)? The precipitation rate of your sprinkler system will effect how long you need to leave it on for in order for your landscape to be watered at a healthy level. You can calculate the precipitation rate of your sprinkler by checking your water meter: determine its flow rate in gallons per minute, then divide that number by the total number of square feet in the zone that is being watered. Checking the precipitation rate via the water meter is much more accurate then looking at the manufacturer’s listed rates.
Types of Soil
Another aspect of your landscape that will effect watering time is what type of soil you have. At Alternative EarthCare, we service all of Long Island and know that there are many different soil types here that are very different from one another, which require different treatments and water schedules. For instance, if you are on the South Shore and find that you have very sandy soil your lawn will drain the water faster than say someone on the North Shore with clay in the soil. That is not to say that all South Shore is sandy or all North Shore is clay either, that would be too simple for Long Island and Mother Nature. The difference in soil types is largely due to how the glaciers melted and what sediments they pushed from different areas in their travel and deposited here.
How Long Should You Water Your Lawn
On average, you should water your lawn once a week for 15-30 minutes. However, you can see that even that window of time is broad. It is then important to understand if your sprinkler irrigation system is spitting out a lot of highly pressurized water or only a little low-pressure water at a time.
The good news is that when you work with Alternatvive EarthCare we set up your sprinkler for you and answer all of your questions regarding exactly how long to water for (and set the timer for you!)– leaving you with no guess work. We install many brands such as Hunter, Toro, and Rainbird sprinkler systems. Contact us today to get started on creating and maintaining a landscape that will be the envy of the neighborhood!
