No mater where you live, it simply costs a great deal of money to irrigate your yard. As the economy continues to dip, and everyones personal finances become very much front and center in their minds. People will be (and very rightly so) trying to find any way they can to save money! It does not mater whether you pay a city water bill, or you get your water out of a well, it is of vital importance to our families budget.
You need to protect your landscaping investment. Now consider the environmental impact of wasting your natural water resources. If you currently use hand lines with a sprinkler on the end, then you are simply wasting big money every month. Also the time you spend in your yard, moving sprinkler hand lines, has to be worth something. The simple facts are that with sprinkler hand lines, you are watering to much in certain areas of your landscaping, and not enough in others. Every plant (from your lawn grass, to your tree's, shrubs, annuals, and perennials) need a different amount of water. This requires the correct spacing of your sprinklers and appropriate watering times to efficiently raise the plants in your landscaped yard.
With a professional automatic sprinkler system, the bottom line is this:
- You will won't lose plants and the money invested in your landscaping due to poor watering.
- No more crazy high water bills.
- Save time and money by not changing your sprinklers by hand.
In the end it all comes back to you either wasting money, or saving it. There really is no good argument for not installing a sprinkler system, short of the exercise you get hauling hand lines around in the yard. Lets also hope you don't take a cat nap, and leave your sprinkler hand lines running, causing you a major flooding problem in your landscaping, not to mention flooding your basement, or crawl space, which will cost you tons of money to fix.
In time, our cities (Walla Walla, Richland, Pasco, Kennewick, and Tri-Cities WA) will start to regulate the days you can water. So it is of vital importance to irrigate your yard correctly with a professionally installed sprinkler system on allowed irrigation days.
Everyone's yard is different, but a good rough estimate is that you could pay for your newly installed sprinkler system in ONE YEAR through:
- Water or electric bill savings
- Plant survival in your landscaping
- Savings of your time to do other things, rather than irrigate your yard
Now that you have made the obvious choice, to get a sprinkler system installed in your yard. Please do not fall into the more common traps of trying to save money by installing a system yourself, or hiring a inexperienced landscape contractor who gave you a low bid to install your sprinklers. Your sprinkler system is a serious home improvement and personal financial investment. Don't be cheap, get this landscaping improvement done by a qualified landscaper in your area. I strongly recommend you read for more information my blog Hiring A Great Garden Landscaping Contractor. This is a excellent landscaping resource, or good tool to have around when hiring any construction person. It is very important that you hire a landscaper who does landscaping in your area, and understands your soil type, and how it drains, so you will get your sprinkler clock set correctly. This landscaper should also understand the water requirements of local plants in your yard. Here at Ace Landscaping, we have over 20 years of experience Installing sprinkler systems in both the Walla Walla Washington, and Richland, Pasco, Kennewick WA (the Tri Cities area). Before you hire a landscaping contractor, to install your new sprinkler system, you need to make sure that they understand that you want a water conserving, properly designed irrigation system. It should also be a sprinkler system that leans more toward drip irrigation, for the flower beds, and utilizes the most water conserving lawn sprinklers available on the market today. I also recommend that if you have a lot of rocks in your soil, or if you want a more quality sprinkler system installed, then you need to request that your landscape contractor use thick wall PVC, or schedule 40 pipe.
Another common mistake is to be fooled by brand names that you are familiar with. Most brand name sprinkler manufacturing companies make all their money in the mass market home improvement stores. This means that most of what you see in these store are the cheap consumer grade sprinkler parts (which may save you money over the short term, but they will not last). There are also commercial grade sprinkler parts, so make sure the brand name that is given in the bid is specifically the commercial sprinkler brand.
Make sure your bid specifics perfect head to head coverage (simply meaning one sprinkler will touch to other sprinkler with the outside spray of water). If your landscaper does not have the experience, or doesn't take the time to do this, you will have dry spots in your completed landscaping.
Lawn sprinklers should never be installed next to your house. No mater the quality of your landscape sprinkler installer. If you put sprinklers next to your house, you will get water on your house, which will cause you a wide range of problems: mold, siding rot, wood rot, etc. It's your job, or your landscapers job, to create flower beds or no man's land around your house.
As with anything, do your homework, and hire a good landscaper to install your new sprinkler system.
I hope this sprinkler information has been valuable to you, an wish you the best of luck with your landscaping. Please contact Ace Landscaping if you would like more detailed information on sprinkler systems or landscaping. We would like the chance to earn your business for years to come.
Thanks for reading my landscaping blog!
