Sprinkler systems are viewed by homeowners as a luxury home improvement project. There’s no doubt that they’re convenient, giving you back hours of your leisure time during beautiful summer evenings. Few homeowners realize though, that they are also better for your lawn. Despite a careful hand and a good internal clock, there’s no way a human lugging a garden hose around the lawn can deliver a consistent, uniform amount of water to their lawn.

Worse yet, most homeowners water their lawn when they get home from work or shortly before they go to bed. This is the absolute worst time to water your lawn. The water will be slowly absorbed into your lawn and even slower to evaporate into the night air. This leaves your lawn sitting in water, which is a recipe for germinating all types of fungus and other common lawn diseases.

Advantages of Sprinkler Systems

The best time to water your lawn is in the morning when the sun will prevent water-logged hazards. Few homeowners are able and willing to water their lawn at the crack of dawn between their shower and cup of coffee. Nor should you have to. A programmable sprinkler system will water your lawn in short periods throughout the day, keeping your lawn from drying out while preventing the growth of lawn disease. It will focus more water in the morning on the east-facing side of your home, and a heavier regiment in the afternoon for the west-facing side of your home. Without such a system, you’re forced to choose between rearranging your daily schedule or giving your lawn sketchy maintenance that can lead to costly lawn treatment services.

Sprinkler System Design

Of course, to get these advantages you must have a properly designed and installed sprinkler system. This involves a lot more than laying pipe and installing sprinkler heads. Zones should be created to tailor how each section of your lawn receives water throughout the day. Valves must be used to keep each sprinkler head from draining the water pressure to ensure the last sprinkler head in each zone sequence delivers the same amount of water as the first. The heads themselves must be precisely placed on your lawn to create head-to-head coverage and uniform irrigation pattern. Without this type of meticulous design, you might as well still be lugging the garden hose around your yard.

Give your yard the gift of green!