Choosing the right sprinkler system, however, is more involved than just making sure the system covers your entire lawn. You'll first need to choose the overall system type, select appropriate sprinkler heads, and then program the system to make sure each section of your lawn receives enough water during all seasons.



Underground or Above Ground?

In general, you'll make this decision based on the size of your lawn, how much time you want to invest in maintaining the system, and how much money you want to spend.

Underground systems are more expensive, but if you have a large lawn, it's going to be easier by far to keep it maintained, since you won't have to worry about removing the sprinklers when mowing and maintaining your lawn. This is particularly true if you live in a hot climate that makes frequent watering necessary.

On the other hand, if your lawn is fairly small, an elaborate underground system might be overdoing it a little. At the bottom end of the scale you can buy a sprinkler attachment for your garden hose, and simply place that on the lawn. This can even work for larger lawns if you live in an area that consistently gets heavy rainfall, as you can use the portable sprinkler to supplement the rainfall if your lawn has dry patches.

Choosing Sprinkler Heads

When it comes to selecting the sprinkler heads that are going to do the job of spraying water, you have three choices: spray, rotor, and drip systems.

Spray sprinkler systems can disperse a large amount of water in a relatively short amount of time. They tend to disperse around 1.5 to 1.7 inches of water per hour, making them most suited to small spaces that need heavy watering. They're also suitable for highly absorbent soils that have high proportions of sand. They are less suitable for soils with high proportions of clay, as a large amount of water will end up running off the lawn. The high dispersion rate also makes them unsuitable for areas that slope steeply (again, because you'll end up with a large amount of run-off).

Rotor heads are extremely useful for covering large lawns with uniform amounts of water. The dispersal rate of rotors is considerably slower-running at around 0.6 to 0.8 inches per hour-making them more suitable for sloping areas and soils with high proportions of clay. Most rotor heads come in single or double spray varieties, and most come with two nozzles that can water at varying distances.

Drip systems tend to be unsuitable for lawns. Instead, these are most often used for spot watering of specific plants or sections of a yard. A drip system might be useful for an especially dry section of lawn with highly absorbent soil, as they drip water straight into the soil, rather than spraying it over the grass. The dispersal rate of drip systems is highly variable, ranging from 0.5 to 24 gallons per hour.

Testing and Programming your System

Once you have your sprinkler system set up, you'll need to test it to find out how much water it needs to distribute during each watering session. This is fairly easy: just set up a number of receptacles (jars, cans-anything is fine, as long as the containers are all the same) around the lawn, then turn the system on. After ten minutes, turn the system off then check each receptacle to see how much water each contains. Each will probably contain a slightly different amount of water-estimate using the receptacle that contains the least. Measure the water depth, and then use that to determine the length of time to water. For example, if after ten minutes it contains 0.2 inches of water, you'll need to run the system for fifty minutes to apply a full inch to the lawn.

If you have a programmable system, make sure to allow for seasonal changes when programming it. Don't try and go through the entire year with one setting-you'll end up under or over-watering and probably comprising the health of your lawn (not to mention wasting water). Another good tip for saving water and making sure your lawn gets exactly as much as it needs is to choose a system with rain sensors. These can sense rainfall and automatically adjust sprinkler settings to compensate.