How to Choose the Best Sprinkler System for Your Lawn and Garden
Did you know that around half of the water used by the average home goes toward landscape irrigation? Furthermore, around half of that landscape water is wasted through evaporation and runoff. All in all, most sprinkler systems are inefficient and tend to waste a great deal of water, which is why putting some time and research into choosing the best system available is so important. The two main things to consider when choosing a system is whether it’s able to meet the watering needs of your lawn and garden, and whether it’s efficient. Here are some of the best options out there when it comes to today’s sprinkler systems.
Stream Rotor Pop-Up Systems
Stream rotators are a great upgrade from traditional pop-up spray heads, as they only release around 25 percent of the water per minute that traditional systems do, thereby reducing evaporation and runoff. Steam rotor pop-ups are idea for areas where you need to water a lot of plants that have fairly short root systems, such as groundcovers.
Rotor Head Systems
If you have a large expanse of lawn in your yard, then rotor heads are a good option. Their application rate is significantly less than that of spray sprinklers (only 0.6 to 0.8 inches per hour on average), so they require less cycling and the lawn has plenty of time to absorb the water, making these systems very water efficient. Rotor heads come in single or double spray types that operate via rotating gear so they spurt out water in smooth streams. There are also impact style sprinkler heads available that spray water in an upside-down conical fashion in all directions at once.
Bubbler Systems
Bubblers offer a form of precise watering that delivers water deep into the soil, and thus they are recommended for deep rooted plants such as trees. Bubblers have an easily adjustable flow rate, so they can also be used in planter boxes where traditional sprinklers will not work.
Drip Irrigation Systems
While drip irrigation systems aren’t sprinklers per se, they are the best type of irrigation system for your gardens in terms of water efficiency. Basically, drip irrigation is a precise, slow, direct system of applying water to the soil, thereby making 100 percent of the water available directly to the plant. Drip irrigation is usually recommended in areas where you have relatively few plants spread over a large area (such as for your shrubs and bushes, and in flower and vegetable gardens) or for hard to water areas like narrow planters.
The convenience of an in-ground automatic irrigation system cannot be matched, but to save money in the long run you need to make sure that the system is water efficient as well. To maximize that efficiency, it’s important to have that system professionally installed as well.