Large yards are one of the most popular garden types in America, and with good reason. They’re large enough to enjoy the outdoors without having to worry about leaving any space for flowers or trees. But if you have a large yard, you also need to think about irrigation. Irrigation is important for many reasons: It keeps plants healthy, it helps to keep lawns and gardens looking green, and it can help to attract birds and other wildlife. Here are some tips on making your large yard irrigation system work best for you.
1. Know Your Water Needs
The first thing that you need to consider when installing an irrigation system for your large yard is what kind of water requirements you will need. Different styles of irrigators require different amounts of water.
If you don’t know what type of large yard irrigation system you want, take measurements of your property today. You should measure areas close to where you plan to install your sprinkler heads and drip systems. These measurements will show you just how much water you need per week. Measurements for small areas to irrigate a lawn might include the size of patios and walkways, bushes, flower beds, and shrubs.
Remember that you may not use all the spaces you measured; there is no need to purchase extra parts for the products you won’t use. This way, you’ll get a more accurate idea of how much water is needed to irrigate lawn.
2. Find the Right Sprinklers
Once you know how much water is needed to irrigate your lawn, you’ll need to determine which style of sprinklers or drippers works better for your specific layout. Of course, this choice will depend on whether or not your landscape includes ponds, water features, paved surfaces, etc., but here are the main options:
- Rain barrels are great for watering small outdoor spaces, such as patios, decks and driveways.
- Drip systems tend to work well in smaller landscapes and low-lying spots because they evenly distribute water across a larger surface area, making them ideal for watering small areas.
- Larger areas or landscapes can benefit from an automatic sprinkler system. This option usually delivers water at preset levels over time so that soil doesn’t dry out due to over-watering. With this method, it can be difficult to control the level of water delivered to each part of the landscape. It’s much easier to do this with a timer-operated system. Many timers will even allow you to adjust the time at certain settings for large yard irrigation.
3. Don’t Forget About Watering Plants
There are two very common problems that homeowners encounter while maintaining their gardens: Lack of water (i.e. drought) and over-watering. Both problems can cause plants to wilt. For those who live in hot climates, you can avoid these issues by water with caution. It’s important to check regularly on your plants; often, leaves begin turning yellow when the water has been left unused too long. You can tell if a plant isn’t getting enough water by touching its leaves. Overwatered plants can rot at the base. Check plants daily to avoid this problem and provide them with plenty of fresh air.
Some sprinkler heads spray water upwards, causing water to soak into the roots instead of falling directly onto the soil. This results in poor growth and leads to root rot as you irrigate your lawn. Make sure that your sprinkler head is oriented downward to prevent this from happening. Check your sprinklers periodically for obstructions and wear. A clogged nozzle or worn out tubing could lead to poor water delivery and wasted water.
4. Install Water Filtration Systems
If you have hard water in your home (which contains high levels of minerals), you may want to consider installing a filtration system for such large yard irrigation. Hard water causes calcium build-up and mineral deposits. When this occurs, it can damage the pipes and valves of your plumbing.
The best solution for this issue is to filter the water before using it. Using a reverse osmosis filtration system is inexpensive and easy to install. They remove contaminants like chlorine, salts, heavy metals, and more. As soon as the water passes through the RO membrane, all impurities are removed. Afterwards, the filtered water should be used for gardening purposes.
5. Grow Healthy Lawns
You probably don’t think about grass in connection with large yard irrigation unless you own a golf course or otherwise use landscaped turf. But healthy, green grass provides many benefits for any outdoor space. It helps keep pests away from your property, prevents soil erosion, keeps down runoff and allows for greater accessibility to your home. In addition, once you irrigate the lawn, grass also cleanses the air around your house. Grass tends to grow faster than other plants, especially during warm weather months, so it absorbs pollutants and removes moisture from the air.
While there are ways to improve the appearance of existing grass without installing new sod, there are also measures you can take right now to encourage healthier, stronger, greener grass. Choose a site for your home where you wouldn’t mind growing grass in the future. Many times, choosing a location close to a natural body of water will help attract wildlife. Use a fertilizer designed specifically for turfgrass. Avoid fertilizers with too much nitrogen or chemicals, which might harm surrounding trees and shrubs. If necessary, apply nutrients in several applications throughout the year.
Benefits of Large Yard Irrigation
1. Increase Home Value
One benefit of having a well-maintained garden through large yard irrigation is the increased value of your home. As real estate gets tighter, a well-manicured garden adds a great deal of equity to a home. Even if you are not considering selling your current residence, maintaining an attractive garden can increase the appeal of your home and add equity value based on the difference between the asking price and the sale price.
2. Reduce Maintenance Costs
When you have a well-maintained garden, maintenance usually becomes a lot easier. Having a beautiful lawn means fewer mowing visits, less time spent weeding, and less time watering. Instead of spending hours every week pulling weeds, you can spend those same hours enjoying activities with friends and family. Save some money by not hiring lawn care companies for weekly upkeep. You will save on gas costs and avoid the hassle of dealing with strangers coming into your home.
3. Improve Healthier Air Quality
Unfortunately, when you live in a city, the pollution in the air makes breathing quite difficult. While your central heating unit and appliances produce carbon dioxide and ozone, the main source of smoggy indoor air pollution comes directly from people living inside the home. People in cities tend to have poor health because their lungs aren’t getting enough fresh, clean air. With large yard irrigation to irrigate lawns, you will reduce the number of contaminants entering your home.
4. Maintain Your Lawn Longer
Large yard irrigation saves you money by making it possible to maintain your lawn longer. The more time you spend outside, the better your chances of becoming sick. When you spend weeks working hard on your lawn, you end up doing a lot of heavy lifting at the gym. If you don’t want to purchase a treadmill or join a fitness club, investing in large yard irrigation can provide the workout that you need. To irrigate the lawn, all you need is a hose and sprinkler head.
5. Protect the Environment
Having a beautiful landscape helps protect our environment. This happens because the grassy areas of the world absorb rainwater before it runs off into rivers and streams. This helps decrease the flow of polluted water downstream. Using large yard irrigation, you help prevent flooding due to high rainfall. Additionally, grass absorbs heat from sunlight. Soil with a higher concentration of carbon helps retain warmth for days after the sun goes down. This also reduces the loss of energy. Grass helps cool homes by reducing the overall temperature during the summer months. It also keeps houses cooler during the wintertime.
6. Provide Entertainment
Lawns are a wonderful place to play sports or other outdoor activities. From basketball to football, kids get excited about playing ball on turf that looks like the ground back in the park. Imagine if you could create a backyard that looked like this! That’s what large yard irrigation provides.
Grass fields allow children and adults to enjoy sports. On top of that, many professional teams use green space as part of workouts to stay fit year-round. Large yard irrigation allows them to practice outdoors while protecting the local community. When you irrigate lawn, you make your home an attractive place to visit with friends and family. Plus, the grass grows faster when the soil is well-drained.
7. Get More Use Out of Your Landscape
If you plan to build a new house, having a lush green yard can be an important selling point. However, it can cost thousands to hire expert landscapers to install plants and add stones to ensure that the yard looks its best. Large yard irrigation cuts down on time required for these projects. Most homeowners only require between 5% and 10% of their yard to look good. All it takes is some simple tools to improve the appearance of the rest of the area. This means that you won’t have to spend much extra cash to make a big impact.
Also, when you irrigate a lawn, plant flowers, fruit trees, vegetables, and shrubs. Some of these crops will grow right alongside your grass. This makes your garden even more aesthetically pleasing.
8. Provide Natural Beauty
Nobody seems to appreciate city life because of the natural beauty surrounding us. We often take it for granted. What would happen if we decided to transform the entire neighborhood into a natural oasis? A well-maintained garden full of flowers and trees would be incredible. Small yards are not conducive to such a project. However, with large yard irrigation, you can control where plants grow and still feel you provide a beautiful landscape. You irrigate the lawn to plant flowers, fruit trees, vegetables, and shrubs.
Disadvantages of Large Yard Irrigation
1. It Is Not Always Easy To Install
Installing large yard irrigation is easier said than done. The problem here is the size of the system. If your property has less than 8 square feet of land per foot, then it’s best to avoid large yard irrigation all together. Installing a system this big requires more power than most residential properties can handle, so experts may advise against doing it. Also, when you irrigate the lawn, flower beds, vegetable gardens, and any other hard surface, this usually means digging trenches over 1/4 inch deep. This can be difficult if no one else has ever installed such a system before.
2. Too Much Water Leaks Away
Another potential downside of using large yard irrigation is that you could end up wasting a lot of water. That’s because large yard irrigation requires lots of pipes that naturally leak water outside of the intended areas. If your home already faces water shortages during the rainy season, installing large yard irrigation to irrigate the lawn might exacerbate the problem.
3. It Costs More Than Other Methods
You might think that large yard irrigation should be cheaper than other methods like weed sprinklers or drip irrigation. While it is true that large yard irrigation has an initial investment cost, experts argue that the benefits offered by large yard irrigation far outweigh those costs. This means that you get much better value for money, especially if you’re dealing with serious landscaping problems than irrigate lawn through this type of irrigation.
4. It Is Easier To Overlook
While many homeowners know they have a huge yard problem, they don’t know what to do until it becomes a major hassle. When that happens, it’s hard to convince them that there are solutions to such a problem. And unfortunately, a great deal of people ignore the issue without getting any help.
5. Lack Of Knowledge About How Systems Work
If you have never installed large yard irrigation to irrigate lawn before, then you may not understand how it works. Even if you know how to install these systems, you may not know how exactly they function. All you’ll learn is how to set them up properly, but you won’t know how exactly they work. Because of this lack of knowledge, you risk having problems that would normally be avoided. For instance, if you fail to use proper installation materials, you risk putting unnecessary stress on your piping. This will damage your pipes, making them prone to leaking.
Irrigating your lawn is important for keeping it healthy and beautiful. However, some homeowners prefer to avoid doing so because they believe it’s too complicated or expensive. But as we’ve shown here, large yard irrigation can actually make things easier than ever before. As long as you choose the right type, you can easily enjoy all the advantages of using large yard irrigation to irrigate your lawn. What are you waiting for? Get started today!
