Landscaping

What Is Landscape Irrigation?

January 8, 2023

If you’ve experienced wilted flowers every spring and patches of brown grass every summer, you’re not alone. Roughly 45% of homeowners don’t see a healthy, green yard when they look out their window. This is because many people don’t know what the best type of landscape irrigation system to use for their lawn is.

So, in this article, we’ll tell you the different types of irrigation methods and how to figure out which one works best for your yard. 

Defining landscape irrigation

Irrigation is a word that gets thrown around a lot in the garden. But unless you have a super green thumb, you might not know what it means. Fortunately, the definition isn’t as complicated as the word itself sounds. At its core, irrigation is just a fancy way to say “watering.” So, every time you turn on the sprinklers in your yard or spray your flowers with a garden hose– you’re irrigating.

It’s important to mention that irrigation describes the process of artificially applying water to a landscape. This means that when your shrubs and trees get quenched on a rainy day, it doesn’t count as irrigation. 

Likewise, irrigating a landscape isn’t just turning on your sprinklers every Tuesday and watering your tulips a couple of times a week. It’s a carefully thought-out system that’s designed to distribute the appropriate amount of water to specific zones of your landscape. So, let’s talk about how a water irrigation system can transform your brown, dry yard into a green and healthy landscape.

Why you need a landscape irrigation system

Having an effective watering system in place is key to maintaining attractive curb appeal. Whether you have several gardens surrounding your home, or just grass and shrubs, you need a system to ensure your yard isn’t filled with wilted flowers and dead grass. Suffice it to say, irrigation and landscaping go hand-in-hand because you can’t have a healthy landscape without watering it.

Not only does having a proper water irrigation system in place keep your yard healthy, but it also saves you money on utility bills. How? Because an effective watering system targets water to the intended plant, so you don’t overuse water that just ends up pooling in your yard anyway. Thus, putting a stop to unnecessary water runoff keeps a little extra money in your pocket at the end of each month and makes your landscape healthier. A win-win! 

Also, an efficiently watered garden or lawn is more resistant to pests. Meaning you save a trip to the store and money to purchase fertilizers and insecticides. As a result, you’ll help to produce a softer environmental footprint, and you won’t have pesky bugs flying around your head when you’re trying to relax in your garden.

Different ways to water

 

There isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach to landscape irrigation. Instead, the type of irrigation you choose will depend on the characteristics of your landscape. Before we go over how to decide on the best watering technique, we need to understand what the different techniques are.

There are two main ways you can water your landscape. The first way is to manually water by using a hose or turning on a sprinkler. And the second way is to automatically water by designing an underground irrigation system or programming automatic sprinklers. You can also combine manual and automatic techniques to water your lawn using drip irrigation.

So, let’s go over manual, automatic, and drip irrigation.

Manual

Very little maintenance is required with manual irrigation. This is because you don’t have to program any complicated device when you water manually. You simply use the garden hose or fill up a watering can. Thus, while watering a landscape manually is less expensive than using automatic irrigation techniques; it takes more time and effort.

Automatic

Automating your landscape irrigation process can make your life a whole lot easier. You will have to take the time to install and program parts of the irrigation system, but once it’s ready to go, you won’t have to lift a finger to keep your plants healthy and beautiful.

Two examples of automated watering are underground systems and automatic sprinklers.

Digging underground

An underground system involves automatic timers and pop-up sprinkler heads that are programmed to know when to emit water. A benefit of this type of system systems is that it can spray water directly onto the roots of plants. This means that less water is wasted from evaporation– making an underground system more environmentally friendly than manual watering methods.

sprinkler system and landscaping

Sprinklers

Automatic water sprinklers are a popular choice for landscape irrigation among homeowners because they’re effective for lawns ranging from any size, slope, or soil. Plus, in addition to watering an entire landscape, automatic sprinklers can distribute fertilizers and pesticides to keep your plants happy and healthy.

Keep your automatic irrigation system in shape

Once you have a sprinkler system and landscaping automation program, you can improve your irrigation system in a couple of key ways. 

First, you’ll want to be sure it’s well-designed to suit your yard and installed correctly so that you can avoid errors in the programming right off the bat. This can be as easy as googling “pool and landscape contractors near me,” like Tracer Pool & Landscape, to get the job done efficiently. Secondly, you’ll need to be diligent about conducting regular maintenance checks to catch any problems in any of the devices early on. Finally, you’ll have to make sure your irrigation controller is scheduled accurately, so it applies the right amount of water to the right plants at the proper times.

Drip

You can apply the drip technique to landscape irrigation either manually or automatically. While the manual way takes more time and energy, it’ll save you money on maintenance and installation. And, while the automatic way is more expensive, it’ll take time and stress off of your plate.

Setting up a drip watering system is pretty easy. It can be as simple as poking small holes in overhead pipes, so they drip water out at an even rate. But you can also call on a professional to install a more sophisticated drip system that will control the exact amount and flow of water.

Benefits of drip irrigation

Using a drip system applies water to the root area of plants with low pressure and low volume. This makes it a very efficient way to irrigate. Also, it nips the problem of over-irrigating in the bud by steadily dripping only the required amounts of water onto plants.

The drip method also provides flexibility. This is because you can cater a drip watering system to water individual plants or flowers by giving each one its own water emitter. Likewise, you can also tailor the system to emit water over big areas of your landscape with micro-sprays.

Figuring out your type

It’s crucial to choose the right type of landscape irrigation for your yard. This is because the wrong type can result in excess water runoff and in turn, rotted plants and sad-looking flowers.

Figuring out what irrigation design will suit your landscape best comes down to the types of plants you have, the size of your landscape, and the climate you live in.

What types of plants do you have?

The plant life that fills your landscape will affect the amount of water use you emit. Flowers, vegetables, trees, and grass types all require very different amounts of irrigation. For example, drought-tolerant plants hardly need any water while deciduous shrubs need plenty of moisture to stay healthy.

How large is your landscape?

Landscape irrigation techniques will also vary based on the size of the area that requires watering. For smaller landscapes, manual irrigation is a good choice because it won’t require too much time or effort. Conversely, automatic systems are great for vast areas that would otherwise take you all day if you had to manually irrigate.

What’s the climate like?

If you live in a dry region but don’t have drought-tolerant plants, you’ll have to water more frequently. So, an automated drip system is best for this situation because you can tailor the frequency at which it emits water. On the other hand, a region that experiences heavy rains might get by with occasional manual watering.

Your partner in landscape irrigation

When you work with Tracer Pool and Landscape, we’ll find the best irrigation system for your landscape so you can keep your curb appeal in tip-top shape. Contact us today to figure out how you can keep your lawn looking fresh and healthy!