Tinkering with Irrigation

The hot weather is upon us and I have been out tinkering with the irrigation.
I thought I would check for overspray, adjust heads and work on adding drippers to pots.

Sprinkler Heads

You can adjust radius on sprinkler heads (somewhat) using a small screwdriver to turn the little
screw on the top of the sprinkler head/nozzle. This will adjust the throw of the water to be farther out or reduce it down a bit. My heads were throwing a lot of water onto the paving so in an effort to save water and avoid hitting people passing, I adjusted them down. I will now check periodically and see if the adjustment resulted in some of the plants not getting watered.

Sometimes the nozzles get clogged with bug or bug parts so they need to be unscrewed and cleaned out. I usually just blow through them (after removing the bug parts!). We have hard water so soaking the nozzles every couple of years in vinegar and water, removes the lime and keeps the nozzles working well. Easy way to pull up the retracted popup head to reattach the nozzle is to use your digit finger to pull the threads up. If you have fairly fat fingers like I do, its a snap to insert a finger and catch the threads to pull up the retracted riser.

Drip Irrigation

If you have drip hose, it is easy to add drip emitters and drip feeder tubes for added pots or plants. Only a drip hole puncher and parts are needed, so this is an easy fix. To add a new drip hose and drip feeder tubes a valve with filter and pressure regulator is needed or you can run drip off of a hose bib with a battery operated 1 station controller (Gardena makes these). The slow watering is great for narrow areas and pots. I really like soaker hose too and it can be run in the same way. Soaker hoses last about 5 years or less so putting a new one in as they stop oozing is needed.

Check For Plants Blocking Spray Heads

As the garden has grown in and areas have been changed I have a few spots with plants blocking heads and one spot where a head waters nothing at all. That one was easy to fix. Using a tall threaded riser I just dug down and unscrewed the existing head and riser and put in the new riser with a cap for now so it can be used in future if needed.

The head that was blocked by a plant needed to have the riser extended up with a pop-up or shrub head on top so it can spray over the offending shrub. Not too pretty but it works. If I am worried about aesthetics I either move the head over or use a high-pop (taller head).

Leaks

Other checks I have been doing are to work on leaky heads, clogged heads or drippers and leaky valves. Some of these are easy fixes- tightening screw on areas of heads or valves, using seal tape on threaded areas, removing nozzles and cleaning them out, and replacing worn or broken parts. Replacing valves is a pain and I usually have one of my contractor buddies come over and help me do those. I hate working on valve manifolds. ugh.

Save Water, Increase Efficiency

Check watering times on your controller and update as needed for the time of year and any rainfall. As a garden matures, it needs less water and usually deeper watering less often. Keep an eye on the watering throughout the year to asses whether you can reduce your watering times. Do this gradually, if you are making a big change to allow plants to adapt. Some lots get underground streams or runoff from adjacent properties and hills. This can reduce your watering quite a bit.

Overall, this work will help to save water, avoid water damage to areas and increase the efficiency of the irrigation system. I usually work on the system once a year about now then make small checks during the growing season to check for breaks.

The good part is that you get sprayed by water sometimes to cool you down!