SIGforum.com    Main Page  Hop To Forum Categories  The Lounge    New house and now sod! Watering is overwhelming to me
Go
New
Find
Notify
Tools
Reply
  
New house and now sod! Watering is overwhelming to me Login/Join 
Road Dog
Picture of BennerP220
posted
We built a new house and just got sod yesterday. I know, I know, first world problems. We could have installed an irrigation system when building which we would have loved to have done but everything costs money. If I had kept doing add-ons I coulda built a bigger house and had an even bigger lot!

My new yard is much bigger than my old yard. I know that I need to water the heck outta it but am finding the backyard to be very overwhelming.

I have a couple sprinklers with built in timers and they work well. The backyard I have an oscillating sprinkler on a tripod. I put a timer on that at the hydrant on my house. That works good, too. But, it only covers so much. Lots of moving sprinklers and overlapping coverage. They told to water each section for 1.5 hours a day at least for the first 2-3 weeks.

Any pointers or suggestions from my Sigforum family would be greatly appreciated!
 
Posts: 3442 | Location: Southwest Indiana | Registered: December 12, 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Fighting the good fight
Picture of RogueJSK
posted Hide Post
In the back, do you have more than one spigot? Or enough water pressure to run a split on the spigot? That could allow you to have multiple sprinklers running, which would lessen the need to move them around so much.

Or perhaps a different model of sprinker? My last house had a decently large backyard, and I found an elevated sprinkler that was on a ~4 foot tall stand with enough horizontal reach to cover end-to-end from the center of the yard.
 
Posts: 32423 | Location: Northwest Arkansas | Registered: January 06, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Road Dog
Picture of BennerP220
posted Hide Post
 
Posts: 3442 | Location: Southwest Indiana | Registered: December 12, 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Road Dog
Picture of BennerP220
posted Hide Post
I can seem to use two sprinklers at once but it is stressing to the pressure. I have two hydrants, one on either side of the house. My sprinkler out back is the old oscillating kind and the tripod goes approx. four feet high. The front and sides aren't that bad to water, just behind the third garage and around the small yard barn is a bit of a hassle. But, the backyard is the hard one. Perhaps, I need another oscillating on a tripod.

quote:
Originally posted by RogueJSK:
In the back, do you have more than one spigot? Or enough water pressure to run a split on the spigot? That could allow you to have multiple sprinklers running, which would lessen the need to move them around so much.

Or perhaps a different model of sprinker? My last house had a decently large backyard, and I found an elevated sprinkler that was on a ~4 foot tall stand with enough horizontal reach to cover end-to-end from the center of the yard.
 
Posts: 3442 | Location: Southwest Indiana | Registered: December 12, 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Like a party
in your pants
Picture of armored
posted Hide Post
Years ago I tilled almost all of my lot and re-seeded.
My parkway is almost 300'.
My solution was to buy a traveling sprinkler and a few hundred feet of light weight plastic hose (cheap).
It worked well.
 
Posts: 4609 | Location: Chicago, IL, USA: | Registered: November 17, 2002Reply With QuoteReport This Post
The Unmanned Writer
Picture of LS1 GTO
posted Hide Post
Might tear up sod, I don't know however; we got a traveling water tractor.

Really cool and it waters everything very very well. Only downside, it throws the water instead of dropping it.







Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.



Only in an insane world are the sane considered insane.


The memories of a man in his old age
Are the deeds of a man in his prime


 
Posts: 14020 | Location: It was Lat: 33.xxxx Lon: 44.xxxx now it's CA :( | Registered: March 22, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
posted Hide Post
Nice looking sod, its going to turn out well. We built two years ago and I ended up buying a ton of hoses, sprinkler heads, and a couple timers to get the sod/seed established. I put the timers on the house hose bib and ran multiple lines from it to cover all areas, worked well. Thus, I now have an investment in lawn irrigation supplies and only use a portion of it in the hottest summer months to keep the grass from dormancy.

You are welcome to borrow hoses, heads, and timers to get yourself through the next couple weeks. I'm in McCutchanville.
 
Posts: 185 | Registered: December 27, 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
Picture of sourdough44
posted Hide Post
With sod you’re already 90% beyond dealing with seeding & starting from scratch.

Our house was built in 1996, to save landscaping costs I said I would do it myself. They did a rough level with the Bobcat, after that it was me with rakes, a wheelbarrow, seed & straw/hay for cover, then watering. It turned out fine for a rural lawn.

I just bought a little fertilizer today, add some about every two years. I’ve even backed off the ‘weed & feed’ types, normally just straight green-up type lawn food. I don’t worry about the ‘Jones’s’ dandelions are a sign of Summer.
 
Posts: 6129 | Location: WI | Registered: February 29, 2012Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
posted Hide Post
Pull the sod up and run sprinklers.....do you really want to play the moving the portable sprinkler game for the rest of your life at that house? You and a friend could run pvc and sprinklers in that yard in an easy day. Nice house BTW, I love the 3 cars of garage!!!
 
Posts: 21335 | Registered: June 12, 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Dances With
Tornados
posted Hide Post
If you can buy a few really good quality metal sprinkler bases you can "make5" your own sprinklers. The trick is finding and buying good quality metal bases.

Then just mosey over to the inground popup sprinkler section and buy some 90 degree, 180 degree, etc etc etc pop up sprinkler pop up heads.

Then mosey to the plumbing pipe section and guy a few rises pipes, from 6 inches or so up to more, and you're in business.

I only put on the sprinkler heads hand tight and I can quickly change them out as needed to different heads for different purposes.

I also bought some "wobblers" screw right onto a sprinkler base the rises pipe, they throw a lot of water in large drops so you don't have the evaporation issue.
.
 
Posts: 11812 | Registered: October 26, 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Road Dog
Picture of BennerP220
posted Hide Post
Thanks everyone. Good ideas. I am still a little surprised that I live within 2-3 miles of another member. Learn something new everyday.

I have looked at those tractors. Seem intriguing. I like Jimmy’s idea too.
 
Posts: 3442 | Location: Southwest Indiana | Registered: December 12, 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
Picture of FlyingScot
posted Hide Post
Modern Sprinklers are made with flexi hose - much easier to install between the sod divots as you need to. You do not have to trash what you have, but as others have said get a good 2-3 zone system setup.





“Forigive your enemy, but remember the bastard’s name.”

-Scottish proverb
 
Posts: 1999 | Location: South Florida | Registered: December 24, 2007Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
Picture of sourdough44
posted Hide Post
That size yard & the ‘need’ for an underground sprinkling system? You only need to water when Mother Nature comes up short, mostly late July into early September in Indiana.

I guess you could join the competition for the best yard in the neighborhood?
 
Posts: 6129 | Location: WI | Registered: February 29, 2012Reply With QuoteReport This Post
  Powered by Social Strata  
 

SIGforum.com    Main Page  Hop To Forum Categories  The Lounge    New house and now sod! Watering is overwhelming to me

© SIGforum 2024