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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!!!

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.
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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.

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.

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?