Irrigating our gardens and lawns has become easier and even more responsible as time and technology have moved along. These days, even desert gardens may be attended to without breaking the water budget if certain rules are followed. Irrigating our gardens and lawns has become easier and even more responsible as time and technology have moved along. These days, even desert gardens may be attended to without breaking the water budget if certain rules are followed. Even in environments where there is water in the form of rain, almost regularly, we are finding drought situations every year which have made us long for irrigation systems to release us from our slavery to our landscape and garden investments.

The way we watered before irrigation was perfected, was grossly inefficient. The method of dragging out a hose and providing an oscillating sprinkler has caused more water wastage than any other factor in gardening. There is nothing cool about watching water course down the street into sewers as the ground is over saturated while the "mechanic" sleeps the afternoon away or watches football.

Efficiency

The first order of business in analyzing an irrigation system involves the design. Placing pop up sprinklers alongside garden pathways or alongside lawn edging provides a hidden resource. When spaced properly, these apply the necessary and not-excessive amounts of water we need to provide for optimum growth.

Lawn sprinklers now days are designed with water usage and efficiency in mind. "Low Angle Nozzles" can direct the spray at a lesser angle, freeing it from having the winds blow the water away or misdirect it. Even "quantities" are controllable at the nozzle level, reducing for example the amount of water a system pours into a shady area when coupled with other heads which are providing water for sunnier spots.

The size of the "pop up's" themselves can vary from 2 inches (out of the ground) to 24" monsters, perfect for Zinnia, vegetable and perennial gardens. Reliable, durable and placed on timers, these represent an enormous step in controlling our water use, to say nothing of the realm of security, knowing full well we can actually take that vacation while our garden thrives in our absence.

Timers and Sensors

The second level of technological breakthrough in conserving water and promoting growth considers more high-tech answers. Naturally, in order to function totally perfectly, applications of water need to be timed. Modern timers now are incredibly simple to use. It is also possible to select up to 6 - or even more - daily times for application of water. Naturally, we can select the days and the time of application. Thus, we can set our irrigation systems to run at hours when we would otherwise be at work or asleep.

Soil Moisture Sensors have the ability to sense when the need for irrigation is not necessary and can act to stop it from running. Both of these handy technological tricks allow our pop up sprayers to work when necessary and only then. Pop Up sprayers, along with the other elements of good solid irrigation technology allow a booming garden trade to expand nearly exponentially. They reduce waste of a now-precious resource and make our gardens look better than was possible under the human-hand regime.

My name is Ofer el Hashahar and I’m based in West Midlands, UK. I graduated ‘lands management and garden design’ at the Faculty of agriculture at the Hebrew University – where drip irrigation was first invented. This is the technology which gave Israeli irrigation systems the name “a miracle for agriculture”.

I installed thousands of pop up sprinklers by known international firms, in hundreds of gardens and roof gardens. I offer professional planning for irrigation that will provide the best answer to the needs of your garden. We offer very competitive prices with a excellent and attentive service.