Irrigation 101: The Importance of a Good Sprinkler System Design
A good sprinkler system is one that satisfies your home’s landscape watering requirements, letting it flourish beautifully while saving large amounts of water and money. The benefits of investing in professional sprinkler system design are numerous:
- You no longer need to worry about watering at the proper times.
- Plants, tree, and ground covers get the right amount of water.
- Over and underwatering is virtually eliminated.
- A healthier landscape improves your home’s value.
Every sprinkler system we design is done with the xeriscape principles of promoting water conservation and reducing the need for regular maintenance in mind.
Plot and plan the perfect sprinkler system design
There’s a lot that goes into designing a good sprinkler system. Flow, working pressure, pipe sizing, water velocity, and friction loss must all be taken into consideration. There’s also valves, timers, and irrigation heads to think about. Add it all up, and it’s easy to see why having a pro handle it is a great idea!
Here’s a brief rundown on how a typical sprinkler system design plan comes together.
Measure and design
The first step in any sprinkler system design is measuring the property then plotting where fixed elements like your home, the driveway, paths, fences, patios, and decks are located. Next, current and future lawns, shrubs, ground covers, trees, and other plantings are added to the drawing. The landscape is then divided into areas such as front yard, back yard, side yard, shrub areas, lawn areas, and so on.
System design capacity
It’s not as complicated as it sounds. To design an automatic sprinkler system, you need to know how much water is available to irrigate your landscape. Most systems are designed to use water supplied by the city or township, but some people draw their water from wells or lakes. Determining capacity involves measuring water pressure (PSI) and water volume (GPM) then using those figures to make sure the most efficient watering system is put in place.
Product selection
Sprinkler heads and valves are two of the most important components. There two broad types of sprinkler heads:
- Rotating stream spray sprinklers that operate by rotating streams of water back and forth or in circles over the landscape.
- Small area fixed spray sprinklers that spray a fan-shaped pattern of water over a fixed radius.
Many homeowners also include a drip system in their sprinkler systems and most designs include a combination of all three types. Which ones are placed in which locations depends on water pressure, space, and area shapes like curved pathways or raised beds.
We’re sometimes asked if one system is less expensive than the other. In our experience, it tends to work out the same. Rotor heads require less pipe and trenches, but the rotors themselves cost more. Spray heads may be less expensive, but they need more pipe, trenches, and valves.
Whichever design you select, the sprinklers are then divided and placed into zones that are irrigated at different times of the day, taking into consideration things like sun exposure, plant types, and watering needs.
Create the perfect xeriscape sprinkler system
A well-designed sprinkler system design is sure to improve the health, appearance, and value of your landscape. If you’d like to learn more about our sprinkler system design services, contact us online or give us a call at 707.280.3632. Our professional team sprinkler design team is ready to give you the cost-effective, efficient, and long-term landscaping irrigation solution you’ve always wanted.
Landscaping Guide: How to Create a Beautiful and Functional Garden Design
There is no perfect garden design for all properties. Therefore, if you are interested in improving your landscape by establishing a garden, you must create a custom design that matches your needs. We at DK Landscaping know that an ideal design should complement the unique aspects of your property. Each piece of land has idiosyncrasies which can be used in landscaping. In addition, you must think about your goals for your new garden. Here are some simple guidelines to help you get started.
Choose Your Plants Wisely
The best garden begins with the selection of the right plants to complement your landscape design and practical needs. In general, the first issue that you should consider when choosing your flora is the purpose of the garden. This space can be used to grow ornamental plants for aesthetic appeal. Alternatively, you can choose to grow edibles such as herbs and vegetables. If you are interested in both edibles and visual impact, it is possible to combine both types of plants.
The climate and environment is also an important consideration during the selection of plants for your garden. If you choose flowers, herbs or vegetables which cannot withstand growth in your local conditions, your garden will fail prematurely. It is advisable to choose indigenous plants because they grow naturally without the need for constant care. You can conduct research on the flora that grows in California for the best decisions.
Define the Boundaries
Boundaries are essential elements in garden design. If your garden does not have clear edges, your landscape will look like a wild land with plants growing haphazardly. Therefore, you must create distinct borders to define the perimeter of your garden and create order. If you would like to have a completely green landscape, consider using a hedge around your garden. For a more formal look, build a fence to isolate the space. It is also possible to edge the garden with stones. The stones will create a boundary without interfering with the visual effect of the garden.
Paths for Your Garden Design
Pathways are essential for a garden, especially one that experiences considerable foot traffic. The paths will allow smooth navigation around the space while protecting the landscape from the dangers of human carelessness. When designing your garden, you should think about the ideal places to form paths. You must also ensure that the path is wide enough for convenient use. To prevent the growth of plants on your pathways, consider installing a pavement or at least pouring gravel.
Borrow the Scenery
Gardens can be made more interesting by borrowing the scene from the surroundings. This borrowed scenery technique involves incorporating the view of a special feature into your garden. Simply speaking, this practice is about capturing the view beyond your own garden. For instance, you can trim the trees in your garden to reveal a distant building, your neighbor’s orchard or a mountain. Though these elements will not be on your property, they will have an impact on the aesthetics.
Enjoy Your Garden
Finally, you should create a comfort zone in your garden to allow you and your guests to enjoy the natural appeal of the space. For instance, a garden bench in a secluded spot might be perfect for settling and reading. A patio bordering the garden might be what you need for entertaining guests.
If you are interested in learning more about garden design, consult our landscaping experts for customized advice and guidance.
Backyard Ideas: Follow these Steps for Excellent Xeriscaping
Landscaping is great for the air quality around your home, and the curb appeal. However, many people complain that sometimes, it comes at an extremely high cost. One of the costs which are part of landscaping is water expenditure. Xeriscaping is an alternative to landscaping where the least possible amount of water is used. The beautiful thing about the process is that the quality of the resulting landscape will not be compromised, but a lot of water will be saved. Here, are some of the best backyard ideas on Xeriscaping which you need to try out.
Take note of problem areas
The start of any watering process should be to have a look at all the parts of the yard, and notice the ones which are easy to water, and also those which are extremely difficult to maintain. Steep slopes are usually the most prone to drought. After mapping out these areas, decide whether you want to keep their vegetation cover or not. If you decide that you want the vegetation cover, convert into perennial crops which do not need a lot of watering to stay alive and healthy, especially in the hot season. You might also want to consider drip irrigation to maintain these parts of the lawn.
Manage the size of the backyard garden
Another reason a lot of water gets wasted in irrigation is when the garden has an irregular shape. To combat this, you have to reshape the garden to create shapes which are easy to irrigate. You also need to replace the plants with xeric alternatives such as blue grass and buffalo grass, both of which take wear and tear very well. Buffalo grass can survive on less water; however, it has a low tolerance to interferences such as foot traffic, which makes it best suited for parts of the lawn that will not have a lot of traffic. Section off parts of the garden that are used less often, and turn them into shrub borders and flower gardens, that need less water to thrive.
You can also section off parts of the garden and make them into paths. You can line these paths with stepping stones of flagstones, which is good because it reduces the total surface area which has to be covered with lawn grass. Another tip which will be successful is transforming the rocky parts of the garden into a rock garden. You can use a variety of colorful rocks for the garden and use appropriate rock garden designs. There is a variety of crops which you can add to the rock garden.
Picking the right plants
The best plants for backyard ideas in xeriscaping are native and drought tolerant plants. Remember that xeriscape gardens are created in such a way that they fit Mediterranean and Southwest styles in gardening. You can consult with a landscaping expert to figure out the plants which will be most appropriate for your climate and locality.
When Xeriscaping is planned for and done properly, it produces some of the best gardens. It capitalizes on preserving native plants while at the same time reducing the amount of water used in gardening, and giving the regular landscape of your backyard a special touch. When you involve a competent landscaping expert in the process, the outcome will be amazing.
Lawn Treatment Tips
Proper maintenance of your lawn is crucial for a perfect residential landscape. If the right upkeep practices are not upheld, the lawn will deteriorate. Invasive weeds will grow on the land, the plants will lose their lushness and the grass might begin to wither. On the other hand, if you make time for lawn care, you will preserve the natural appeal of your yard. Here are simple lawn treatment tips to help you keep your residential landscape beautiful and healthy.
Aerate the Lawn Soil
Compacted soil does not support the efficient growth of grass. If the ground is too compact, the roots of the grass will not grow deep. Moreover, water, air and nutrients will not be mobile and readily available in the soil. Fortunately, you can relieve compaction and aerate the lawn soil by creating holes in the ground at intervals. There are specialized tools for aeration, but a simple garden fork will also be effective. You will only need to push the prongs into the ground at short intervals.
Apply Suitable Fertilizer
Feeding the lawn with fertilizer can improve the appearance and health of the grass. The treatment will provide the nutrients which might be absent from the soil. If your landscape is large, it is advisable to acquire specialized equipment for nutrients feeding. However, if the lawn is relatively small, you can manually apply the fertilizer to the grass. Ideally, the material should be used during the rainy season. Fertilizer will burn the grass if it stays on the blades. If it does not rain, you should irrigate the yard thoroughly to allow the nutrients to sink to the soil.
Plan on Over-seeding
Over-seeding is a beneficial practice for old and tired lawns. It is advisable to consider this process if your lawn is showing signs of thinning out, or there are bare patches on the land. In general, over-seeding involves covering the entire loan with a mixture of grass seeds and fertilizer. When these seeds grow, they will fill in the gaps between the thinning areas of the lawn, creating a lush and uniform landscape. If you decide to carry out this process, remember to keep the lawn moist to facilitate germination.
Mow the Lawn Correctly
Mowing is an important part of keeping your lawn in good condition. However, if you do not perform this maintenance process correctly, you could cause more harm to your landscape. Where possible, it is prudent to have your grass mowed by a skilled professional. If you must handle the work, you must remember to only cut about a third of the total grass length. Cutting more will compromise the growth of the grass. You must also avoid mowing wet grass because moisture causes clumping. Mowing the lawn in this condition increases the risk of patching.
Going Beyond Lawn Treatment Tips
Maintaining a beautiful landscape is not only as simple as upholding simple lawn treatment tips. The best upkeep and care practices require effort, time, skill and experience. Therefore, if you are interested in improving your residential lawn for long-term health and aesthetics, consider consulting our experts at DK Landscaping Inc. Whether you need mowing and edging or fertilization and weed management, you will receive the best services for a beautiful home.
Four Creative Flower Bed Ideas to Get You Going
Creating sensuous textures and adding color to your garden with a flower bed is one of the quickest ways to improve your yard. And when it comes to flower bed ideas, there’s virtually no limit.
Raised flower beds are getting a lot of attention lately because they’re easier to water and maintain, but that’s far from the only option.
Other options are flower beds that encase trees and create a truly picturesque effect, flower beds that line a walkway to a backyard oasis, and tall flower beds filled with azaleas and wisterias.
Flower Beds Encasing Trees
The thing to do when planting flower beds around trees is make sure that you’re selecting the right flowers for your particular region and getting the amount of sunlight versus shading right.
Plants and flowers that are “full sun” are the easiest to work with since they can receive six hours or more of sunshine per day and still be fine.
Yarrow, tickseed, and blanket flowers are all full sun plants that go great around trees. Lavender (purple) and sasha sage (white) pair well together and are both full sun plants. These might well give you the effect you’re looking for.
Circular Flower Beds
If you’re feeling a bit more adventurous, then you might want to consider a few of the flower bed ideas below (including this one!).
Circular flower beds are good if you have a huge tree that you want to draw attention to or a bare spot in your yard that needs a bit more color.
Taking an eclectic approach that gives you a wide palette of color is usually the way to go when it comes to creating a successful circular flower bed.
Bulbs, annuals, and perennials with a nice border flower like garanium can really frame things nicely. Putting something like a bird bath in the center is also an option.
Like these flower bed ideas but feeling overwhelmed with actually pulling them off? Get in touch with a landscaping company that can help you design, build, and maintain your flower bed for years to come.
Flower Beds Along a Walkway
As far as flower bed ideas go, this one’s right up there in popularity with raised flower beds and flower beds around trees.
Flower beds lining your walkway can significantly increase your curb appeal as a homeowner and work well with condos and receptions as well.
In terms of design, planting decorative flowers as a border along your walkway is said to soften the sameness and artificiality of concrete.
A line of flowers adds an unexpected splash of color in an unlikely, though not unwelcome, place.
Landscaping and design experts say to go with flowers that are hardy yet vibrant like mahogany bugleweed (purple) or red ruby.
A landscaping company can plan, edge, and till around your walkway to get things started on the right foot. Composting, mounding the soil, and actually planting the flowers comes next.
Here too landscapers can provide regular maintenance and put your flower bed and lawn on the irrigation and aeration schedule that both need to flourish and bring your outdoor landscape into full color.
Slanted Flower Beds
Slanted flower beds are one of those creative flower bed ideas that’s certainly not right for everyone but could be perfect for many people.
If your front yard is pitched, for instance, a landscaping team can help you raise your dirt bed to level and create a retaining wall that maximizes your flowers’ blooms while minimizing soil compaction.
Grasses and succulents are smart choices for sloped gardens. Contact a professional landscaper to make it happen!
Finally…Here are the Elements of Amazing Garden Design!
Garden design is about getting the most out of your outdoor space and creating an inviting backdrop for family, friends, and neighbors.
You obviously want to get to the point of enjoying your outdoor landscape as soon as possible, but a lot of work goes in to getting things just right.
Garden design revolves around having the right location, soil conditions, boundaries, and surfaces to work around. That said, the elements of garden design can’t be overstated.
The Elements and Location of Your Garden
There are two basic elements of great garden design – something known as hard elements (i.e., relatively immovable design details like paths, walls, lounge chairs, and decks) and the actual plants and flowers that adorn your garden.
Hard landscape elements can include beautiful additions to your outdoor landscape like a koi pond stocked with fish or a stone path that gradually opens up to a breathtaking garden rich with flowers and color.
These two basic elements of garden design – the hard elements and the actual plants you use – dynamically work together to bring out the best in your garden.
Creating a Powerful Effect
The kind of paving that you use leading up to your garden can have a dramatic effect on the overall impact of your garden. Grey stone with purple lilac, for instance, can create a captivating French country look that really inspires.
On the other hand, working with a professional landscaping company to curate a manicured lawn and lush garden around black paving can create a modern look that’s both classy and inviting.
A professional landscaper can cut through all of the guesswork and help you determine what the best garden design for your home would be.
The best garden design for you is determined by your design preferences, of course, but also strongly suggested by your climate zone and any microclimates in your area.
Your particular climate can affect whether you’re able to plant annuals or whether hardier perennials would be a better choice. Your climate also impacts things like seeding, blooming, aeration, irrigation, and the soil foundation that fundamentally make a great garden.
The Soil, Boundaries, and Surfaces of Garden Design
A lot of homeowners want to fast forward ahead to enjoying a garden lush with roses, lilacs, tulips, and dahlias…and those are all beautiful. The foundation for all of those, though, is your garden’s soil.
There’s a process that a professional landscaping company can help you with known as amendment, which is where nutrients are added to your subsoil and topsoil to ensure that it provides a foundation for healthy plant and flower growth.
A landscaping company can use the right soil structure – whether that’s loam, silt, or some amount of clay – for your garden’s flowers, acidity levels, and your particular climate.
Boundaries and Surfaces for Framing
Having the right boundaries (e.g., a line of hedges and nice, white fence) and surfaces directly bordering your garden (e.g., woodchips, straw, or pebbles) can open up the possibilities with your garden design.
Using structural plants to frame the sides of your garden is a staple of good garden design as well. Boxwood and bay laurel can be planted year round and are relatively easy to maintain.
Evergreen shrubs are another popular border. The most popular border for most gardens is your lawn.
Having your lawn maintained or shaped and maintained around your new garden (lawns can be square, circle, or oblong-shaped) gets everything off on the right foot.
Professional landscapers can walk you through your options when it comes to garden design and picking the best aesthetic and practical features for your new garden. Contact us for more information.
There’s More to Landscape Maintenance Than You Might Think
Landscape maintenance is all about keeping your yard and garden attractive, safe, and healthy. That means keeping the bugs, insects, and other pests away and making sure that everything is cut and trimmed to keep your home or business landscape looking wonderful.
Getting on a regular landscape maintenance schedule might even be a good idea since it means less time spent pruning and weeding and more time spent with your family.
Professional landscapers can also handle the hard stuff like topsoil enrichment and making sure your lawn is on the right irrigation schedule.
Landscape Maintenance: Where Art and Science Meet
Professional landscaping is as much an art as a science. There’s a real science to, for instance, getting the pH balance of your lawn just right for growing plants, shrubs and flowers.
(Most grass likes a pH of about 7, though some warm-season grasses like more acidic soil with a pH of around 5. Don’t worry: The pros can tell you what’s right for your lawn!).
Now, one of the more scientific aspects of lawn maintenance is lawn aeration where your soil is perforated to allow in more water and the kinds of nutrients that your soil needs to perform at its best.
These tiny holes that are made when you have your lawn aerated also help get more air into the soil and help you avoid soil compaction. (That’s something you don’t want at all since soil compaction can negatively affect nutrient absorption and root growth.)
There’s as much art to landscape maintenance, though, since landscapers have to balance the layout, lighting, walkway access, and fencing of your yard with choosing and maintaining just the right bushes and mulch for your particular landscape.
Choosing the right kind of mulch – whether that’s straw, chips, stone, or bark – is important for making your garden and overall landscape look fantastic.
Mulching can also help prevent your garden from being ensnared by a bunch of weeds and ensure that soil compaction doesn’t become an issue for your lawn and garden.
The right kind of mulch can frame your landscape beautifully, promote nutrient absorption, and limit water use since more moisture gets to the roots.
Who Can Benefit from Regular Landscape Maintenance?
Because landscape maintenance covers so much ground almost any homeowner or business can reap the benefits. Condos, gated communities, shopping centers, community centers, banks, universities. You name it.
Any business that has a landscape that they want to protect and any homeowner that wants to improve their curb appeal should seriously consider getting on a regular landscape schedule.
So, do you currently need to be experiencing lawn issues to hire a landscaper? Not necessarily, but landscape maintenance includes things like fertilizing and spot treatments to address those pesky bald spots on your lawn.
Uprooting weeds is another thing that most homeowners don’t exactly look forward to doing but that can have a big payoff when it comes to keeping your lawn healthy and beautiful.
When you get on a regular landscape maintenance schedule you can have weeding, aeration, mowing and mulching taken care of.
Knowing that you’re doing the most to improve the curb appeal of your home or the attractiveness of your business property lends a huge amount of confidence that’s sure to spill over.
A professional landscaping company will even provide monthly irrigation inspections to ensure your yard, garden, shrubs, and bushes are getting the nourishment they need. You can also have your lawn pH tested to take the guesswork out of it.
Contact us to discover all of the amazing benefits of getting on a regular landscape maintenance schedule.
Ways To Master Your Summer Lawn Care
Here are the Top 5 tips For Summer Lawn Care that can help you to achieve the best lawn.
- Starting Over – Cleaning Up –
The first thing you should start by doing is walking over your lawn and gather branches, twigs, leaves and any other debris that has accumulated and dispose of. (Or it can be thrown in the compost bin to later be used as mulch)
Cleaning up your lawn area should also include raking up any matted areas of the lawn which can encourage snow mold. Not only does this help to prevent any disease or insect infestation but at the same time it promotes better air flow throughout the turf and allows new grass blades to grow without difficulty.
- Protect Your Interest – Weed Control –
Weeds can definitely be a gardener’s worst nightmare and no matter how you try to get rid of them they keep coming back. Though you may not be able to stop them completely there are things you can do to keep them at bay. Weed control.
As part of your lawn care, it is very important to carry out weed control – applying an effective weed killer whether it be organic or inorganic before temperatures hit 55-60 degrees. If you wait until temperatures reach this point, conducting weed control will be pointless as weed seeds would have already begun to germinate.
- Kick Start Growth – Fertilizing –
Winter really signifies a dormant period for gardens and landscapes as your lawn and other areas tend to go into a slumber, however, fertilizing your lawn and other garden areas in the spring gives it a much-needed jumpstart.
This provides an intensified nutrient build up that will give your lawn and other areas the strength they require to withstand the heat and drought that follow in the summer months.
- Let It Breathe – Core Aeration
Just like weed control, it is important to core aerate lawns in the spring as part of your lawn care, before soil temperatures reach 55-60 degrees since this encourages aggressive weeds to populate void spaces in a lawn. Allowing water and air to reach root zones easily, core aeration is great for lawns and helps gardeners to quickly achieve new growth when they apply this useful tip.
- Repair And Rejuvenate Lawns – Re-Seeding Turf
Nine times out of ten winter will wreck havoc on your lawn and come spring the damage is done. Now what? Well, as long as the weather permits it how about doing some re-seeding?
This is a great technique gardeners can use to restore damaged areas of their lawns, however, it may be a bit tricky if you’re applying a pre-emergent weed control so it must be carefully done.
You see, pre-emergent weed control isn’t selective, meaning it will prevent ANY seed from germinating including those used to reseed your turf.
Usually, it’s recommended to hold off weed control to the latest point possible an to perform the turf repairs needed as early as possible so that the seeds have enough time to germinate and become established before weed killer is applied. If this is not possible, don’t skip your weed control instead wait until fall to perform any turf repairs necessary.
Bonus Tips For Lawn Care
- Mow Turf On A High Setting – You should adjust your mower to cut your lawn grass at the highest possible setting. Most turf types usually thrive better when blade heights are about 3 to 4 inches tall.
- When mowing Zoysia grass and Centipede grass, use the lowest setting. For Bermuda grass and creeping bentgrass, it’s best to remove only a third of the total grass blade length at a time.
- Applying mulch – Mulches help to provide essential nutrients and help with weed prevention and soil stability all season long be sure to apply some where necessary.
Contact the experts here at DK Landscaping – our expert team is on call to come in and assist you with any lawn care or gardening task that you have.
Give us a call at (707) 280-3632 or you can visit our website at dklandscaping.com for more information or book your appointment.
Top 5 Sizzling Summer Landscape Design Ideas For 2018
“ I Go To Nature To Be Soothed, And Healed And To Have My Senses Put In Order.”
-John Burroughs
Ready to try something new this summer in your garden? Well, if you’re looking for hot, exciting, ideas you can use to spice up your landscape and make it stand out then you’ve definitely tuned into the right station. Whether you want to transform your outdoor space into a head-turning, masterpiece of nature or you simply want to spend your time outdoors among beautiful trees and flowers, we’ve got the ideas that can help you achieve it. Without further delay, let’s get straight down to business and have a look at 5 Top Summer Landscape Design Trends that have been taking the outdoors by storm.
- Revamping Lawn Areas
Have you ever noticed how a well-trimmed and maintained lawn has become a popular attribute that represents everything about the quiet suburban life?
Despite this, droughts, water shortages and rising environmental challenges in recent years have seemed to take their toll on many landscape designs including lawn areas. Nevertheless, instead of going with a traditional type lawn this summer people could consider planting grass mixes that don’t require mowing.
- Go Bold This Summer With A Colored Fence
This is probably one of the easiest, most cost-effective ways to enhance your landscape design and it not only sets the tone but really adds a certain highlight to the outdoor space.
A little color always makes things a bit more interesting – Add a slice of drama to your garden since the landscape design trends for this summer, dictate that using dark and bold colors for outdoor structures can give your landscape that extra boost and more for the eyes to feast on.
This should be a welcomed change from the traditional ‘white picket fence’ that has somehow gotten old.
- Natural Materials Add Texture Where Needed
In previous years when a more contemporary, landscape design concept reigned unopposed, it was one thing, but in more recent times, landscape designers have been getting more requests for the addition of natural elements and non-geometric styles, in order to exude a more natural and original landscape design.
Decks, swing seats, garden furniture, bird baths and small fountains all seem to be returning to the top of the list of trending ideas for summer landscape designs.
- Sustainable Watering Ideas To Match Environmental Conditions
With recent drought conditions showing no sign of letting up, keeping landscape designs in good shape has been proving to be a bit challenging for landscapers.
Since this is the case, this summer, why not jump onto the trend of low-water landscaping? Xeriscaping as it is more commonly referred to in landscaping circles is a landscape design that includes many drought-tolerant plant species that require little or no maintenance.
Not only does this form of landscape design help landscapers to promote water conservation in harsh times but they don’t have to spend so much time maintaining landscapes.
- Dog-Friendly Landscape Designs Are Great For Accommodating Your Pet
Most people who are dog owners are aware that dogs like to dig, so when planning your summer landscape design why not apply a few dog-friendly tips that you can not only have a beautiful landscape but a happy dog as well.
By making special areas throughout your outdoor space like sandboxes, for your dog to carry out its instinctual habit of digging, is a great way to avoid damage to your precious blooms while keeping your dog happy.
With Spring is reaching its zenith, landscapers everywhere are already into summer gardening mode. So, before you start pulling, raking and sowing, why not consider these summer trends to enhance and complement your landscape design.
If you need help with your landscape design or to start one from scratch, we’re here to help. The experts here at DK Landscaping have been helping gardeners all across California achieve the landscape design of their dreams.
Call us today at (707) 280-3632 to get started right away or you can visit our website at dklandscaping.com to learn more.
Frequently Asked Questions About Drip Irrigation Systems
“The Secret Of Landscapes Isn’t Creation …It’s Maintenance.”-Michael Dolan
Micro- irrigation systems or drip irrigation as it’s more commonly referred, is basically a form of irrigation that supplies water toplant roots in a gradual manner. Extremely popular for its efficiency and its ability to promote water conservation, drip irrigation systems consist of a network of supply veins which run beneath the topsoil throughout the specified area, to thoroughly and strategically deliver a constant supply of water to plants.
They’re probably plenty of gardeners out there who find drip irrigation systems work well for their gardens but might not necessarily know everything they should about irrigation systems.
Unfortunately, because of this they may run into a couple problems that they may not be able to solve, so this article aims to answer any questions relating to irrigation systems that may prove difficult to answer.
Understanding Drip Irrigation Systems – Frequently Asked Questions & Answers
Q: How do you know if irrigation drip lines are working?
A: Since drip irrigation systems run beneath the topsoil it can be difficult to determine if it’s working. So, by simply observing the area after a few minutes of turning on the system to look for dampness in the soil around the line.
If your soil is mulched, just dig away a small portion of the mulch and soil with your hand and feel the soil to see if it’s moist or not.
Q: What’s the difference between a drip irrigation system and a ground sprinkler system?
A: Both systems function to deliver water to plants however a ground sprinkler system works by spraying a planted area above ground while a drip irrigation systems are located underneath the soil and deliver water directly to roots with a slow, consistent, drip.
Q: What type of garden is drip irrigation best suited for?
A: Drip irrigation systems are best suited for landscape beds with lots of plants and shrubs rather than lawns.
Q: How can a drip irrigation system benefit my garden?
A: Drip irrigation can offer gardens quite a few benefits once installed correctly. For instance, they prevent overwatering of plants and allow plant roots to absorb more water over a longer period of time, however some of the more popular benefits include its ability to promote water conservation, especially in drought-stricken areas and they offer a way for gardeners to save time and money.
Q: What difference will having a drip irrigation system make on my water bill?
A: As you can tell from its name a drip irrigation system practically drips water and emits water at a slower rate than above ground sprinklers or garden hoses.
With various settings, drip emitters may apply water at 0.5 – 4 gallons per hour where a rotor style sprinkler can water between 1 – 6 gallons per minute. See the difference yet?
You see, even though each landscape area differs in size drip irrigation systems can be set so that they have a slower application rate and higher efficiency. Based on this efficiency gardeners are able to reduce water usage by 50%. So, in other words, you’ll be cutting your water bill in half.
Q: Is a drip irrigation system difficult to install?
A: With easy to work with components, the process of installing a drip irrigation system is not difficult though there are certain guidelines you should follow. Basically, the process consists of weaving and arranging the tubing so that the supply of water is directed to the targeted areas.
Need Help With Drip Irrigation Systems?
If you don’t know how instal a drip irrigation system, don’t panic – help is just a call or click away. Don’t exhaust yourself spending hours in the sun struggling with irrigation tubes or worse stand in your garden and not know what to to to install your drip irrigation system. We can help.
Contact us at DK Landscaping Inc., to come in and assist you with professional irrigation system installation. Not only is our team knowledgeable about each aspect of irrigation installation but they will ensure you are well on your way without having to break a sweat. Call us today at (707) 280-3632 to schedule a visit or you can visit our website dklandscaping.com to learn more.
