As part of our commitment to servicing our valued customers of the Long Island region, we provide useful tips and recommendations to keeping your lawn green all year long! Read our lawn care articles and pass them on to your friends if you wish.
One of the big mistakes new homeowners make in their lawn maintenance routine is overwatering their grass. When somebody is dealing with an irrigation system for a piece of property for the first time, there seems to be a misconception that as long as the property isn’t visibly flooding, there’s no such thing as overwatering.
Much like a car or the exterior of a house, your irrigation system will require regular maintenance to prevent a disaster or dead grass before it happens. One of the most neglected parts of any sprinklers is going to be the head. Although a simple piece of the system in comparison to the rest of the machine, your sprinkler heads will age, decay and break and need to be replaced with time.
To those less experienced with the workings of a home irrigation system, winterization could seem like useless maintenance that lazy sprinkler companies use to make a quick buck in the cold months when business is slow. But winterization is actually one of the most important maintenance processes that your sprinklers need.
Rust is one of the biggest enemies of any irrigation system. If the water on your property has enough iron in it– rust is going to be an inevitable obstacle that you’ll have to face at least once in your time as a homeowner.
If getting a sprinkler system installed on a property were as easy as just putting the thing in the ground and letting the water do its thing, there wouldn’t be a reason for an irrigation company like us to exist. The fact of the matter is that not every property is ready for an irrigation system.
With summer on its way out and fall approaching at an alarming rate, one of the most common questions homeowners are asking is, “when should I turn my sprinklers off?”
One of the most common questions people have when getting irrigation systems installed for their homes is whether they need an industrial or residential system in order to keep their grass healthy. While it might seem pretty self-explanatory, the issue becomes a bit more complicated when dealing with communities like the East End of Long Island, where the property sizes become significantly larger.
If you’re a complete newbie to the world of irrigation, and making sure that your grass is properly watered, you might not know how your sprinklers actually work. Under the surface of your sprinkler heads are pumps, valves and pipes that bring water from your source out to the dirt under your lawn.
Owning a large property is a hassle in and of itself, but when it comes time to keep the grass of that property healthy and green, it can feel like fighting an uphill battle. It’ll always feel like the sun is hitting it harder, like the grass is drying faster than you can keep up with it and that the foot traffic is just unmanageable. This is especially true on Long Island where golf courses and wineries are abundant. So what can you do to make your life watering a bigger property easier?
If you’ve ever wondered why so many upscale places have signs telling you to keep off the lawn, it’s not because they don’t want people to have fun. It’s actually because excessive foot traffic is one of the worst things for your grass.
When somebody sees your property, the first thing they’re going to notice isn’t going to be the architectural inspiration of your house or the freshly paved driveway. It’s going to be the way your lawn looks. On Long Island, the appearance of your lawn is more like an unspoken competition than anywhere else in the country. And what compliment feels more satisfying than, “Wow, you have a beautiful lawn”?
One of the most common issues we see from our customers who are first time home owners, or are just creating or maintaining a lawn for the first time is the rate at which their grass grows.
If you were to ask somebody “What’s the most common reason for dry or dying grass?” most would probably guess that it’s either a faulty or inadequate sprinkler system that isn’t giving a lawn the water that it needs to survive. It’s the most obvious reason, but it’s not necessarily the correct one. The primary reason lawns go brown is actually owner negligence.
With warm summer nights just around the corner, there’s no reason you should only get to enjoy a beautiful backyard for half of the day. And for the modern home, a simple light on the back porch doesn’t do the whole job anymore.
When the first day of spring hits, the most popular question we get is, “when should I turn my sprinklers back on?” Most people, especially us impatient residents of Long Island, call looking for a simple answer like, “the first day of spring,” or “April 1st,” or “the first day of the year where it hits 60 degrees,” but it just isn’t that simple.
When you’re getting in your car and your first thought is to turn the heat on, the last thing you’re probably thinking is “hey, I should really install some sprinklers for my lawn.”
Anybody who lives on Long Island knows how fast the temperature seems to drop during that sweet spot in late September to early October. Since it’s about to start hitting that point where water freezes, any leftover water in an irrigation system’s pipes is going to freeze over if not taken care of.
For an accurate appraisal you should contact an appraiser or a real estate agent. In many cases, a well designed and properly installed system made with professional grade parts from Irrigation Solutions will add more to the property value than the cost of the parts
There are numerous sprinkler repair contractors on Long Island, before you call here are some common repairs that you can do yourself:
The controller is the heart of the system. In a real sense, it is the money meter. The controller directly influences your water cost by controlling the watering schedule
There is only one answer to this question. You should contact the irrigation specialists at Irrigation Solutions to consult you about the best way in which to water your lawn and plants.
Apply enough water to wet the soil to a depth of approximately six to eight inches. A soil probe may be used to check moisture depth in soil. Maintaining a soil moisture depth of six to eight inches usually requires a rate of one to two inches of water per week
Most lawns require a minimum of one inch of water per week. This can be accomplished by watering each section for one hour at a time. To ensure that your lawn is getting an inch per watering, place an empty tuna can in the lawn
Once upon a time a homeowner wanted an irrigation system installed so he hired a irrigation contractor to install one. After the contractor finished the installation and was paid for the work, the homeowner found that the system didn’t work and called the contractor.
Use multiple start times if the ground will not absorb water at the rate it is applied. This is usually necessary for pop-ups, which water at a fairly high precipitation rate
There are many sprinkler system installers in Long Island. Irrigation Solutions is an owner-operated organization that offers the finest sprinkler technicians available. They are considered professional and prompt; committed to quality in their service.
Timing of watering is crucial. Water early in the morning and complete before 9 AM.
It’s important to have your irrigation system activated in the spring to ensure that your sprinkler system is working properly when the warm weather arrives. Our irrigation experts will turn the water on at the tap or well, examine the system fully, and adjust the heads as needed.
There are many reasons to invest in a professionally installed sprinkler system. These include the performance and value that you will receive, lower water bills with your landscape living longer and healthier, using less water, and the amount of time you will save because the sprinkler system will do the watering for you
Rotors work best for large areas (over 50 ft) without a lot of complicated lawn area shapes. The only time they work well in smaller yards is in unobstructed rectangular areas that happen to measure at an even multiple of the radius distance
After you have determined that you want to have an irrigation system installed in your garden or lawn, you then need to select a professional irrigation contractor.
Sprinkler system maintenance and proper lawn watering is absolutely necessary if you want to maintain a green lawn in the summertime.
We offer a convenient service contract with several options available that best fit the needs of your lawn, flowers, and shrubbery. This pre-paid service contract is mailed annually and the price for each option varies based on your individual irrigation system.
Water at the right time of day (between midnight and sunrise) from May to October. Watering when the sun is low and temperatures are cooler minimizes evaporation by as much as 30 percent.
When there is a dry spell, grass begins to turn brown. Flowers need to be watered more frequently. Dirt patches dry up. Cracks form across the surface of the ground
As the soil begins to dry out, the lawn will show a lack of available moisture by wilted leaf blades. This condition is evidenced by a lengthwise folding or rolling of the blades, caused by a loss of water pressure within the plan
Rotors are sprinklers that shoot a jet of water. The stream is moved back and forth across the area to be watered. Over a period of time, the water distribution is uniform
Drip Irrigation (also known as micro irrigation or trickle irrigation) is a irrigation method that slowly applies water to plant roots by depositing the water either directly to the root zone or on the soil surface
The spray sprinkler sprays water over the whole area to be watered the entire time it is watering. In other words, the spray pattern does not move back and forth like a rotor
Never water your lawn or landscape in the heat of the day. This may actually cause more harm than good. The droplets of water that remain on the grass, plants and flowers actually wilt the plant once the hot sun warms the water