Gardening & Landscaping
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Sprinkler system installation - what do we need to know?
Tonight I finally caved and agreed with DH, we need a sprinkler system. How do we go about finding a good contractor for this? What do we need to know about systems before contacting contractors? Thanks!
Re: Sprinkler system installation - what do we need to know?
You should have separate watering zones, based on water needs for plants in specific areas. Usually, 3 zones are good. You set it up kind of like this: Zone 1 is a public area with high visibility (the front of the house). It contains the lawn and annual bedding plants and requires the most water. Zone 2 is semiprivate (backyard) and has trees, shrubs, and perennials, and perhaps a small lawn area. It requires less water that zone 1. Zone 3 are access/utility areas (side yard, etc) taht are primarily used for traffic paths and storage. You will have only xeriscape plants there, that require very little water.
The zones need to operate independent of each other for maximun efficiency and cost savings. This means more money initially, but the savings start immediately. If the sprinkler company doesn't talk to you about zone watering, you should talk to another company. You will spend a FORTUNE watering everything, every week, with a timer system; and it is absolutely the wrong way to go.
You need to know what your HOA, city, town, and/or county ordinances are before you consider ANYTHING! Check with your city or local municipality--many will require fees and some will actually require one of their engineers to come "inspect" the project before it's started (just another money-grubbing fee).
Example: We can't put up a shed in our city without $150 in fees, 2 city inspector visits, and a contractor signing off on the project--for one of those pre-built sheds from Home Depot. In alot of places, if you don't do what the city or HOA tells you to, you can be forced to take the whole system back out and never recoup any of those losses, pay huge fines, or both.