Words Colin Eaton, Garden City Tree and Landscape Ltd.
Irrigation has come a long way in a short period of time. Here are some solid reasons why you should consider a professionally installed irrigation system or an upgrade of your existing system;
- Even if you like getting up at 6 a.m. several times a week for nine months a year to water your landscape, your landscape is still not receiving adequate water. Your lawn and plants are suffering, and you are wasting your valuable time.
- A professionally installed system ensures proper watering of all areas, avoiding overwatering in some areas and underwatering in others.
- Precision nozzles are a relatively new technology that sees irrigation heads deliver water in slower application rates, thus allowing for better absorption rates (i.e. less water is wasted due to evaporation or runoff). Less water wasted will result in a cost savings to you, and it’s just good practice.
- Emitters lines are no longer soaker-hose quality. They are now engineered to release the same amount of water every 12 inches and they ensure less loss of water due to evaporation, a common problem with spray heads.
- Proper watering of your landscape will ensure optimum growth of plants and lawns.
- It is an investment in your property. You can spend tens of thousands of dollars on a landscape that will be dead or severely damaged within a few years without a proper irrigation system. An irrigation system provides control over watering!
- Irrigation timers have cloud-based technology which means they check in with the local weather and adjust the irrigation based on the actual weather. So if it rains, your system does not engage. These new systems also alert you to a break in the system so you don’t waste unnecessary water!
- While you’re at it, why should you install a backflow preventer?
- Water that enters your irrigation system comes from your municipal water supply, i.e. the same water we drink every day. Without a backflow preventer, irrigation water can backflow into the municipal system every time you water. If, for example, you have a pet that relieves itself on your lawn or you use pesticides or synthetic fertilizers, all will mix with the water that can flow back into your and our drinking water.
- To combat this backflow contamination, the CRD requires backflow preventers be installed on any new or existing systems. If you don’t have one, consider installing one soon, for everyone’s health.
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