One of the most important things that you can do for the look and value of your home, not to mention the considerable sense of your own self-esteem, is establishing and maintaining a green and verdant lawn.
Of course, this can seem like something that is easier said than done for many homeowners. Chances are, you are fighting a number of different factors and circumstances with your lawn. Depending upon where you live, there can be climate factors, cultural factors, geological factors and water resource factors that determine what kind of lawn you can ultimately have. The trick for homeowners, then, is not to necessarily get the greenest lawn in the world, just the greenest, healthiest one possible under your particular circumstances.
The first thing you need to know about keeping and maintaining a quality lawn is water. A lawn needs water to thrive. This can be a huge impediment depending upon your particular circumstances. First, look up your local restrictions on water usage. If there are none, or if there are few, you can probably construct a full water sprinkler system that generates a beautiful lawn.
There are three main components to any water sprinkler system. There is the sprinkler head, the sprinkler pipe, the sprinkler control valve, the sprinkler control timing system (though this is optional) and in many cases there is an emergency shut off valve.
The first step is in knowing what kind of sprinklers will work best in your system. Chances are you will utilize a mix of both rotary sprinkler heads and static spray sprinkler heads. If you have especially tricky areas of your lawn or garden that need to have a dedicated water delivery system, but neither a rotary or a static head will suffice, there are a number of different types of specialty sprinkler heads available on the market. Also, you may want to consider a sprinkler hose for certain gardening applications.
Next, there is the sprinkler pipe. Almost all residential, commercial and agricultural sprinkler systems use PVC piping, as it is sturdy, durable, flexible and immune to corrosion. Also, PVC tends to fair much better in cold weather climates than any type of metal pipe does.
Finally, you will need to consider what type of sprinkler control valve you need. There are two main types. There is the in line sprinkler control valve, which must be set up in a particular way, so as to ensure proper pressure is run throughout the system. In line valves are usually used with fully under ground lawn sprinkler systems. As such, in line systems are also built into the system, under ground.
The other type of sprinkler control valve is the anti-siphon valve. Anti-siphon valves are usually placed above ground, near the main water supply valve. They possess an internal back flow prevention system, but this alone is not an adequate back flow preventer. For most sprinkler systems, you will need to purchase and install a dedicated back flow preventer.
