Landscaping, Irrigation, and More

Have you noticed just a hint of coolness in the air? Fall is right around the corner. We love the cooler weather (especially since we work outdoors all day!). We personally cannot wait to open our windows and sliding glass doors and let the Fall weather in.

Our grass, on the other hand, needs some preparation. As the rainy summer months are coming to a conclusion and the drier fall months arrive you need to take some steps to prepare your grass for the change in weather and levels of precipitation. The survival of your yard throughout the dry months depends on your proactive steps right now.

The summer months are plentiful with afternoon rains. Our irrigation systems have only had to run through cycles only as preventative maintenance because we have had adequate rainfall from Mother Nature. The afternoon rains are quickly disappearing and we need to prepare our grass accordingly.

In essence, it’s time to put your grass on a diet. It’s used to large amounts of rain. Less rain means less water for the yard. We should not compensate for the slow down in rain fall by allowing our sprinklers to run for long periods of time. We need to water (within watering restriction schedules) normally for the next week or so and begin to cut back on the time that each zone of your irrigation system runs on a gradual basis.

We will get drier and drier which means your yard will get thirstier and thirstier IF it’s used to getting large quantities of water. Scaling back gradually will help your yard adjust slowly without shocking it. Watering too much during the dry months not only puts a strain on water supply but also is prime breeding ground for fungus and weeds.

During the Spring months we use the guideline to water a zone that contains rotor (sprinkler) heads for 45 minutes. Your goal should be to move that zone to a watering time of no more than 30 mintues. An irrigation zone that contains mist (sprinkler)heads during the Spring months should run around 25 minutes. We recommend that your goal should be to get this sprinkler zone down to a run time of no more than 15 minutes.

Though your yard may not appreciate it, a little “diet” is good for all of us. If re-programming your sprinkler timer puzzles you feel free to contact our office. One of our experienced irrigation technicians will be able to show you how to do it.

PGP-ADJ Hunter Industries

There are a lot of products on the market both to a homeowner and to a business owner. Obviously the products that are sold in Home Depot or Lowes don’t match in quality to the products that we professionally purchase from our irrigation suppliers.

One of our preferred vendors is Hunter Industries. We have found that their sprinkler heads out perform most of the competitors. They are a company that stands behind their products and seem very responsive to our suggestions and complaints as irrigation system installers.

Hunter rotor heads have a rubber covered membrane that helps keep dirt out. Keeping dirt out of the pipes of your sprinkler system means you will need less service calls for a sprinkler head that is stuck on.

The top of a Hunter sprinkler head has a through the top adjustment with helpful symbols to assist the homeowner in adjusting the positioning of a particular sprinkler head. Hunter sprinkler heads allow for fine tuning radius adjustments from 40 degree all the way to full circle and reverse circle adjustments of 360 degrees. This helps to adjust heads so you are watering your grass and not your street, or your trees and not your house.

The Hunter rotor head has up to (20) inter changeable nozzles. Nozzles control the flow of water. You may need to reach 6 feet or they may need to reach 20 feet. With the wide variety of nozzles available to us we can perfect how and where the sprinkler system irrigates. All of their nozzles come with a dirty water screen to help keep large pieces of debris from entering the valves and pipes of your irrigation system. Again this is beneficial because it cuts down on the need for service calls from an irrigation contractor.

Hunter irrigation heads are lubricated by water. This means there is no added maintenance. This is one of the reasons we tell customers to never turn their sprinkler system off completely, even in rainy months. The water is the lubrication that keeps your system operating smoothly, like the oil does to your car’s engine. You should at least let your sprinkler system run through each zone for 5 minutes once a week, even if your yard doesn’t need watered, as preventative maintenance for your irrigation system.

The riser seal is reliable and proven pressure activated. This means your sprinkler head will pop up when it is supposed to and retract when it is supposed to.

We have installed new irrigation system and repaired existing sprinklers for over 40 years. We are appreciative of a company like Hunter that provides a superior product to assist us in providing the customer with a product and service that will keep them calling us for years.

If you are in need of a new irrigation system or may need repairs to your existing sprinkler system don’t hesitate to contact R & R Sprinkler and Landscape.

Installing an automatic sprinkler system is a worthwhile investment for your property. Having a professionally licensed and insured contractor install your new irrigation system is important. Ask for references and don’t always select the cheapest price. Ask about the design of your sprinkler system. Ask for references too. A good design that will use water efficiently is much better than a cheap price and is an overall better investment.

A good system design will be divided into zones by plant material. Typically the grass portion of your property is irrigated by rotor heads. Rotor heads have a higher output of water and run for longer periods of time. Plants and shrubs are typically irrigated by mist heads or drip irrigation which don’t require the area to be irrigated as long. If the design includes a zone that has a large span of grass along with an area of delicate shrubs set to irrigate for the same continuous period of time then someone will loose. Either your grass will not get enough water or your plants and shrubs will get too much. This is a bad design on behalf of your irrigation contractor and a poor water useage.

A zone comprised of rotor heads should run 30-45 minutes. A zone comprised of mist or spray heads should only run for @ 10-15 minutes. You can see by the difference in time that each of these components need to run how important it is that they are grouped in zones accordingly. R & R Sprinkler and Landscape is a professionally licensed and insured irrigation installation company. Our first priority is designing and installing an irrigation system that will be easy to operate and maintain while providing a sprinkler that will use the least amount of water with the maximum watering capabilities.

If you are considering installing a new irrigation system we’d love for you to give us the opportunity.

A “zone” of an irrigation system is an area of the entire irrigation system that waters at one time. If you tried to irrigate your entire lawn at one time the water pressure would be low, the run off would be excessive and likely the flow of electricity would be high.

A good irrigation contractor will look at your property and design the best layout of a combination of rotor heads and spray heads to best provide the maximum amount of water to your yard in the minimum amount of time.

Rotor heads and spray heads are wired to an electric valve that the sprinkler timer tells to open and close allowing water to flow through the pipes and up through the rotor head and mist heads. Each valve is the brain of that “zone” of the sprinkler system.

A typical standard Cape Coral lot should have an irrigation system that has a minimum amount of 4 zones. Less than that means you probably do not have an adequate amount of rotor heads/spray heads which means insufficent watering.

In the early to mid 2000’s during the construction boom there were sprinkler contractors installing irrigation systems on large corner lots of Cape Coral with only 3 zones. There is no way a 3 zone sprinkler system can water that large of a lot. You’d likely need 7 or 8 zones for that.

If you are considering installing a new irrigation system ask the contractor how many zones he intends to install. If you need a second opinion or would like another price feel free to contact us.

Be sure you know how many zones, rotor heads and spray heads you are getting in your system first. If you think you need more zones added to the irrigation system you already have, we can help with that too.

Adding a paver driveway will enhance the curb appeal of your Estero home. A good paver contractor will ask you about the plans for your irrigation system, sod installation, landscape installation and more before they begin the work. A bad paver contractor will just proceed with the work and let you worry about all the headaches that will occur after he’s done with his project. These are the contractors that give our industry a bad name. They are here to collect a paycheck and don’t care what the effect is on the homeowner.

If you plan to install a new irrigation system or will renovate the existing irrigation system you need to consider having sleeves for the sprinkler system installed under the driveway before the pavers are laid. Doing this will save a lot of time and money for you in the end. There’s significantly more labor involved in having to “jet” out to install a piping for an irrigation system once a driveway is already installed versus bringing a trencher out and digging the line with no construction interference.

So, before you decide to begin installation of the new paver driveway at your Estero property contact R & R Sprinkler and landscape first so we can install the sleeving for your sprinkler system.

If you have intermittent power issues to the automatic timer to your sprinkler system there are a few things to check:

1. Is your irrigation timer plugged into a GFI?
2. Is your GFI working properly? Plug a small appliance to check.
3. Is your timer turned on? (Don’t roll your eyes, it happens!)
4. Is your timer set properly?
5. Are there any loose or cut wires?
6. Do you have ants?

Did that last question catch you off guard? Most homeowners we propose that question to look at us like we are crazy. Ants get inside the wiring of your sprinkler timer. They get in between the wires and the contactors and block the flow of electricity. Not a very smart move if you ask us. We first recommend you shut off the power to this circuit. Then take a screw driver or pair of pliers and gently tap the heads of the contactors. The ants will usually fall out pretty easily. You may need to loose the screw and tap again to make sure all of the ant carcasses are eradicated. Tighten everything back up. Turn the power back on and see if that solves the problem.

Ants are a common “interrupter” to electrical service for not only sprinkler timers but also well pumps. If this is a consistent problem consider pest control in the area. We have some great pest control companies we can recommend.

If ants weren’t causing the problem and the automatic timer to your irrigation system still isn’t working feel free to contact us. We are sure we can help!

In Florida a lot of the homes were built with a pretty little knee wall along the front of the house. Whoever thought of this concept had a great architectural mind but had no idea what a pain in the rear it would be to maintain landscaping behind that wall. It’s such an awkward space. To small to get the lawnmower in but too big to have to weed eat the entire area.

How do you maintain that awkward little area at the front of your Florida Home? We recommend you renovate it. Kill the sod (which by now is mostly weeds). Scrape the contents out so you can have a clean slate. Do not re-install grass, instead consider a rock bed or a mulch bed with some easy to maintain shrubs.

If you have your rock properly installed by a professional landscaping company they should lay a weed barrier down first which will help (not eliminate) the growth of weeds up through the rocks. Pick a rock that will compliment your home. Have the landscape estimator help you choose some plants that will be well suited to that area of the property. When choosing plants consider a plant that can tolerate shade and is low maintenance like cocoplums or podocarpus. Even consider a few hibiscus plants to add color to the front of your home.

Be sure to ask your landscaper about the necessary irrigation the plants will need. You may need to make a renovation to your sprinkler system to accommodate the new landscaping. It’s always better to have this done prior to the landscape addition and to have the landscaper and the irrigation company communicate the details of the project before anyone begins work. Your landscaper cannot perform irrigation services unless they have a specialty licensed to perform irrigation services.

You have just taken your out of control entrance of your Florida home from a pain in the rear to maintain issue to an eye appealing addition. R&R Sprinkler and Landscape is able to help you with a project like this from the sod kill all the way to the final landscape installation and sprinkler repair and all the steps in between. Call us today.

If you are like the average homeowner you don’t really know what the specific parts are that make up your irrigation system. You just want it to turn on and water your grass and landscaping. We understand, you might know what the stock market is doing today, you may know the part I need to repair my air conditioner or you may know how to teach my daughter math (all things I may struggle with myself) but you don’t know what an irrigation valve is. That’s OK. We all have gifts and talents. Servicing and educating customers about their irrigation system is ours.

Today we’re going to tell you about irrigation valves. A sprinkler system is made up of many parts. It’s not about just throwing pipes in the ground and your grass is watered. There are rotor heads, spray heads, timers, rain sensors, fittings, pipe and valves. A valve is the part of the sprinkler that determines a sprinkler “zone”. It’s the brain for a specific part (zone) of the entire sprinkler system. The valves talk to the timer so the timer can tell the valves when to open and close to let water flow into the pipes and out of the sprinkler heads and for how long.

Each valve is wired to the sprinkler timer. If valves are not operating there is either not power running from the timer to the valve or one of the electrical wires has been somehow damaged. If valves get stuck open there may be debris stuck in the valve. A common result of this would be a flooded yard. If valves are weeping you may need to replace the seal around the valve. The most important thing you can do is to know where your valves are located for your sprinkler system.

One of the most time consuming tasks we perform during an irrigation repair to locating valves. If you can keep your valves located and clear from your yard growing over top of them you will save a lot of labor for your next sprinkler repair.

R & R Sprinkler and Landscape have expert technicians ready to locate and repair the valves to your sprinkler system today.

You are blessed enough to be a seasonal resident in Naples Florida. You have spent your snow bird days meticulously manicuring your lawn, updating your landscaping and getting your irrigation system fine tuned to maintain all of the labors of love.

Now, it’s time to go back up north for the summer. You have hopefully hired a trusted lawn and landscape company to maintain your assets while you are gone but have you thought about your lawn sprinkler system?

Most seasonal residents turn off their irrigation systems when they are ready to go back up north. This is soooooo bad for your sprinkler system.

The only lubrication an irrigation system receives is from the water running through the pipes, through the valves and out of the sprinkler heads. No water running means no lubrication. Guess what? When you return to your Naples paradise you may be in for some repairs to your lawn sprinklers due to the lack of operation.

Your timer to your lawn irrigation system should be set to run at least once a week. During the rainy seasons you will only need to have your system run through each zone for a couple of minutes. During the non-rainy seasons it should be set to run through each zone @ 15 minutes depending on the type of landscaping or lawn area you are covering and the type of sprinkler heads that are installed in the areas and current watering restrictions that are in place.

R & R Sprinkler and Landscape offers a variety of service contracts for your lawn irrigation system. We want your sprinklers to run adequately and efficiently throughout the year to maintain your yard, trees and shrubs.

Don’t you want your Naples property to look as beautiful when you return for this season as it did when you left last season. Less time spent on landscaping means more time spent playing golf, fishing or enjoying the gorgeous Florida beaches.

You wouldn’t leave a car sitting for months at a time without letting it run and you shouldn’t let your lawn sprinklers either. See how an irrigation maintenance contract from R & R Sprinkler and Landscape can benefit your Naples home today.

An emitter is an element of a drip irrigation system that transfers water from the water source to the plant, tree or shrub it is intended to water. Emitters have also been referred to as drippers since they apply water to the landscaping through a slow steady drip to the landscape roots.

There are three types of emitters:
1. High Flow Emitters – intended to water larger trees and shrubs. They yield an average output of 5 gallons per hour.
2. Medium Flow Emitters – intended for plants and shrubs @ 24″ wide. They yield an average output of 2 gallons per hour.
3. Low Flow Emitters – intended for small starter plants, shrubs and flowers. They yield an average output of 1 gallon per hour.

Emitters are installed into 1/4″ – 1/2″ tubing called drip line. The tubing is punctured and the emitter is installed into the tubing with an insertion tool. Emitters come as open flow emitters, fixed flow emitters or variable flow emitters. Having emitters that regulate the volume of water applied as well as the type of water flow will help you water your roses differently then your Queen Palm.

We would be happy to help you design and install a drip irrigation system using flow emitters for you.