The University of Georgia’s state climatologist predicts we
can expect watering
restrictions that will come sooner and last longer this summer.
If I want to keep my yard
nice and green, my irrigation system becomes a lifeline to my
landscape.

It took a little while to refamiliarize myself with my
irrigation controller. After a
few minutes, I got the system to spew water, but I didn’t know if
it was working
correctly.

So I asked Kerry Harrison, an irrigation engineer with the UGA
College of Agricultural
and Environmental Sciences, to take a critical look at my
system.

He found a problem immediately. A seal had failed on one of
the sprinklers, wasting
what could become precious water.

“See the bubbling?” he said. “This is water
that should be going out
into the yard and be distributed out there. Instead, it’s wasted
around the edge of the
sprinkler.

“It’s not altering the pattern,” he said. “It’s
just not putting the
water where it could be used better. Wiper seals, at the base of
the sprinkler, are among
the most common sprinkler parts to wear out, regardless of the
brand.”

Check Sprinkler Before It’s
Needed

Harrison said spring checkups should be done long before I
need to use the system. It’s
important to check out every sprinkler. Make sure it turns. And
make sure it provides an
even watering pattern.

Sure enough, another of my sprinklers had a problem, wasting
water on the deck while
missing the plants on the opposite side. Harrison said I, like
many others, probably
knocked the sprinkler out of adjustment when mowing the yard.

“It’s one of the more common problems,” he said.
Luckily, the lawnmower
didn’t knock the head of the sprinkler off. It just changed its
adjustment.

For more than an hour, I inspected every sprinkler. I found a
few minor, easily
correctable problems.

Consider a Maintenance
Contract

People who don’t have time for a spring sprinkler checkup, or
who aren’t mechanically
talented, may want to consider a maintenance contract. Let a
professional keep the system
operating year-round.

“An irrigation person would come out and do your spring
season tune-up for
you,” Harrison said. “Generally, a maintenance contract
doesn’t include any
parts. It just includes his labor.”

The contractor would adjust the settings on a time clock for
spring, summer and fall,
too, he said.

“You’re usually talking about two to three trips to your
house or place of
business to do this run-through,” Harrison said. “That
kind of contract is
probably a good one if you’re a busy person.”

Often, irrigation contractors have other businesses, such as
landscaping. So their
other commitments may determine when they can tune up your
system. As a rule, Harrison
said, maintenance contracts aren’t very profitable for
contractors. Many do it just for
good customer relations.

Harrison’s advice to people who do their own checkup is to
“run the system through
its cycle,” he said. “Be familiar with the time clock
if you have an automated
system. Know how to adjust it. And make sure the time is
correct.

“Starting ahead of time, before the system is
needed,” he said, “is
going to be the recommendation for any homeowner.”

Now, if we have outdoor watering restrictions (and not an
outright ban), I’m ready. I
know my system works as it should because I checked it out before
the really hot weather
tried to suck the life out of my yard.