A lawn sprinkler is a necessity if you want to have a beautiful yard, but you need to have the right sprinkler for the job. I found this out the hard way. When my family purchased our home, the lawn was currently being watered by sprinkler hoses. The hoses were stretched across the lawn, and the water came out of the dozens of tiny holes along each hose. They were hooked up to timers which did make them more convenient. Because the lawn looked gorgeous, we felt confident this system would be sufficient.
We found out later from a neighbor that the old owners supplemented their timed watering with a some water from the garden hose, particularly in areas that just weren’t getting enough water from the sprinklers. By the time, we learned this information our lawn was already going brown in a number of places so we had to make some fast lawn sprinkler buying decisions.
One option was to use manual sprinklers or to manually water the lawn with a hose. We quickly ruled out this choice even though it was the most affordable. Having to set up the sprinklers whenever the lawn needed to be watered just did not sound appealing, plus we already knew that manual sprinklers would end up wasting lots of water and not throughly watering our lawn. Basically, we’d be in the same boat we were already in with our sprinkler hoses.
Instead, we decided on an automatic irrigation system. The difference between manual and automatic systems is that automatic sprinklers are permanently incorporated into your landscape and can be set to water your lawn at appropriate intervals. Remember the best time to water your lawn is in the early morning hours before the hot sun can cause too much evaporation. Late evenings are another good time to water your lawn.
Anyway, even after we picked an automatic irrigation system we still had to decide on a specific type of sprinkler head. Two of the main types are spray heads and impulse heads. The main difference between the two types of heads is how much area they cover. Spray heads send water in a steady stream onto a small location of your lawn. Generally, you’ll need more spray heads to water your lawn than you will with impulse heads. Impulse heads shoot out jets of water and have nozzles that rotate which means they cover larger areas. Impulse heads are often used on commercial lawns and golf courses.
While we decided on automatic lawn sprinklers with spray heads, our choice won’t be right for everyone. In fact, you might even choose a manual system if you’re on a limited budget, you live in a pretty rainy area, or don’t have a very large yard. Think about your needs and let that be your guide when choosing the right lawn sprinklers for your yard.