Soccer_dad, how large is your lawn? Can you place sprinklers around the perimeter in mulch beds and such? I ask because I remember that some folks have used rainbirds on a spike like you would have with the regular impact sprinklers, and daisy chained them together with garden hose and some simple adapters. If all of the sprinklers have to be in the lawn area itself I imagine that this wouldn't work for you. But if having a bunch of them at on the outside edges would help, and not cause a problem with mowing, maybe that could at least solve part of your problem.

I personally plan to try this because I have read that those sprinklers are apparently much more efficient than the impacts, and you can use more of them in each zone than if you were using impacts without worrying about them failing to turn and then just soaking one area.

See link below for very extended discussion on sprinklers, search "rainbird" in that thread to get the posts I'm thinking of.

Cheers,
Paul

Here is a link that might be useful: sprinky linky

Thanks Paul. I was re-reading that post yesterday. Lowes has something close on their website. Instead of the spike I was looking for a pre-plumbed box I could dig into the ground along the perimeter and then just hook the hoses up. I can almost reach all the lawn with sprinklers in the edges of the landscape. Only 1 or 2 places actually in the grass. I am plumbing engineering challenged, but I suspect I will have to do my own. Any experience with Lawnbelt?

Hi soccer_dad, no experience with that product at all.

I think I understand better now - you are able to use the border areas but want the sprinklers to be flush to the ground when not operating, with only the hose attachments extending above the grade. I'm no engineer either, but if that's right I imagine the plumbing fittings required (whether or not enclosed in a ready-to-install box) would include some sharp angles to get the hose-end fittings above ground, and I wonder whether this would cause some kind of loss in pressure or volume. Maybe it wouldn't make a difference, I really don't know, though I suspect that it would. I imagine the folks on the irrigation board here would know better.

Anyway, if it does turn out that that would be a problem, maybe you could try buying the fittings necessary to run the sprinkler heads with a garden hose, and then buying an extra hose and a bunch of regular hose connectors (male and female as necessary) in order to make a bunch of mini-hoses that could be attached to each sprinkler and then gradually brought up to grade say a few feet away. Then just be sure to cap off those exposed hose ends every time you remove the water hose.

I'm just thinking out loud, and have never done anything like this. And I'm starting to feel like MacGyver.... Very curious to hear what you do!

P.S., I've seen it recommended often that sprinkler heads like this be set to overlap almost 100% in coverage due to the way they put down water (most closest to the head, least at the edge of the spray pattern. When you say you can almost reach all of the lawn from the edges, do you mean with overlapping coverage like that?

P.P.S., I'm not familiar with the climate in NVA, does the ground freeze in winter? I'm thinking it would be a royal PITA to winterize a system like this if that is necessary where you are.

Check out http://www.wateringmadeeasy.com I bought one last year and made 5 this year from scratch. Very easy.

Thanks scott. The "watering made easy" product is what I was thinking. Just need one with a outlet so you can connect multiples and make a zone.

Paul, I look at irrigation as supplement to mother nature and not the primary water so, while the experts are correct, I'm not a fan of in-ground irrigation. I see no need to pamper grass, heck I cut its head off every week. :) I'm just looking for a bit of a time saver.

If you look at the lawn belt U that goes in the ground, rather than connect to underground pipe, I'm thinking just above ground quick connects to garden hose. I'll have to do some experimenting when I get the time.

I don't post here very often, but I browse a lot. I did something like this last fall, and it is working pretty well. I started with a rainbird sprinkler head and attached a six inch piece of pvc straight down. Then I added an elbow, attached a short piece of funny pipe (I think that is what it is called), and added another elbow. To that I added another piece of pvc (maybe four inches) to go back to the surface. Then I added a quick connect hose connection, and buried it in the ground. It's really nothing more than a "U" shape made of pvc and tubing with a sprinkler head on one side and a hose connection on the other. I left the hose connection about an inch below the surface, and put a short four inch piece of pvc around it, and capped it off with a green lid. The 4 inch pvc keeps the ground away from the hose connection, and the lid makes it invisible to anyone who doesn't know it's there.

Now I can just connect a hose and turn on the water. It makes it really easy to water in the early mornings as I don't have to spend any time the evening before setting up sprinklers. Just attach the hoses, and set the timer.

It's not the easiest to winterize, but it's possible.