Need to trench for sprinkler system

8 years ago

I am starting to work on my back yard and I need to trench for a sprinkler system. To do so I need to trench perpendicular to a couple large trees. I attached a couple photos.

I would do the trenching parallel to the patio as close as is possible with the trencher. How much damage do you think it will cause to these trees?

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Comments (4)

ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
8 years ago
sprinklers of drip irrigation ???

if drip.. there is probably no need to bury it at all .. just lay one inch supply line at the perimeter.. and work your way in ...

you will never see it back there ..

and if those are maples.. just consider.. every severed root.. is replaces by dozens of new feeder roots..which is worse for the garden you want ... rather than the tree ...

more info please ... generally.. overview of the project

in my experience.. a garden is different from a lawn .. in the need to bury everything ...

ken
wisconsitom
8 years ago
Interfaces between hardscape-like this patio-and whatever else is on site typically become very heavily colonized by tree roots. There's air and moisture there, which are two things they-the roots-need. So if you follow close to the patio pavers, expect quite a few roots.

Nevertheless, so long as you're not up so close to the tree as to be severing lots of large roots before they've branched off into the numerous smaller ones, should be able to recover.
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taylorjonl Taylor
Original Author
8 years ago
Ken, it will be both drip and sprinklers, drip for the flower beds and sprinklers for the grass sections. For the flower beds I have some RainBird XFS subsurface drip line that I will lay on top of the soil, then cover it with 4-5 inches of bark.

I can't think of a way to get the sprinklers in without trenching at the edge of the patio. Here is a rough sketch of my vision of my yard after this project.

The green areas are grass, the pink areas are flower beds. Here is a photo of the area from a different perspective.

The red flags are a rough placement of where I will have curbing installed to separate the grass sections from the flower beds. Here is a picture of the trees from the other end of my yard.

There are two sets of trees, one set of trees I fear needs to come out in the next 5 years, the tree hasn't looked healthy since they build the houses behind my house around 3-4 years ago. Every year more and more branches fall and it has a lot of dead branches. Here is an example picture.

This tree also is growing into my neighbors house as seen by this picture.

These trees are leaning pretty severely because a power line used to run the property line, so the power company would trim the clumps of trees in a V formation. I fear this tree will fall on my house before long

Luckily when they built the houses behind me they moved the power line so I am starting to grow a replacement tree(actually just nurturing a couple babies that I hope can one day replace the existing trees). Here is a picture of my favorite replacement so far.

I cleared some of the existing trees branches so sunlight hits this area from around 5PM to 8PM, as this tree grows I will continue to trim back this dying tree until I finally remove it.
krnuttle
8 years ago
If you or someone you can draft are in relatively good shape the best way to cut a trench is with a mattock. With this you can cut a fairly narrow trench and cut through roots, and remove rock, or about any thing that gets in your way.

Depending on what you hit you can cut a trench quite rapidly.

It is hard on the back but does a good job.

Because of the rocks and tree roots I could not plant anything in my yard with out it.

Need to trench for sprinkler system

Comments (4)

ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5

wisconsitom

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Need to trench for sprinkler system

Comments (4)

ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5

wisconsitom

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taylorjonl TaylorOriginal Author

krnuttle

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taylorjonl Taylor
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