You are here: Home / Archives for Joe Mouad

Everything you need to know about sprinkler systems

January 28, 2011 By

Sprinklers are a type of irrigation used on many types of terrain, from farms, golf courses and yards, but also as a cooling system or to keep down the amount of airborne dust. A sprinkler system transports water to your garden via an underground pipe system and the water pressure is determined by how much water is being used inside your home at the same time. A sprinkler system requires the most effort for installation.

Sprinklers can be automatic or manual, but the basic function remains the same. Manual sprinklers can work for small areas of a garden, but the disadvantage is that they might soak the leaves of the plants, which can cause fungal disease. More over, the water coming from this type of sprinklers may evaporate before reaching the ground. Automatic sprinklers are impulse ones, which fire powerful jets of water in a circle, or oscillating sprinklers, which have curved arms that rock back and forth and spread water.  Other types of sprinklers are the static ones that distribute water in the same amount that cover up to 11 m across or rotary ones that have two or three rotating arms, which produce a circular spray of fine water droplets up to 13.5 m across. Also, you can choose an underground sprinkler system, in which case the sprinkler heads go up only when watering, then return underground. These systems are usually set up on timers to water at the most opportune times of the day.

To install a sprinkler system you first need to mark the lawn in the spots where the pipes will need to be installed. Distance depends on the water pressure and on the risers you use. Dig up the parts where the pipes are going to be and try to keep the sod intact when removing so it can be put back after. Put the PVC pipes in the sections you dug out and connect them using couplers. The number of pipe valves you are going to install in each section depends on the size of your lawn. At the end you can install the timer close to the main water line and make all the necessary connections.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With:

How to save water on irrigation

January 27, 2011 By

Using water wisely in your garden and lawn helps not only the environment, but your budget also, providing for perfect growing conditions for your plants. Here are some practical tips on saving water:

  1. Have your irrigation system checked regularly. You avoid technical problems like leaking valves or pipes, broken or missing heads, clogged nozzles, seal leaks, sunken heads or tilted heads, all of which lead to an incorrect use of water. Also, by checking your system you can fix problems like overspray, pressure problems or misaligned heads.
  2. Plant everything splitting into zones that have specific water needs. Like this, you can set the watering differently for each zone.
  3. Adjust irrigation according to season and the light your plants enjoy. During the cool spring and fall, plants require less water, but during the hot summer you can water your plants more often.
  4. Water during the morning hours, especially if you use sprinklers. You will avoid evaporation, which is less common when the temperature is cooler. Plus, the wind doesn’t blow as hard in the mornings in most areas. If you irrigate with automatic sprinklers, program your irrigation timer so that it waters in 2-3 short cycles rather than a single long period of time, to allow water to soak in to the ground between the cycles.
  5. Install a smart controller that periodically adjusts the sprinkler operating times, reflecting the current water needs of the plants.
  6. Install a rain switch, a simple rain sensor, that, when it detects measurable rainfall, it turns off the automatic irrigation valves.
  7. Change the sprinkler heads from time to time to newer and better designed ones.
  8. Set up your irrigation system to avoid watering hard surfaces such as driveways and patios.
  9. Use alternate sources of irrigation water. Collect rainwater from your roof in a rain barrel or other large container and keep it covered with an insect screen
  10. Try to use as less fertilizers as possible as they encourage rapid growth, which results in higher water use. You can also apply fertilizers more frequently and in smaller doses.
Filed Under: Blog Tagged With:

Front yard landscaping tips

January 26, 2011 By

The front yard is another way of saying ‘Welcome to my home!” and it shapes the first impression about your house to a guest or a potential buyer. The most important thing for front landscaping is to choose a design that works well with your house. A traditional house will require a different front yard as compared to a contemporary house.

  • Lawn

The lawn is practically the basis of your creation. If you fail to have a fresh, beautiful lawn and maintain it the same (which requires some attention), everything else can be also considered a failure. Although a healthy green lawn may not stand out to the casual onlooker, a brown unhealthy lawn will.

  • Plants and trees

You can give a friendly look to your front yard by putting some plants and trees. Flowerbeds are great and simple ways to accent your front yard and front porch. They can also be used to underline the sidewalk or the pathway to the door and they look lovely on the porch. Add the trees according to the structure of your house and try not to put too big ones. Fruit trees can a wonderful idea, as they look great when they blossom. Don’t try to save money on trees, as they are a long-term investment.

  • Sideways and driveways

Even though you wouldn’t think so, sideways and driveways leave some room for imagination. Use curves for your sideways and driveways where possible and make a research on the type of materials you can use. They can bring a significant contribution to the entire design. Put some solar lights in the ground to light the way during evenings and always keep them clean and repaired.

  • Buildings: porches and water features

If you are ok with the idea of having a porch, then consider also enhancing its beauty with some potted plants. You can also make your porch more comfortable by adding benches, tables or other accessories. If you can and if they go well with the rest of your property, you can also put some climbing vines.

Be careful with water features. For fountains, ponds or waterfall you have to try to be as discrete as possible. If you are not sure they could make your front yard look better, leave these for the backyard, where it’s safer.

The entire structure of your front yard should be planned according to one simple advice: keep it simple and clean. If the back yard allows some space for creativity and you can mix some different elements, the front yard is the place where your guests are going to be before entering your house. Apart from creating the first impression, no guest will want to feel like in a labyrinth before finding your door.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With:

The benefits of landscaping

January 25, 2011 By

Landscaping refers to improving the features of your home property, both aesthetically and for practical usage. Making your home property look better and useful has lots of benefits-environmental, money saving, health and social benefits -, all of which lead directly to increasing the value of your home. Even though you are not planning to sell your home in the near future, you might want to do it in some years, and starting to improve the property step by step is the best solution, adding to a better lifestyle while still living there. But be careful, because if you will sell your property at some point in the future, you might want to consider landscaping not only accordingly to your own tastes, but also to the potential buyer’s ones.

A beautiful and practical landscape can increase your home value with as much as 15%, and adding patios, hedges or curbs can bring even more value to your property, also managing to find a buyer much faster. Investing? Probably around 5% of the home’s value. So the profit is clear.

Let’s take a look at some factors that improve your property value by landscaping:

  1. Property erosion prevention. Soil erosion can damage the foundation of your house and, in this situation, you might find your basement completely flooded.
  2. Health and social benefits: It’s a known fact that plants improve the quality of the air you breathe. So planting the right trees will certainly improve that, along with reducing the noise pollution. Also, the flow of pollutants to sources of water can be reduced. More over, don’t ignore the psychological advantages: a successful landscape will reduce the stress of your family members through colors, fragrances, nice sounds to enjoy and through exercise by gardening.
  3. Energy costs: you can have lower bills to pay by planting the right trees. When plants are properly selected and placed the results can come in lowering heating and cooling cost by as much as 20%.

Aside these three main advantages of landscaping, add an improved architecture of your house and managing to hide some of the spots a guest can easily see: air conditioners, pool equipment or heat pumps. Don’t you think it’s time for a landscape after seeing all these?

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With:

Preparing your soil for sod installation

January 24, 2011 By

Before installing the sod and enjoying your new lawn, you have to take care of some important factors. Aside choosing the appropriate grass, you have to prepare your soil. Typically, preparing the lawn is the most laborious task in this process and is essential. There’s no time for preparation work once your sod is on location. It has to be put down immediately or it will heat up and rot. These are some important steps to be made in the soil preparation:

  1. Get rid of any existing weeds and grasses and use an herbicide that doesn’t leave a toxic residue.
  2. Water the ground to loosen up the soil.
  3. Make the area ready for cultivation, clearing it of rocks and other types of useless debris like pebbles or sticks. Even small objects can be noticeable as bumps if left under new sod grass. All you need are a couple of shovels (regular and flat), a wheel barrow (for collecting rocks), and a sturdy rake.
  4. Test the soil to determine its pH and to check the exact requirements for lime and fertilizer.
  5. In case the soil needs it so as to change its composition and texture, apply some organic amendments and topsoil. These amendments should be spread evenly over the area and incorporated into the top 4-8 in (102-203 mm) of soil by disking, harrowing, or other means. If topsoil is applied, follow specifications associated with best management practices.
  6. Spread the fertilizer and till the area for the second time. This is usually done a week after the first tilling to allow for decomposition. Also, you can install in this period the sprinkler systems, the sidewalks and other patio surfaces.
  7. Start obtaining the finish grade by raking and dragging the lawn area smooth prior to planting. Make sure all larger pebbles, rocks, sticks and other debris are removed from the lawn and fill or level low spots in order to avoid the accumulation of standing water. Rake or harrow the site to achieve a smooth and level final grade
  8. Now you are ready to install your sod!
Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: ,

Everything you need to know about drip systems

January 21, 2011 By

One popular way of garden irrigation is using drip systems. A drip system is an irrigation method that saves water and fertilizer by allowing water to drip slowly to the roots of plants, either onto the soil surface or directly onto the root zone, through a network of valves, pipes, tubing and emitters. Drip systems take the form of tubes or hoses with small hoses through which water literally drips straight into the soil. Any soil that is not meant to be irrigated practically remains dry, which inhibits the growth of destructive weeds. Another advantage of the drip system is that it is barely noticeable, as they can easily be concealed. But this leads to the problem of not being able to water the leaves, which may be an issue depending on the species of plant.

A drip irrigation system can be hooked up to a watering clock, or electric timer, that will allow it to release water at present times or intervals. The better watering clocks are able to control more than one system so that different areas of the garden can be put on different watering intervals, according to their needs.

Most drip irrigation systems employ some type of filter to prevent clogging of the small emitter flow path by small waterborne particles. New technologies minimize clogging. But some drip systems are installed without additional filters as potable water has already been filtered at the water treatment plant, but is strongly recommended to have filters.

To install a drip irrigation system you’ll need a tape measure, graph paper and the drip irrigation kit. First, you have to measure your garden area and draw a plan of your garden on the graph paper. Also on the graph paper draw how you want your system to run through your garden. After you finish this part you can start installing the system starting from the faucet, preferably before you planted any flowers or vegetables in your garden. You have to make sure you fixed the hose into the ground, to prevent shifting. Now you can install the timer to your system, between the faucet and the irrigation hose, and attach the hose to the faucet. Now you can start watering your garden.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With:

Frequent landscaping mistakes

January 20, 2011 By

The best way to get sure that you will manage to design a beautiful and practical landscape is, in the beginning, to learn what you should avoid. These are the main mistakes that can ruin you landscaping plan:

  • Not making a plan and a budget

The ideal way of landscaping is to start from scratch, draw a plan for the entire yard and try as much as possible to stick to it. Decide on a theme, measure your yard and put everything on paper. Decide even where to put your plants and trees, as all these will prove very useful at a future stage. People usually think landscaping can’t be very expensive, but when you start discovering all the things you can do with the space around your house, you will want it all. Landscaping is expensive if you want to do it right and one of the most expensive parts is the labor cost, respectively the people that will help you build your project, from the architect to the builders, if you don’t want to it entirely alone.

  • Lack of season adjusting

If you invest your money in landscaping your house, than you will also want to enjoy it all year-round. It’s true that spring and summer are usually the most important seasons for staying out and enjoying the house surroundings, but your yard should receive some attention also for autumn and winter. Your home shouldn’t miss out the beautiful autumn colors and you should select plants that look good both in winter and in spring, if possible.

  • Excessive ornamentation or mismatches

Never over-decorate your front yard! Keep it as simple as possible. Any ornament you use should blend into the entire projects design and materials. Choose the colors of your garden wisely and pick the plants so as to match with the colors of your house, but also with architecture. Don’t use too many colors and, as well, try not to exaggerate with strong ones.

  • Irrational irrigation

Install an automatic irrigation system and use the correct amount of water for your plants and lawn. Try to set a system also to avoid water waste.

  • Ignoring light

Estimate the amount of sunshine your plants will receive for it to receive the needed light and not die. A plant that is completely dependent of sun and is planted in the shade, or a shade loving plant put in full sun will look great only for about a week. Also, take into consideration how your garden will look in the evenings, when you might want to spend some time out of the house. Maybe you would like to install in the ground some solar lights that can illuminate during evenings.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With:

Basic facts about sod, advantages and disadvantages

January 19, 2011 By

Here are some basic things about sod you should know before preparing for the installation.

Sod is living turfgrass that has already been planted by seed on a professional farm devoted to this type of crop and then harvested 10 to 18 months by slicing a very thin layer of topsoil, an inch or so. Farmers sow various lawn types or combinations of grasses, such as Kentucky bluegrass or perennial rye grass in large amounts. Sod plants are healthier, as they have been professionally grown. To get strong roots, sod grass has been planted in the best soil, has been regularly fertilized and has enjoyed enough water. The sod with grass and their roots that have the moist soil still on them is further rolled or stacked on the farm and sent for sale to get to the new owner, who will install it.

The main advantages of sod, and here we are talking about a properly installed one, are eliminating many problems related to erosion, mud and dust control, less risk of failure to install it, very fast stabilization and no trouble with weeds, minimizing the future need to use herbicides.

Also, sod can be laid practically any time of the year. Because its roots are developed, sod grass is able to establish itself in prepared soil in almost any season, with the exception that the land is not frozen. And if you are also interested in aesthetics, and you should be, than you need to know that sod makes a denser lawn, as grass plants are sown close together so there are no bare spots.

As for disadvantages, there are also some for sod. For example, the cost, which is higher than seeding, but sometimes the money is worth to pay, or the necessity for irrigation in the early weeks. Also, the need to install it immediately after buying might be a drawback. Never purchase a few squares of sod from a large home and garden store, because there is a great chance that it has been sitting for more than a day, and may not root well.

What should you use it for? A sod prevents the erosion of precious topsoil in lawn areas that are sloppy or hilly, but it’s also useful for the people who want to eliminate mud on new properties. For the owners that already have a lawn, maybe they are considering renovating it, as the grass became thin and it has lots of weeds, or they just need to patch the bare spots in the lawn. For any of these reasons, the sod can prove itself helpful for its rapidity, solid grass and nice aspect.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: ,

How to choose the perfect sod for your lawn

January 18, 2011 By

Having a perfect lawn depends also in the type of grass you choose. The sod you select should be composed of plants adapted to both the site and the intended purpose. Plant breeders have put a lot of effort into developing new and hardier varieties that thrive in different climate, sun, and soil conditions. Some new grasses even resist disease and insect pests. But the main things you should focus on selecting the sod are your local climate, as well as the amount of sunlight your lawn gets.

For example, the Kentucky Bluegrass that is a cool season grass, holds up well to cold winters, but it’s not a preferred grass for hot weather, like St. Augustine or Bermuda. In the case of cool season grasses the most abundant growth occurs in the spring and fall, while during the summer, these grasses may turn brown. On the other hand, in the case of hot season grasses, it’s during the summer that the most vigorous growth happens.

Another factor you should pay extra attention when choosing the type of grass is the amount of sun your lawn is going to enjoy. Most grass species need direct sunlight several hours a day to develop nicely, but you can plant shade-tolerant grasses such as red fescue or tall fescue in the case your yard has lots of trees. If your lawn is completely covered in shade, consider another sort of ground cover.

Choosing the correct type of sod also depends on the amount of water in your area – if it is a drought-prone region or, on the contrary, a wet one -, but take into consideration also how you plan to maintain your lawn and your lifestyle. You can choose between many types of grasses that allow infrequent watering and mowing and there are also some resistant to heavy traffic, in case you have children or dogs.

Another thing worth to remember is that is actually better to buy a blend of more types of grasses so that you can enjoy a beautiful lawn all year round.

In the end, when you enter a shop be careful at these things: sod has to be machine cut at a uniform depth of ½-2 inches, it shouldn’t have been cut in very wet or dry weather, the sections have to be of a standard size and strong enough to support their weight when lifted.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: , ,

How to take care of your sod

January 17, 2011 By

Now that you have your new lawn in place, it’s time for you to enjoy it. Still, to keep it in shape and not to make it a useless investment, you have to take care of it. Here are some practical pieces of advice:

Keep new sod very wet for 10 days to 2 weeks. Keep an eye on the weather and adjust to establish a responsible, efficient watering schedule, checking the water coverage and adjusting the sprinklers. If it’s windy or the weather is hot, water the lawn by hand to help the smoky gray areas that may arise.

After the first week, start stretching out the time between watering so that the roots will grow downward toward the soil moisture. If your sod becomes lighter in color then that means it is needs more water.

Pay extra attention not to ever let your lawn turn yellow. If it gets to this point then you may have to re-sod the yellow area by cutting it out with a flat edged shovel and replacing it with a new patch of sod after you cut it to fit the hole.

For the first 3 weeks, don’t mow the lawn. Keep grass height high for the first few cuttings. Let it reach around 3-4 inches before mowing, take 0.75 inches off the top, wait a few days, and do it again, unless otherwise specified.

Mow when grass blades are dry, then water the grass and make sure you set your mower to the needed height. After one month-one month and a half, your new lawn should be ready for you to start mowing so as to shape its look and control weeds.

Fertilize lightly after the second mowing with a seasonal fertilizer. Apply fertilizer in intervals through the growing season. Follow soil test recommendations when possible, or use the rates associated with the particular area. Fertilize only for greener color and to fill in where grass is damaged.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With:
« Older Posts
Newer Posts »