After 15+ years in our home, we decided it was time to take our already pretty nice backyard and take it to the next level.
August in AZ is the worst time to plant, but such is life. Got most of my new trees planted and been hand watering for a few days while I work on my new irrigation system. Trees are alternating Ebony Flame Crapes, Majestic Ash, Vitex, Red Push Pistache, and Indian Laurel Columns are running around what will be a sports court (still have a few more to plant here). A couple Southern Live Oaks to shade the west side of our house (primary bed/bath).
The old irrigation system was well thought out by the previous owner (a landscape contractor) and functioned well when not chasing leaks in the 25+ year old poly drip lines. But since we ripped the grass out in favor of turf to be good stewards of our water, and since the whole yard is changing, I decided to ditch the old irrigation system and start fresh. Old box in the backyard had 3 sprinkler zones and 3 drip zones. When I dug up the box, I realized I had a pretty impressive leak at one of the male adapters coming out of the valves. It was a MUDDY mess under the box!
Since the trees are planted, I focused on that zone first. I ran a 1" PVC main line all around the perimeter of the yard, and at each tree I tee’d off with a 1/2" PVC line to a drip manifold house inside of a small Carson valve box. Currently I have 4 outlet manifolds, however I might change these out. Not sure I love these Tempo ones I got from my local sprinkler supply store. The smaller trees got 4 2gph emitters, while larger trees got 4 5gph emitters. Ideally, I would have preferred 3-4gph to not make the split between big and little trees so big (8gph total vs. 20gph total), but nobody makes them, and I don’t care for adjustable…hence why I may change out for 6, or even 8 outlet manifolds and just run 2gph on everything and adjust the quantity of emitters based on the tree size. Shrub zone will also have 1" main line, but will branch off in areas to 1/2" poly tubing, and each plant will have 2 1gph emitters for redundancy. My biggest gripe with my old setup was a single emitter per shrub. If the emitter clogged, the plant got ZERO water, and sometimes it too late by the time I found it. With 2, the pant will still survive if I don’t notice or get around to replacing an emitter timely.
New box is all being built using a Dura manifold system which allows easy removal and replacement of components down the road by unscrewing the unions and removing (I’m waiting for a couple more pieces to come in to complete the drip manifold). All valves, filters, and pressure reducers are full 1". All housed in a massive 17x30 Carson valve box. I am also plumbing in a fertilizer injection system that will micro dose a fertilizer (or soil conditioner, or whatever) of my choice each time a zone runs. I will have a zone for my backyard trees, backyard shrubs, a zone dedicated for fruit trees on the perimeter, and a single zone for a small patch of grass in our little tortoise habitat. Plan is to run a fixed schedule for 1 hour morning and mid-late afternoon the first week or so to get past the transplant shock phase, then spread it out to 2 hours every 2-3 days (depending on temps) and run this way for a few weeks to get through the blistering AZ summer heat. Currently everything is watering on the surface, but I do have deep drip spikes that will be pounded into the ground in a few weeks. This should really help get the water to the roots, and the fertilizer!
And Poppy, our “rescued” 40 something year old sulcata tortoise.
