My backyard slopes away from the house. It drops about 2.5’ over the course of 30’. I have Rupturewort planted which is a very drought tolerant ground cover.
The irrigation is split into four zones which are in stripes across the back yard. You could think of the zones being in a “terraced” configuration to visualize the layout, but the slope is continuous from the house to the fence.
I have configured those four zones as “Warm season grass” with “Fixed spray head” nozzles. The ground type is probably most accurately described as Sandy Loam or Loamy Sand. I am trying to create a single “Flex Daily” schedule for all four zones but there does not seem to be a way to tell the Rachio that those four zones are “layered” on top of each other.
Even if I set the slope to “Steep” and the soil type to “Clay”, the rachio wants to water each of those zones for at least 30 minutes at a time. This results in major runoff as the water from each higher zone flows over the zones below it.
Rupturewort typically has 8" to 10" roots so it likes to be watered deeply but infrequently.
First off, don’t use flex and instead use fixed especially because of the slope and fact that these zones are feeding drought tolerant ground cover. Now you can control duration of each layered zone and not waste water pooling at the bottom of your slope.
I would also consider changing your sprinkler heads to rotor heads for 2 of the 4 layered zones beginning with the one at the bottom of the slope assuming heads can point to top of slope and reach the zones plants closest to your house. The other two zones maybe consider bible heads and create some sort of burm border to trap the water if the plants/ground cover don’t dam the water naturally. I’m commenting without having a true visual of course. Not sure how many heads you have per zone but physically changing heads could really help.
Other option is to set up multiple watering schedules to flash feed the ground cover. Kind of hard to expect to hit roots in one duration when you’re on a slope.
I have a 30 ft slope that runs about 20 ft in length with big agaves and ground cover. I put bubbler heads on my agave for 8 min every 2 days in summer and once per week in winter. Those same zones have rotor sprays hitting my ground cover on same schedule…everything thrives and roots may not be as deep as yours but feeding is adequate with a huge slope! Key is my schedules are FIXED not flex. Flex would provide seasonal suggestions which is cool, but for drought tolerant plants…not necessary
