How an in-ground irrigation system works

Most commercial and residential irrigation systems are “in ground” systems, which means that everything is buried in the ground. With the pipes, sprinklers, emitters (drippers), and irrigation valves being hidden, it makes for a cleaner, more presentable landscape without garden hoses or other items having to be moved around manually. This does, however, create some drawbacks in the maintenance of a completely buried system.

Controllers, zones, and valves

Most irrigation systems are divided into zones. A zone is a single irrigation valve and one or a group of drippers or sprinklers that are connected by pipes or tubes. Irrigation systems are divided into zones because there is usually not enough pressure and available flow to run sprinklers for an entire yard or sports field at once. Each zone has a solenoid valve on it that is controlled via wire by an irrigation controller. The irrigation controller is either a mechanical (now the “dinosaur” type) or electrical device that signals a zone to turn on at a specific time and keeps it on for a specified amount of time. “Smart Controller” is a recent term used to describe a controller that is capable of adjusting the watering time by itself in response to current environmental conditions. The smart controller determines current conditions by means of historic weather data for the local area, a soil moisture sensors (water potential or water content), rain sensor, or in more sophisticated systems satellite feed weather station, or a combination of these.

Emitters and sprinklers

When a zone comes on, the water flows through the lateral lines and ultimately ends up at the irrigation emitter (drip) or sprinkler heads. Many sprinklers have pipe thread inlets on the bottom of them which allows a fitting and the pipe to be attached to them. The sprinklers are usually installed with the top of the head flush with the ground surface. When the water is pressurized, the head will pop up out of the ground and water the desired area until the valve closes and shuts off that zone. Once there is no more water pressure in the lateral line, the sprinkler head will retract back into the ground. Emitters are generally laid on the soil surface or buried a few inches to reduce evaporation losses.

2. Sure, the view from the street is important, but don’t forget to look at your landscape from inside the house. If you have a room with a big window, make sure it looks good from there too.

3. Don’t fill every inch of your space with plants and flowers. By next spring, you’ll have a weeding and pruning nightmare.

4. That “pretty” red mulch you love? Be careful what you buy, come have been found to contain arsenic and other harsh chemicals that can be harmful to children and pets and can contaminate your soil.

5. Hate bagging leaves? You don’t have to. If there’s just a light layer, go over them with your mower and leave them on your lawn. As they break down, they’ll help limit weeds from popping up.

6. You can send a sample of your soil to a local agricultural agency to have it tested. Dig down six to seven inches deep and then gather two cups of dirt into sample bags. Mail them off to find out what nutrients you need.

7. If you find a flower you like, always buy more than one. Plant clumps of species in odd numbers, such as five or seven in one area, or repeat the groupings throughout your landscape for a unifying effect.

8. Do-it-yourself landscapers tend to make their planting beds too narrow and too close to the house. You want to extend your beds out at least one to two thirds of the house’s height, if not more.

9. Laying weed fabric is generally a waste of money and time for the long term; weeds just grow on top of it

10. In general, well-irrigated and older lawns need less fertilizer.

11. Watch out for a gorgeous plant called purple loosestrife, or Lythrum salicaria, which a lot of nurseries still sell. Though it’s inexpensive and has a lovely flower, it’s an invasive species that will spread everywhere and choke out other plants.

12. Looking at a color wheel is a great way to choose garden flowers. Colors that are opposite each other, like yellow and purple, look beautiful together.

● Pruning subshrubs is a risky business. Lavender, artemisia, Russian and culinary sage, and butterfly bush (buddliea) are part woody plant and part perennial. Spring pruning makes them stronger and shapelier, but they should not be cut back to the ground.

Like those arbs, they only grow from live wood (not from the roots).

● Keep in mind bloom times.

Prune spring-bloomers right after they’ve finished flowering. Last season’s wood has gone sterile. Late blooming trees and shrubs (e.g., most viburnums, dogwoods and hydrangeas) can be pruned now. Clematis species are pruned according to the same basic principle, and each has its own schedule.

● If you can find a garden center that’s open, it would not be insane to bring home a few pansies. These annuals prefer cooler weather.

Snapdragons are excellent early and late in the season, too.

● Don’t bring flats of seedlings you grew under lights in the basement outdoors yet. They need to adapt gradually. This is called hardening off. It will take two weeks of slowly lengthening outdoor exposure to toughen them.

● Winter seedlings (those grown in a cold frame or plastic jug outdoors from seed sown a month ago) are just beginning to show some green.

● Houseplants need a bit of fertilizer to jump start their big spring growth spurt. But don’t overdo it. If you want them to love you forever, replant them in fresh soil and a bigger pot.

● Be thinking about applying your early spring crabgrass preventer to give your lawn a healthy start.
Give a call and we can get you started!

2. Enjoy your spring blooming bulbs, such as tulips and daffodils. When they are done blooming, don’t prune back that foliage as it is supplying the bulb with nutrients for next years bloom. Let them naturally turn yellow, and then remove the foliage.

3. Spring blooming shrubs will benefit from a pruning AFTER they are done blooming. This includes plants such as lilacs, spring flowering spirea and mockorange.

4. Early in May you still have time to plant cool season vegetables, such as lettuce, radishes, peas and spinach. Wait until later in the month for the warm season vegetables like tomatoes, peppers and beans. When the soils have warmed up, it is time to get them in the ground.  If you are an apartment dweller, don’t despair! Many vegetables will grow beautifully in containers on your deck – make sure you get 8 hours of sunlight a day, and have fun creating your vegetable containers!

5. After your fruit trees have bloomed, you will want to start a program of preventive spraying that includes both a fungicide and an insecticide. Call us to set up a program for your lawn or we can give you some good suggestions as to what product to use through our do it yourself program.  We even have organic solutions for those that are so inclined.

6. It’s a great time to plant trees, shrubs, evergreens and roses. If you are looking for spring blooming plants, you’ll find them blooming in the garden center and you’ll be able to observe the flowers first hand (and check for the fragrance too!). Before you plant – know your soil type! Don’t be afraid to bring a sample of the soil from your yard into the garden center and the professionals can help you select plants that will thrive in your soil type.

a. It allows you to turn otherwise unusable sunny areas into growing space.

b. Rain gutters are inexpensive, readily available, and come in a range of edible garden-friendly materials, including copper, plastic, and aluminum.

c. Some of the best kitchen garden crops grow well in shallow containers, including lettuce, spinach, mache, herbs, and strawberries. Scallions, radishes, beets, and round carrots like ‘Parmex’ can also be grown in gutter gardens.

d. The gutters are hung up off the ground, which helps protect crops from rabbits, groundhogs, and other garden creatures that like to nibble on salad greens.

e. The gardens can be positioned at a height that makes them accessible to all people.

This outstanding scenic drive through south-central Idaho climbs more than 5,000 vertical feet (1,524 vertical meters) from a desert canyon near Boise into the rugged, spectacular mountain terrain of the Sawtooth National Recreation Area. In the Sawtooths you can hike, fish, paddle white water on the Salmon River, check out a ghost town, and watch for elk, bighorn sheep, and mountain goats. Not surprisingly, this striking mountain landscape was a favorite playground of Ernest Hemingway, who is buried in the area.

Overview
Sights along this exceptionally scenic route of some 260 miles (418 kilometers) include an 1860s gold-mining town, a seductive natural hot spring, the ski towns of Ketchum and Sun Valley, a world-renowned trout stream, and lava tube caves.

Start in Boise
An old mining center and military outpost during the Idaho gold rush days of the 1860s and ’70s, Boise today is the state capital, a university town, and home to most of Idaho’s museums. Must-sees include the Idaho State Historical Museum, with exhibits on the state’s history from prehistoric times to the fur trade to the present; the imaginative Morrison Knudsen Nature Center, for a close look at trout and their environment; and the World Center for Birds of Prey, which runs captive breeding programs for endangered raptors all over the world, including its own stable of Harpy eagles, California condors, and peregrine falcons.

Idaho City
From Boise, follow Idaho Rte. 21 east-northeast past Lucky Peak Lake, climbing through desert hills into the mountains. As you leave the sagebrush behind for cooler surroundings, the grass thickens and ponderosa pines gather. You’ll know you’re approaching the 1860s gold-rush town of Idaho City when the ground levels off and heaps of white cobblestones appear—leavings of gold dredges that worked the creek bed in the 1890s. Gold was discovered in Idaho City is 1862 and drew a swarm of miners. Many of the city’s 19th-century buildings have been repurposed into homes, restaurants, and shops.

Kirkham Hot Springs
Continuing northeast on Rte. 21, you’ll pass through Boise National Forest, where roadside exhibits explain what you’ll see around you: little forest canopy, the result of the 1989 Lowman fire. A few miles farther sit Kirkham Hot Springs, among the state’s best natural hot springs, which cascade over low cliffs into a series of pools—a beautiful spot for a soak.

Sawtooth National Recreation Area
Nicely relaxed, climb Rte. 21 through evergreen forests to 7,056-foot (2,151-meter)-high Banner Summit. Here the terrain flattens and broad meadows push back the forests. Look for elk, deer, coyotes, and hawks as you glide into the northern fringes of the Sawtooth National Recreation Area. This sprawling preserve encompasses four mountain ranges, several large lakes, the Salmon River headwaters, and dozens of hot springs. It’s the sort of place that begs you to pull over, lock the car, and put some ground under your feet or a trout stream around your knees. At its scenic heart stands the splintering crest of the Sawtooth Range, a chaos of crags, razorback ridges, and small alpine lakes that extends south for 30 miles (48 kilometers). For a terrific view of its jagged northern edge rising over a wetland meadow, stop at the Park Creek Overlook.

Stanley
Drive on to Stanley, an outfitting center at the base of the peaks. You’ll be leaving Rte. 21 for Rte. 75 south, and the approaching plunge into the Salmon River’s first chasm. The road pitches down a forested gorge studded with granite outcroppings and follows the swift, clean Salmon as it drops 15 feet (five meters) to the mile. Along here is Sunbeam Hot Springs, which burbles over the rocks. At the crossroad town of Sunbeam, pause at the dynamited remains of the only dam ever built on the Salmon. Here the river stalls out in emerald pools warm enough for a summer swim.

Redfish Lake
Continue on Rte. 75 into the Sawtooth Valley, a broad tongue of prairie that cradles the Salmon River and stretches between the Sawtooths and the foothills of the White Cloud Peaks. The bony pinnacles of the Sawtooths, which reach a height of 10,000 feet (3,048 meters), may seem remote, but trails put you into their heart. Follow signs to Redfish Lake Visitor Center, a rustic stone building with a stunning view of Redfish Lake, the largest of the recreation area’s 300-plus lakes. Ringed with beaches and lodgepole-pine forests, the lake is almost overwhelmed by two massive, fractured peaks rising abruptly from its turquoise waters. Stop in Redfish Lake Lodge for some smoked salmon with red potato chowder—the lodge also offers guest rooms, a marina, and sunset boat cruises—then head over to another lake highlight.

Sawtooth Hatchery
Redfish Lake takes its name from the thousands of sockeye salmon that once spawned here. Today Chinook salmon and steelhead live on the brink of extinction, due largely to a series of dams on the Columbia and Snake Rivers. Track the decline of these fish and learn about attempts to revive their spawning runs at the Sawtooth Hatchery, which raises steelhead trout and Chinook salmon.

Ketchum
Head south across the valley and climb 2,000 feet (610 meters) to the Galena Overlook, which offers an expansive vista of the mountains. Just beyond the overlook you top Galena Summit (8,701 feet/2,652 meters) and tilt down into the Big Wood River Valley. The Big Wood River, heartbreakingly beautiful, winds through increasingly arid foothills on its way to Ketchum. Miners mobbed the valley during the 1880s, and the gold, silver, and lead they hauled out of the mountains built the town of Ketchum. The town nose-dived after the silver market collapsed in 1894 and remained relatively depressed until the 1930s, when Union Pacific Railroad chairman Averell Harriman (later governor of New York) built the Sun Valley Resort. Today Ketchum is a fairly typical Western ski town crowded with gift shops, art galleries, boutiques, restaurants, and expensive houses sprawling up the valley. Check out the Ketchum Sun Valley Historical Society Heritage and Ski Museum, which gives a general rundown on the valley’s history, from mining to ski resort, and offers a walking-tour brochure. Then strap on your in-line skates (or sneakers) and explore Ketchum’s extensive system of paved pathways.

End at Sun Valley Resort
Finally, drive over to “America’s original ski resort,” Sun Valley Resort, which was created to bring the allure of European ski resorts to the U.S. and boasts a 1936 lodge that hosted stars from Clark Gable to Errol Flynn. Roam the resort’s highbrow shops and admire the upscale vacation houses, keeping an eye out for such present-day glitterati as Demi Moore and Clint Eastwood. Then pay your respects to one of the first celebrities to recognize this special corner of Idaho: Ernest Hemingway. The writer’s grave, inscribed “Ernest Miller Hemingway, July 21, 1899-July 2, 1961,” sits in the Ketchum Cemetery; a Hemingway Memorial, a small bust of the writer, sits tucked into the cottonwoods along Trail Creek, as simple and natural as the writer himself.