Backflow What would you do if you got up one morning, went to brush your teeth and saw yellow gushy stuff pouring from the faucet? ... More

Backflow As the demand for potable water exceeds supply, the responsibility of the irrigation contractor grows. The contractor must protect public water supplies from contamination. ... More

Backflow For potable water, life is a series of one-way streets. Safe drinking water depends on all “traffic” within a water system to move in the direction it’s supposed to. ... More

Backflow In a California suburb, a man sprayed his lawn with a commercial weed killer that contained an arsenic compound. ... More

Backflow With each passing year, additional criteria are tacked onto the definition of environmental responsibility. Maybe this year it’s the reduction of aerosol, and next year “greenness” is directly proportional to how much money was donated to the Save the Walrus Foundation. ... More

Backflow Backflow preventers are installed in the irrigation system to protect our drinking water, save lives and prevent illness. ... More

Controllers As a landscape pro installing irrigation, you look at water in a different way. Your early morning commute on a warm weather morning might take you past a block of homes where every sprinkler is going full blast. You wince, and two thoughts come to mind. First, those homeowners are wasting water and money. ... More

Controllers Last November, an affluent six-acre gated community received a notification that their water bill would increase by 10 percent every year for the next five years. Located within the lush hills of Thousand Oaks, California, the Trentwood Canyon Homeowners Association realized their annual water bill of $70,000 would double over that period of time. ... More

Controllers Tom Campbell is the owner and operator of Water Scout, a North Bay, California company that specializes in irrigation planning and water auditing. Late last year, one of Campbell’s clients called to explain that he was expanding his property to seven acres and needed professional advice. ... More

Controllers There is an old saying, “In order to know where you’re going, you need to know where you came from.” When it comes to the future of irrigation, it is important to know a bit of history in order to establish where we are today, to see where we’re heading. ... More

Controllers Patrick Crais is the owner of Blue Watch Dog Systems, a San Diego-based water conservation company. Blue Watch Dog works in conjunction with landscape companies, and commercial property owners, to manage water use for residential and commercial sites. “We help solve their customers’ water use problems,” said Crais. ... More

Controllers When they first came on the market, conventional landscape irrigation controllers were a marvelous innovation. Automated watering meant you could set the controller and plants would have plenty of water when they needed it . . . ... More

Controllers It wasn’t so very long ago that the water situation in many states had reached crisis proportions, resulting in the implementation of some of the toughest watering restrictions that had ever been seen. ... More

Controllers IN 1966, A PROFESSIONAL plant pathologist named Walter Cordua created a brand new type of irrigation system for farmers to use to better water their crops. ... More

Controllers It was only a few decades ago that central control systems were expensive and unnervingly complicated. ... More

Controllers THE BASEBALL FIELD AT ROCKFORD High School in Rockford, Minnesota, had been a wasteland for years. The ground was cracked and dry, the surrounding area was practically devoid of grass, and what little grass existed was as shriveled as old husk. ... More

Drip Irrigation - Low Flow How blessed we are to be living in the United States. We are also blessed that our country has always had an abundance of water. So why is it that we are now experiencing water shortages in most parts of our land? ... More

Drip Irrigation - Low Flow The basic concept of dispensing less water in the right place is not new. Farmers centuries ago developed a method of irrigating trees in a desert environment with a minimum amount of water. ... More

Drip Irrigation - Low Flow Drip irrigation systems apply water at low pressure and low volume directly to or near the root zone of plants. Because water is applied slowly, less is lost to runoff and evaporation. ... More

Drip Irrigation - Low Flow THE SUMMERS IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA ARE NO JOKE. The sun pounds the landscape like a hammer, and it’s not unusual for temperatures to reach the ’90s before noon. But the summer of 1999 was particularly brutal. ... More

Drip Irrigation - Low Flow How many of you out there have held onto a truck until it was well passed its prime? The body was probably peppered with dings and dents, and the odometer had so many zeros on it that you got dizzy every time you glanced down to check the mileage. But you held onto it because you were familiar with every creak and squeak the engine made. Even though you knew it was the smart thing to do, you had trouble moving on. ... More

Drip Irrigation - Low Flow “Do you do drip?” This is a question contractors all over the country are hearing more frequently as the demand for drip irrigation continues to grow. ... More

Drip Irrigation - Low Flow When you’ve been a contractor long enough, it may seem like you’ve seen it all. However, sometimes just when you start to feel this way is when you find yourself presented with a truly challenging project. ... More

Drip Irrigation - Low Flow A growing number of property owners and municipalities are waking up to the fact that efficient landscape irrigation can play a major role in water conservation. ... More

Drip Irrigation - Low Flow At the new Wynn Las Vegas resort, the decision was made early on to use synthetic turf in areas where there would be high traffic. Yet the use of that synthetic turf did not eliminate the need for an irrigation system; it just altered the direction the system would take. At the new Wynn Las Vegas resort, the decision was made early on to use synthetic turf in areas where there would be high traffic. Yet the use ... More

Drip Irrigation - Low Flow Drought conditions... Water restrictions... On-going scrutiny over irrigation practices... All have made landscape irrigation professionals’ jobs more challenging and demanding ... More

Miscellaneous Say the word `recycling` and what usually comes to mind is taking aluminum cans. ... More

Miscellaneous Just as the human heart pumps blood through the circulatory system to keep a body healthy, the irrigation pump sends life-sustaining water throughout the sprinkler system to keep the turf and plants healthy. ... More

Miscellaneous If you’re looking to hire an irrigation service technician, what qualifications would you list in the job description? ... More

Miscellaneous Water harvesting isn’t a new idea. For centuries, it has been relied upon to supply water for households and other uses. ... More

Miscellaneous WHEN I LIVED IN upstate New York, I hated winter and everything that went along with it. Having to protect my body from the freezing cold with boots, gloves and heavy sweaters put a strain on my already tight budget. ... More

Miscellaneous The more important question to ask is Why would you care about a new irrigation system if the one you´ve been installing since you first started your business works just fine? ... More

Miscellaneous How many times have you driven down the street or on the Interstate in the pouring rain and noticed that sprinklers are putting down even more water? While Mother Nature is doing her work by quenching the thirsty soil, the automatic sprinklers are running . . . and wasting water. ... More

Miscellaneous PICTURE YOURSELF IN A UTOPIAN WORLD. Lush, cool, sparkling water everywhere. Always clear, always clean, always cared for. ... More

Miscellaneous With water an increasingly scarce and valuable resource, it’s more important than ever for landscape irrigation designs to include efficiencies in every component of the system—including the pumping equipment. ... More

Miscellaneous Water budgeting is a valuable tool to further water conservation efforts. It has been gaining in popularity for the last 15 years or so. ... More

Pipe & Fittings There is no better feeling than seeing the happy expressions on your clients’ faces as they stand back and take in the exquisite landscape that you and your crew just installed. ... More

Pipe & Fittings In the medieval Europe, blue and purple dyes were rare and expensive, so only the most wealthy or the aristocracy could afford to wear them. ... More

Pipe & Fittings Using a gauge provides us with a measure of pressure in the system. Generally, we expect to see a steady reading, but what does the gauge with a pointer that is unsteady mean? ... More

Pipe & Fittings TENS OF THOUSANDS OF IRRIGATION systems that have been designed and built with PVC pipe and fittings perform satisfactorily, while a very small percentage run into problems. ... More

Pipe & Fittings YOU’VE JUST COMPLETED A PROJect that included weeks of planting. As you close the last door on the work trailer you notice water bubbling out of the ground and running along the curb. A moment of panic sets in. What do you do now? ... More

Pipe & Fittings In the world of landscape maintenance, the contractor rarely gets an epiphany. But that’s what happened to Anthony Reynoso the first time he used a new brand of flexible pipe. ... More

Pipe & Fittings Have you tapped into the possibilities that expanding your landscape-only (or -mostly) business may be hiding? Well, there are a variety of ways that can add some oomph to your income statement by paying more attention to the H2O at your client’s site. ... More

Pipe & Fittings Some landscape contractors are wary of installing irrigation systems. However, more and more clients are demanding that they deal with one contractor who will be responsible for the whole project. ... More

Sprinklers Pondless Waterfall Vault Aquascape introduces its Pondless Waterfall Vault, designed for small to midsized waterfall projects. The unit handles pumps up to 12,500 gph and provides efficient water circulation through horizontal and vertical water intakes. ... More

Sprinklers Can finding the right sprinkler head leave you as perplexed as Ponce De Leon on his quest for the Fountain of Youth? If you have a lot of confusion distinguishing one type of sprinkler head from another, or figuring out which applications will best serve your needs on a specific project then read on. ... More

Sprinklers Spring is here and the season is beginning. What are you doing to jump-start your business? Are you thinking to yourself, “What can I do to generate more revenue? ... More

Sprinklers When landscape professionals think about designing an irrigation system, most minds wander immediately to spray patterns, drip hoses, timers and installation. But success is shortlived with most irrigation systems without good filtration to safeguard the components and help ensure reliability. ... More

Sprinklers WITH WATER SHORTAGES BECOMING MORE PREVALENT AND restrictions looming, municipalites, communities, school districts and property owners are seeking ways to conserve water. ... More

Sprinklers It's no mass government conspiracy that the availability of fresh water is decreasing every day, while populations continue to rise along with the demand for water. It's not as if there are more freshwater sources today than there were a million years ago -there aren't any new ones to tap into. Some scientists predict that by the year 2050, more than one billion people in Asia alone could face massive water shortages. ... More

Sprinklers Glen Graye knows a thing or two about lawn irrigation. He should. Growing up as part of the Melnor family, known for its portable lawn sprinklers... ... More

Sprinklers No two snowflakes are alike, everybody has their own unique fingerprint, and no set head spacing fits all lawns. ... More

Valves A little over a year ago, I noticed that our backyard lawn was turning brown even though we had an automatic sprinkler system. I called in a landscape contractor to find out what was wrong. He discovered that the irrigation system was not working. ... More

Valves WHILE TAKING A WALK IN MY NEIGH borhood one day I noticed that water was spewing out from everywhere at a nearby home, or at least it seemed that way. Upon closer inspection it appeared that the valves that service the irrigation system were damaged, causing this mess. ... More

Valves A POND OR WATER FEATURE CAN be a striking addition to any landscape. It can be sized to fit both the smallest lot and the smallest budget, or built to dwarf an average swimming pool. The problem with ponds is that they're sometimes put in the wrong location. ... More

Valves ADD THE SOUND AND BEAUTY OF A WATER GARDEN TO YOUR FRONT PORCH by creating your own mini water feature. ... More

Valves Installing valves and valve boxes can be as routine as pouring another cup of coffee on the way to your truck. But as routine as this task has become, how you do it says a lot about you and your company. ... More

Valves Technology has evolved rather quickly in the last twenty years. Many of us cannot imagine a world without computers, compact disc players and cell phones, but in the world of irrigation, technology moves at a different pace. ... More

Valves To experienced irrigation contractors, installing electric valves is like driving – you can do it almost automatically, without thinking. This can make it difficult to explain to a novice; however, by following the installation steps properly when installing an irrigation system, one will avoid inevitable problems and service calls in the future. ... More

Valves Controllers are the brains of an irrigation system, but the heart of the system is the most unglamorous element ? the valve. ... More

Valves After establishing a budget, you can pick the proper components. Choose either a pre-packaged kit or customized kit. ... More