Watering via lawn sprinklers

I am putting a new SFG where my lawn used to be, and I figure I might as well make use of the sprinklers since they're already there (and I'm not the most reliable about remembering to water by hand). I searched and found a few people who mentioned in passing that they do this. Any tips on how often/long to run them? Do you find that it gets the job done or do you have to supplement with other methods?

thanks,

janine

Janine, Hi from the Southern Oregon Coast!

I personally, would be extra careful trying to water my SFG with a lawn sprinkler, especially when you have new seeds, seedlings and transplants. It would be easy for the sprinkler to wash those new little babies right out of the Mel's Mix.

I can only go by my own experience and my sprinkler system, which has only two spray heads. It has a pretty forceful spray in order for it to cross the 25 feet from each side to reach the middle of my front yard. Perhaps if your sprinkler system has lots of heads on it, the spray won't be so hard.

There is also the concern that some plants prefer not to get their leaves wet, and can develope viral and fungal diseases.

Since we typically have such dry summers out here (at least it is usually dry from June until September) you would probably need to water pretty frequently. Last summer I used a soaker type hose and had to water the garden about every other day, and occaisionally, every day. Not that it was hot, but because we have so much wind on the coast, the soil dried out easily.

Here are a couple of links that may help you determine how much water is needed and how to get the desired amount of water on the garden.

Water

OSU Extension Water Info

I have always used automatic sprinklers and have had great success. The sprinklers for the garden are all one segment so I did set that segment to water more often in the summer than the rest of the lawn. Otherwise it would simply dry out. It was set to water at midnight and I had no significant problems as a result. I am in very dry and hot and perpetually sunny socal so your mileage may vary.