One of the things that make a perfect lawn is the correct and effective watering system.
It is essential to make sure that your plants and your lawn grass are not dying of dehydration. You have to give them enough water at the right time so they can grow to their fullest.
An effective irrigation system can make your lawn or your garden look fresher and more alive.
Now there are several types of Lawn Irrigation System like Sprinklers, Drip emitters, and Soaker Hoses. It is confusing to choose between them because every system has its advantages.
To help you choose here, I am telling you all the details about the Lawn Irrigation System and a comparison between them so you can find the perfect one for your lawn.
Types of Lawn Irrigation System
There are many types of Irrigation systems. Here we are going to talk about the three most used types of Irrigation systems for your lawn.
Soaker Hose Lawn Irrigation System
A soaker hose typically stays on the ground and waters from the tiny holes. It is like an ordinary hose, but with tine holes in it, you place it on the ground alongside the roots of plants that you want to water. It connects with a water source and gives water smoothly to the plant’s roots.
You can bury it alongside your plants to give deep watering to the plants that have deep roots but sometimes can’t get enough water because of soil’s less soaking ability.
In this type of lawn irrigation system, water doesn’t get vaporized, and it only gives water where it is needed, so less wastage of water.
This is an excellent way of watering the plants and vegetables that need constant and proper watering. You can connect several hoses to create a network well enough to water every plant in your garden.
The downside is that It doesn’t work well in the uphill situation. If you use a larger hose, then the pressure of the water may be less at the end of it.
Sprinkler Lawn Irrigation System
A nozzle connected to a pipe sprays pressurized water in the air. It comes in different spray patterns and coverage that you can choose according to your needs. It gives you the advantage of watering your whole lawn.
It waters more evenly than the other irrigation systems, and your whole lawn gets even watering.
It is most effective in larger areas where other irrigation systems can not quite do the proper watering. With a sprinkler lawn irrigation system, you can adjust it to spray in fixed or different directions. You can adjust the pressure to cover more or less ground.
You have to set time, the spray pattern, and the location of the sprinkler in the right place and an automatic sprinkler system will water-up your lawn by itself.
You can choose to have a pop-up sprinkler that only comes out when it is activated and goes back to its normal surface after watering your lawn. With this sprinkler, you won’t have to worry about doing Lawn mowing and breaking your sprinkler system.
The sprinkler system sprays the water in the air, so some of it gets vaporized, and sometimes it gives water to whare it isn’t needed. This results in water wastage. The heat from the sun and wind also plays a role in water wastage by sprinklers.
But it can be useful if you use it correctly like, activate it in the morning when heat and wind are low.
Drip Lawn Irrigation System
It is known as the most water-efficient Lawn irrigation system. Small Emitters are dropping a small amount of water slowly and directly to the roots of the plant. So the leaf of the plant doesn’t get wet, and that is useful in avoiding weeds and fungus.
It is useful for vegetable plants and flowers because they need to avoid the fungus to grow properly. It is suitable for a garden where the plants are placed in a row system. You can set the emitters alongside the hoses, or you can set up separate emitters for different plants.
This irrigation system is getting famous over-time because of the small amount of water given directly where it is needed it saves from water vaporization.
The main problem with this lawn irrigation system is that with time, its tubes or emitters get blocked because of the minerals or other substances around it. You have to take care of clogging from time to time.
Drip Irrigation saves from water wastage and gives the soil to soak the water over-time. It is very easy to install and maintain this system.
Drip Irrigation vs. Sprinkler System vs. Soaker Hoses
All of the systems have their pros and cons, and we are going to compare them on some points to see which one is going to do better work for your lawn.
Water-Efficiency
In Drip irrigation, there is almost no chance of wasting water because it only gives water to the roots and in a small amount, so you don’t need a huge source of water for watering your plants. This irrigation system eliminates the possibility of overwatering.
Soaker hoses also have less chance of wasting water due to their placement alongside the plants. This system only gives water, where is it is needed. By burying the hoses under your plants, you can erase any chance of under watering and wastage of water.
Sprinkler systems are not so good with this department as they spray across your lawn, and they need a complete water pipeline as a source of water. Sometimes it sprays where it is not supposed to give. Sprays tend to vaporize from the heat. It is also affected by the wind, and it can interfere with the distribution of water across your lawn.
But this does not mean that sprinklers are ultimate water wasting tools.
Ground Coverage
Now Sprinklers have a massive ground coverage advantage because of their spray and pressured water. A sprinkler system that is placed in the right place can water-up your whole lawn more efficiently and comfortably than any other irrigation system. There are Moving Sprinkler systems that can travel alongside your hose and cover a lot of ground.
It is more useful in large lawns then the other systems.
In sprinkler irrigation, you have the option to choose between a fixed spray or moving spray, where you can set the right pattern according to your lawn’s shape and size to ensure that your whole yard gets the correct and even watering.
With Drip irrigation, you can water your plants and vegetables more efficiently, but it cannot water-up your whole lawn if you have a large lawn. You can set a network to cover more ground, but it won’t be sufficient for your lawn.
You can adjust your soaker hose to give water to your lawn as well as the plants, but it is not very efficient, and it will take more time and effort to water a garden. If you create a more extensive hose network, then the pressure of water won’t be hard enough to reach the whole lawn.
Types of Plants
If you are looking for an irrigation system that can give water to your vegetables and flowers, only, then Drip irrigation is the perfect choice for it. Drip irrigation allows the fertilizers to work better with slow water flow and the right amount of water at the right timing.
But if you want to wet your entire lawn along with all the plants and vegetables and flowers, Sprinklers can do it. Sprinklers have the advantage of reach so they can water-up every corner of the lawn from lawn grass to small plants and vegetables.
Soaker Hoses are perfect for small plants, shrubs, and trees. You can lay it down alongside them for watering.
Installation and Maintenance
Drip irrigation takes a minimal effort in installing. You can establish a whole network of Drip emitters across your lawn, or you can set them separately as per your wishes. Other than clogging and heat, there is no major trouble you are going to get from the drip emitters.
You can put mulch around your emitters and save it from the heat, and using clean filtered water will result in less clogging. You do, from time to time, cleaning drip emitters will keep working fine.
The correct installation of the Sprinkler system is crucial for even and proper watering, so you may want to consider planning it with the advice from an export. Place them around somewhere you don’t have any foot traffic and other gardening work. You will need time to time maintenance, and it doesn’t need a lot of effort.
Soaker Hoses are remarkably less costly and easy to install and use. They don’t need much maintenance and monitoring to work correctly. They are usually made of rubber that can turn weak and useless over-time, but you have to do some checking and replacement, and they will give you the best results.
Weeds and Fungus
Drip emitters water only roots that give less chance to weeds and fungus to grow. Not making the leaf of the plant wet gives These emitters the ability to avoid fungus. The weeds don’t get enough water to survive because of the emitter’s ability to provide water where it is needed.
Sprinklers Spray upon every corner of your lawn. That is why weeds have the same chances of surviving as the plants. The spray sometimes causes over-watering, and it results in some plants growing fungus over-time.
Soakers hoses keep the foliage dry, which means fewer chances of a fungus destroying your precious plants.
In The End
I want to tell you that lawn irrigation is essential to keep your lawn as good as it is. All of the systems have their ups and downs like a drip emitter may be the savior of your garden’s plants and vegetables where a sprinkler is a lawn guardian, and the Soaker hose takes care of the trees and shrubs.
It is all about what your lawn needs.
Well, You have seen all the types and comparison of Irrigation systems, now you can find the right one as per your lawn’s needs. Maybe you can use all of them to make sure you are not leaving any corner of your lawn alone.
Let me know if I helped you make the right choice.