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Jessica Schwartz
Three Essential Irrigation Trends
Two-wire, battery power, and smart tech are taking control in landscape irrigation. Here’s what you need to know. Level up your customers’ irrigation systems and give yourself a competitive advantage by learning about the latest trends and top-selling products. These recommendations will not only help grow your business, but also help you tackle the challenges of meeting evolving state and national water use restrictions. Increasingly, customers are asking about product options that conserve energy and save money. Read on to learn three innovative ways to achieve your customers’ irrigation goals. Two-Wire Controllers The basic concept of a two-wire controller is that it uses a single two-wire path to communicate to a decoder or output device. It then uses the same wire to provide power to each zone valve through the solenoid. While a traditional controller is a reliable and tested irrigation method, there are several reasons you might consider two-wire for your next install. Traditional controller set-ups can use a lot of wire. Because a dedicated wire and common wire are required for each zone or control valve, this can quickly add up—especially in larger systems. Two-wire can actually use up to 70% less wire than traditional systems, depending on coverage area. This could mean lower installation and material costs for the same design and performance. Longer wire runs can also be achieved with a two-wire arrangement. If your installation has zone valves a significant distance from the controller, rather than upsizing the station wire to a larger gauge, ...
Stormwater Management For Landscapers
Drainage solutions for water-logged properties. Whether it’s a standalone project or integrated into a larger job, property drainage is an important, yet often overlooked aspect affecting most, if not all, properties. With all the new construction taking place, topography is constantly being altered. This affects not only the property under construction, but usually has secondary consequences—including runoff and drainage issues—for surrounding properties as well. Effective stormwater drainage systems either facilitate water flow to lower elevations or allow for corrective grading. Since each property is unique, I first perform a property evaluation to examine its available elevation, soil conditions, typical influx of water volume, and traffic. These factors affect the depth, diameter, thickness, and composition of the pipe that can be utilized. They also affect the type of soil separator and gravel that can be used. Described below are details on several different property drainage solutions. I’ve also included a simple calculation used to determine the gallon capacity when estimating construction of a dry well. Property Drainage Systems Does the property have soggy areas or pooling during or after rains? These are typically the most common problems encountered. Poor drainage areas that result in these issues are typically best resolved by installing plastic drain boxes, cap surface drains, or larger capacity concrete catch basins with lift-off iron frame and grate. Appropriately sized underground drainage lines, usually PVC, are also installed, and connected to drain boxes or surface drains. These lines allow water to run downhill to a lower elevation. Drainage ...
Water Harvesting To Irrigate Landscapes
Rain water, gray water, and blackwater systems can aid arid areas. Reducing the amount of water used for landscape irrigation is challenging, yet extremely important to the drought affected areas of the U.S. Landscape watering needs within the U.S. vary greatly based on many different factors: local climate, soil conditions, native plants, plant selection, and micro-climates on the site. In many locales, rainfall can be nature’s irrigation system, while in drought affected areas precious potable water provides most of the source for landscape irrigation. Yet even with these differences, saving water is very possible. In most cases, simple changes can result in water savings between 10% to 20%. By reusing water, savings of 50% to 100% are achievable. First Steps The first step in saving water is maximizing the efficiency of the irrigation system. Once that is accomplished, incorporating a water reuse system (i.e., rain water harvesting, gray water, or blackwater) makes sense. (Efficient irrigation systems will obviously reduce the cost of any new water-reuse systems.) Irrigation System Efficiency. Obvious simple system fixes such as addressing leaks, adjusting heads to not over- or under-spray, getting the controller set right, adding a rain sensor, and upgrading the controller to an EPA WaterSense weather-based model will result in a reduced water bill and a less costly water reuse system. The EPA provides a water budgeting tool which is handy when determining how much water should be applied to a landscape. It can be found at epa.gov/watersense/water-budget-tool. Soil & Mulch. Another step to ...
The Drought-Wise Landscaper
Strategies from a California landscaper and irrigation expert. For the third time in the state’s history, California is facing a water crisis that reaches far beyond a solitary dry spell. Now in its fourth straight year, this ongoing drought is forcing the California Department of Water Resources to declare a state of emergency in many areas of the state. The deterioration of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, state water cutbacks, decreased snowfall, and climate change are contributing to a situation that threatens the very quality of life of Californians. The projected outlook also remains bleak when population growth is taken into account. According to the Association of California Water Agencies, “state officials recently projected that California’s population will reach 50 million by 2032 and 60 million by 2050.” This will create a huge strain on the state’s already taxed water supply system. Of course, one has only to read the news to know many other states are also facing ongoing water shortages. Fertigation In the face of such a seemingly insurmountable problem and accompanying water restrictions, landscaping becomes an easy target, leaving many to wonder what the future will look like for an industry so intimately tied to water-use. Yet a major solution may lie in fertigation, or fertilizing a yard through the irrigation system. The practice has historically been used almost exclusively at large commercial establishments such as golf courses and nurseries. But at my CA-based landscape firm, CK Water Systems and Landscape Development, I make fertigation systems available to ...
Soil Sustainability: Yard Waste Recycling
Bill Adams, Jr., owner of Southern Landscape Pros in Willow Spring, NC, has always loved the outdoors. “Even as a kid, it seemed like I always had a shovel in my hand, ready to help my grandma in her garden or in the yard,” he recalls. “I really value those memories, along with the strong work ethic and determination that came from doing jobs outside.” Adams started a mowing business at just 15-years-old which further solidified his love of the industry. “That was a really formative time in my life,” he says. “ has long felt like something I was always meant to do.” Earning a Horticultural Science degree at NC State University led to a deeper interest in biology, ecology, and plant production. With this education and experience, Adams started Southern Landscape Pros in 1987. The company was focused on lawn care and maintenance, but demand soon increased. “It seemed like more and more of my customers were asking for landscape installation services, mulch, specific plants, you name it,” he says. “I saw this opportunity to really become a full-service, one-stop solution.” From Refuse To Recycled As Adams’ business and services grew to include hardscape, water gardens, and planting beds, so did the amount of job site debris. “The landscape industry generates a lot of natural refuse—grass clippings, organic debris, prunings from shrubs and trees,” explains Adams. “All of that debris has to go somewhere, and in a lot of cases, that somewhere is the area landfill.” Adams and ...
The Robots Are Here!
But who’s using them and how? If you’re like a lot of lawn and landscape businesses right now, you might be standing on the other side of robotics and wondering if there’s any scenario in which they make sense for you. In the past, it may have been easy to dismiss these zippy autonomous mowers as a novel curiosity or passing trend. But as the labor shortage intensifies, robotic mowers continue to improve, new mandates demand battery-powered equipment, and clients look for cutting-edge, greener practices, you may now be second-guessing that stance. Joe Langton, CEO of Langton Group, a landscaping business in Woodstock, IL, first saw a robotic mower at a trade show. He says he realized its relevance boiled down to a simple equation: The mower cost and the cost-per-acre compared to his current labor rate and cost-per-acre. “I realized I could be more affordable with robotics,” Langton says. At the time, he found support for robotic mowers from local dealers was minimal to null. So Langton founded Automated Outdoor Solutions (AOS), a company for landscape professionals who want to incorporate autonomous mowers into their businesses. Now, he creates content on a You-Tube channel, Automating Success, in which he shares his expertise in getting started. Currently, Langton Group is 20% robotic, but Langton’s goal is to be 80% in the next five years. He says that robotics makes sense for most landscapers, particularly if they’re currently seeing any profit loss in mowing services. Getting Started Getting started in robotics ...
