Home addition: sprinklers part II

Last fall we put in the guts of an automatic sprinkler system in the backyard.  June 3rd we finished the job. Well, OK, not we meaning Drew and me, but we meaning Aaron Schoenberg, owner of Wasatch Sprinkler and his helper Todd.  I just mostly got in the way and Drew mostly did stuff inside the house.

 Anyway, before Aaron came, I had to clean up some of my mess. This is the highly organized pile of rocks we have in the outdoor room for the time being. I am a bit obsessive about moving rocks around in the backyard. Can you guess how many categories of rocks I have piled here?  The answer will be at the end of this post.

We also had a tree stump ground out from the garden area. Then we were ready.  The guys got to work putting in the lines for the lawn area.

 Here is a bird's eye view of the network. It will have pop-up spray heads for the lawn and drip for everything else.  There are two drip zones: one for the landscaped area (trees and perennials that need less water) and one for the veggie garden that needs water every day in the summer.  The amount of water each plant gets is controlled by the flow rate of the individual emmitter at each plant and/or the number of emitters at each plant.  I also have some soaker line for tightly spaced veggies like lettuce or onions.

 So I wouldn't forget once we covered everything up, I annotated a photograph of the valve box.

It is a pretty sweet system and will save mucho time and thousands of gallons of water as compared to hand watering.

Oh, and I'm working on another project too.  Through a geology connection and a trade for some bike parts I got the these granite boulders we had in the backyard drilled out for a future fountain.   It'll be wicked cool.

So it has been a productive late spring in the backyard. Here is a picture from May 13 showing my affinity for junk piles and weeds.

Here is after I cleaned up somewhat and moved the wood pile and composters.

And here is after the drip system is installed and the garden is planted!!!!!!

It isn't a huge garden this year because I still have to install the pathways, but we'll get some organic veggies out of it. So things are coming along outside (at the expense of finishing the work inside!)


Answer to the quiz: Eight.  Wonderstone flagstone, small angular cobble, large angular pebble, slate, junk rocks from digging, granite boulders, leftover granite countertop, and sandstone top cap we were going to use for a mantel.  If you said 10 because you counted the brick and concrete paver, you're wrong because they are not rocks.