|
Last month me and hubby bought our first house together and we adore it. In particular the yard, the previous owners put a lot of effort into it with LOTS of different plants, shrubs and trees. What they didn't do was install any drip irrigation for some reason, nor any mulch. And since we live in California, that's a problem We're right between zones 9b and 10a . It is also terraced heavily, with the largest part of the backyard being a very steep hill with some lovely trees at the top. Much of the mid slope is currently full of shrubs, and watered with a sprinkler system. So we have a biiiig multi part/year project ahead of us to re-vamp major parts of the yard and get dripline installed everywhere while deciding what to keep and what to update. I'm making this thread to make sure I document the journey, but also because this is the first time I've gardened on this scale since I was a teenager with my parents doing most of it so tell me when I'm being a dumbass. First up, the map I made from a google earth picture I got of the plot. Thankfully the PO left us a map with all the current irrigation lines and where they come from so my job mapping those out was much easier than it could have been. There are currently 6 watering zones controlled by an automatic system which I hope to build off of instead of laying all new piping. The system is controlled in the garage, and all the electrical lines to it go underground/through the crawlspace under the house to get there. I would like to have more than 6 watering zones, but not sure that's feasible with what it would require to lay more cable. The current irrigation lines do not cover the terraced yard by the shed, the upper portion of the hill or the main garden area (G1). All the outside water lines source from a line next to the front door of the house, with an initial water pressure of 100 PSI. A 1 inch line goes to the backyard, where it's brought down to 3/4rs inch for the different feed lines (same for the front). In the map below the single thickness blue lines are all 3/4rs, while the double blue is the 1 inch.  Goal #1: Clean all current irrigation system heads, many of the emitters are very weak at the moment. Determine if its an issue with the emitter, or if there could be a leak underground in the line. Goal #2: Lay automated drip line to G1, ideally piggy backing off of water line 6. Goal #3: Lay automated drip line to G7, 8 and 9. It would be nice to do this off water line 2, but I suspect that won't work due to water pressure. Figure out if its possible to get new controller line laid that diverts off of current water line 2 (would become line 7). If we can't there's a faucet right there we could hook a battery powered drip controller up to. Goal #4: Plant fruit trees. Due to a large deer population we probably can't put them in the front yard, so we need to decide if we are putting them on G9, or turning lawn 2 into a fruit tree orchard. Goal #5: Expand the current vegetable gardening plots. Right now only G1 receives enough light to be considered full sun. I would like to put more garden spaces in lawn 2, but that's in potential competition with fruit trees. Lawn 1 doesn't get enough sun. Goal #6: Turn the front lawn into a CA drought tolerant native garden. Its already halfway there, we just need to let the grass die then decide what to do with the space. Goal #7: Lay dripline on the lower to mid back hill. Plant more drought tolerant natives on it to increase soil stability. Would like to use Waterline 4 for this. Goal #8: Lay dripline to the upper back hill to water the trees on a in-frequent basis. This is a ~40 foot height increase from the water source, so may require some pumping assistance. Unless we dig down to the 1 inch water line supply. Goal #9: mulch eeeeeverything. Ideally I would like to accomplish #1, 2 ,5 and 9 by the time spring rolls around. Mulch I'm hoping to get for free from a greenwaste program my county has. Doable, but will require buy-in from the husband on design/plan. Which we don't have yet haha. Pictures of the actual yard below, helpfully labeled! Front yard 1  Front yard 2  Back lawn 1  Back lawn 2  G9 1  G9 2  Hill 1  Hill 2  G1  G2  G3  G5 
|
#
?
Sep 19, 2022 01:46
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 8, 2024 05:00 |
|
|
Congrats on the purchase! This type of landscaping is a ton of work but can be incredibly satisfying to see your trees bear fruit. I'm a landscape architect, but don't know beans about drip irrigation systems aside from what I needed to pass the licensure exam. I'll let someone else with more expertise weigh in there. (as an aside, one thing that confused me in your post was the use of dripline and drip irrigation. They refer to two very different things. A dripline refers to the boundaries of a tree's canopy and gives a rough idea of the extent of the root system. Drip irrigation is what you're talking about in your post.) Are you aware of the concept of defensible space with regard to fire prevention? I'm not sure where you are in CA, but it's definitely worth reading up on as you develop your planting palette. I'm not sure about the scale from your drawing, but your vision of putting trees on lawn 2 might be too close to the house to be safe. I'd encourage you to base planting decisions with fire defense in mind. https://www.fire.ca.gov/programs/communications/defensible-space-prc-4291 Another bit of encouragement: with water becoming increasingly precious and emergency conservations becoming more and more prevalent, I'm glad you're considering xeriscaping. Using drought-tolerant natives will allow you to conserve more water and for those plants to survive gaps in watering. I see there are already stones close to the house -- those are a great base material in lieu of mulch for this type of garden. I was just unsure if you knew the keyword xeriscape, so forgive me if you already do. Good luck, looking forward to seeing progress photos!
|
|
#
?
Oct 3, 2022 20:38
|
|
|
Leon Sumbitches posted:Congrats on the purchase! This is a great post, thank you. I have heard of defensible planting, and it's worth thinking about. We already have 4 trees that are close to the house that we are loath to cut down, but we'll have to really think it through. The trees on our hill are next to a grassy slope, so we want to cut away deadwood for sure that is near the ground. Otherwise our house is close enough to our neighbors that from the sides we can't do much for a defense perimeter there. Our lot is located in a suburb about three perpendicular streets away from a forested area. regarding natives, yeah that's a big push for us. We want to plant (aside from a garden) all drought tolerant and as many natives as we can. Just gotta do it with drip irrigation, mulch, etc.
|
|
#
?
Oct 3, 2022 21:05
|
|