Creative Irrigation Engineering Solutions!

Here is a project we recently finished.

The home owners have a swimming pool in their back yard.   Over the winter, the pipes underneath the concrete burst.   As opposed to the costly price of tearing the entire pool out,  the home owners chose to fill the pool in with soil and create a lawn area with a small shrub bed.

Dripline Layout

The owners asked us to come up with an irrigation solution for the new landscape.   We had to work with what we had, so we connected our mainline to the fill valve (used to fill up the pool), then ran that to our control valve and ran emitter dripline 12" on center throughout the pool area.



The dripline layout picture was found on the Netafim website.  Netafim is a major manufacture of drip irrigation products.
http://www.netafimusa.com/landscape

Dripline is commonly used in shrub beds.  It is a form of low volume irrigation that places water directly to the base of the plant.   There are emitters evenly spaced throughout the drip tube that emit water slowly.
Dripline can also be used to water lawn areas as long as it's spaced 12" throughout the area where lawn is being installed in a grid like fashion.  Shrub beds generally have 18" spacing as you try to space your emitters so they are next to the plants so the roots can grab the water coming through the emitter.

Hunter SVC Controller

The source of the water was a 3/8" pipe running from the pump house to the pool.  We bushingd' up to 1/2" and ran that to our valve.

The valve was another challenge we faced.  There was no electrical power sources near the pool and we couldn't run wire from the valve to the shed because of the concrete around the pool.    Our solution was installing a Hunter SVC battery powered controller.  One 9 volt battery should run the system for the entire season!

So as long as you have a water source... we can irrigate it!

The Hunter SVC Controller picture was found on their website.  Here's the link!

http://www.hunterindustries.com/

The end result is a "green pool" if you will.  An area to enjoy a summer breeze and a cold drink!

Contact OLM and let us come up with creative irrigation solutions for you!

253-261-2700

If you mention the blog when you call we'll take 10% off the quote!

Thanks for reading the blog!
Derrik Tribble
The Lawn Psychologist

New Paver Patio by OLM Industries, Inc...

Earlier this summer I wrote a blog about building paver patios' for a summertime hangout...

We just completed a project for a customer that did just that...  And it looks fantastic!

Here are some before pictures of her garden area before we did the work.... The existing landscape looks nice enough as it is, but we took it to the next level!

Here is a video of Fidel installing the pavers.  He's very meticulous!

We removed her roses and shrubs and installed a paver patio to give a place for her family to enjoy a glass of iced tea in the summer evenings.  Hope you enjoy!

We also did a small side patio she could set her bird bath on.   Lucky Birds!

Please call us for a quote so you can have
your own Summertime Get-a-way!
253-261-2700

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Derrik Tribble
The Lawn Psychologist

Smart Irrigation saves you money...

The Lawn Psychologist loves irrigation.   Irrigation comes in many shapes and sizes, from a sprinkler at the end of a hose,  harvesting rainwater in rain barrels, drip irrigation to fully automatic irrigation system installed by professionals... or in some brave cases, home owners.  I would always recommend having a professional install your irrigation system.

If you are serious about your landscape then you simply must have an automatic irrigation system.  It seems a pity to spend so much time and money on your landscape, only to have it wither and die when you take the family on vacation for 2 weeks in the summertime.   :)

It's not cheap to irrigate your house.   One would be wise to "be smart" when designing an irrigation system so that it works to maximum efficiency.   This means saving money in the long run...

I live in Washington State which generally stays in the 70's to 80's during the summer months.


Here are just a few ways to maximize irrigation efficiency.

Zone it up!   Inspect your yard.   Where are the shrub beds, where are the lawn beds.  Lawn requires more water than shrubs, so you don't want to put shrub beds and lawn on the same zone because either your shrubs will be getting too much water or your grass will not be getting enough.  Typical pop up time for a (sunny lawn zone is 10 to 12 minutes and sunny shrub zones run for about 5 to 7 minutes during the summer months)

Shade zones Vs.  Sun zones:  Now look at the different areas of your yard and how the sun hits them throughout the summer months.  If you have a large tree in your back yard that shades the back from mid day sun, this is a shade zone.  One should separate shade from sun because areas that have shade during the afternoon simply don't need as much water as an area that receives direct sunlight all day long.  This results is efficient watering!

Adding a rain/wind sensor:  A rain sensor will automatically turn off the irrigation system when it rains resulting in saving precious water that would otherwise be uselessly wasted.   The wind sensor will turn off the irrigation system if it's too windy for the irrigation system to efficiently water because the water will be blown away by the wind.  They have both hard wired and wireless sensors available.

Smart Controllers:  These controllers collect data from satellites and the internet and adjust your irrigation system according to what the weather is doing day by day.  This is a very "basic" explanation of what a smart controller does.  I plan on doing an entire blog on smart controllers because of how unbelievable they are!

You could easily shave off 25 minutes of total watering time by just separating shade zones from sun zones alone!  An average irrigation system is distributing about 15 gallons a minute of water.  That's 375 gallons for one cycle!  If your watering every day for 3 months out of the year, that's almost 17,000 gallons of water!  That equates to saving our most precious resource and saving you money at the same time!

Please contact us to provide you a quote for a 100% efficient irrigation system!

Thanks for reading the blog!

Derrik Tribble
The Lawn Psychologist

Artificial Turf.... not just for the Grid-Iron anymore!

What green thumb, gardener or lawn snob doesn't strive for "the perfect lawn"... Lush, green, weed free, etc.  

We have the answer to those who strive for this.... 
Artificial/synthetic turf!

Once, only used in commercial applications such as ball fields and playgrounds... the demand for "the perfect lawn" has forced synthetic turf manufacturers to make this product available to the masses!

Easily the biggest advantage to synthetic turf is it's care-free maintenance.  This is one of the biggest factors for our customers when it comes to any aspect of landscape.... How much maintenance is involved???   A valid question for people like us who seem to have less and less free time juggling work, family, social, and other aspects of our lives.  This product is the true solution to easy maintenance.   After it's installed, the only maintenance involved is cleaning off any leaves or debris that may fall onto it.  


The turf we use offers a 7 year non-fade warranty.  This rating is geared for any climate and is more important in areas like Arizona and California where the sun shines almost year round.  In a place like Washington State, you could probably at least double, if not triple that. (in my opinion.)

Synthetic turf is ideal for those "tough to reach" areas where you don't like to drag your mower to every week.  Do you have tiered lake property with (who knows how many) stairs?   Well you don't mow it, nor do you have to drag the hose to it for watering.   All you do is enjoy it!

We are putting sand down here in the video.   The sand helps the turf to stand up so it looks more like real grass!  We used around 400 pounds of sand on this piece!

The only downside to synthetic turf is that it can be spendy to install because of material cost.




However, if your a business owner and you don't have to worry about hiring people to maintain the grass, the cost to irrigate it, etc.  You eventually can get back that cost of installing it.

Here is a project that we used it for.... It turned out DYNAMITE!


Contact us for a quote on installing Artificial Turf for your home!

253-261-2700


We service Tacoma, Puyallup,  Bonnie Lake, Sumner, Enumclaw, Auburn, Kent, Seattle, Bellevue, Federal Way, Renton, Burien and all cities in between!

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- Derrik Tribble
The Lawn Psychologist

Watering solutions.

Living in the Pacific Northwest, we have the luxury (some people think it's a curse) of having rain 9 or 10 months out of the year.  Sometimes it feels like we have rain 11 months out of the year.  :)

This is the reason very few people have irrigation systems in Washington State, as opposed to other areas of the country where irrigation is needed 9 months of the year.

With this said, you do have a period of time in the summer in which plants do need water.

The problem is that when we do hit that "dry patch", people tend to let their grass just get brown and die, because it will be green in a few more months anyways.... right?

Well, this is true.... You can bet on the rains coming back, serious damage can be done to plants in particular.

Neglecting plants and trees for those few vital months can seriously effect the health of your plants.   Especially new plantings.  Established plantings can "tolerate" a few months of drought, although it's not recommended.

New plantings however, are just like children.  They need attention!  This means watering!

What I see time and time again, is people buy healthy plants from the nursery/store, they plant them and forget about them.  Not only is a lack of water going to effect their immediate health, the long term health is also effected.   The healthier the plant at the end of the Summer, the better shot it has at lasting through the harsh winters.

With the cost of plants and trees, I would certainly be interested in giving them the best chance for success.

Part of that is consistent watering!

We offer watering solutions!   Our hydroseed machine doubles as a watering truck for watering in trees for Builders and General contractors, to lawn areas that have no watering source on site.

Call us if you need some watering solutions so you don't have to replace the dead ones next year!

OLM Industries, Inc.
253-261-2700

Thanks for reading the blog!
- Derrik Tribble
The Lawn Psychologist