Gardening Chores for May - Check your Irrigation

With the temperatures starting to rise and still being in our drought season, can be tough on your plants. This is a perfect time of year to check your irrigation and make sure everything is in working order. As we all know water is essential to a healthy plant so it's very important to routinely check your irrigation system.

When I worked for a landscape contractor I asked the irrigation crew to teach me about repairing irrigation. I was surprised how easy irrigation was to repair. Go to your local hardware store pick up a few essential tools of the trade.   I purchase metal flags at the hardware store before I start this project. I then check every zone and put a flag where a head isn't working or if one of the heads is buried under the grass. I also use the flags when I check my drip irrigation when I find a cut in the line. If irrigation heads aren't producing enough spray mark each irrigation head with a flag and make sure the plastic screens aren't clogged.

Here are a few tools I find very useful when working with irrigation:

PVC Cement - Used for pipes, etc. 

Plastic Nipple Extractor - One you screw the irrigation head off you stick this in the pipe and it will bring the black pipe up so you can screw a new irrigation head on.


Ratcheting PVC Cutter - This is a great tool to cut pipes, etc.


Irrigation Adjustment Key - This is used to adjust the spray direction of the heads and I also use mine to adjust my rotor heads that cover large areas.

 Rain Bird Spray Head Pull Up Tool - Removes, replaces or installs new heads. 

There are times when my lawn man cuts one of my heads because it hasn't retracted back into the ground. This is my least favorite job but it's great that I can do it myself and save the money instead of calling an irrigation company.


I get a few large green trash bags for the soil I am going to dig out. It makes it a lot easier when you are filling the hold back up. I dig out the broken head, and remov the damaged head. When the head is removed I then turn on that specific zone to clean out in the line just in case I have dropped any soil or rocks in the line. Once the water goes down a bit I put the new irrigation head on and I fill the area around the head with pea gravel. This keeps the new head in place until the soil and grass fill in again. Leave at least a few inches to fill in with soil and the sod if you had to remove it.

If you are unsure what irrigation head you need just bring the broken head to your local hardware store and they will be happy to help you pick out the appropriate head.

I have saved a ton of money because I haven't had to call an irrigation company for repairs for over 5 years.