Adding Irrigation System to the Front Yard

With all of my contacts that I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know through blogging, my chance meeting with  Carmen Johnston last year at the Southern Living Ideahouse has positively changed my life and home in so many wonderful ways.  Through Carmen, I’m now getting the opportunity to get my front yard completely landscaped with contributions by Southern Living Plant Collection.  How in the world this happened, I have no idea, but it did, so I’m going with it!

Last weekend, Carmen’s elves showed up at my house to begin the first process of getting my yard landscaped.  Carmen warned me that my yard would look like it exploded before it gets better and she was right, but I was prepared for that.  You’ve got to have ugly sometimes in order to make things prettier.

When we first started talking about this project, she mentioned putting in an irrigation system and I knew that would be an important component because getting water to plants is so important, especially in that first year that they are getting established.  I’ve never had an  irrigation system at my house, so all of this is such a treat for me.  I know my plants will survive now!  If they depended on me having to water, I’d have my doubts.

They came in with a little Boxer machine that was rented for the afternoon, to dig the trenches.  It looked like big critters had come through my yard, leaving devastation behind.

There’s the handy machine that made digging these trenches so much easier.

They had the utility lines identified and flagged so they knew just where to dig.

With a little work by hand too.  They worked hard for a few hours getting all of this done for the day and it started sprinkling rain which didn’t help the process.

This large pipe will go in the ground on the backside of the cinderblock wall at the end of my driveway, to alleviate the standing water that accumulates in the backyard from rain runoff. This will take pressure off the wall and keep it from moving any further than it already has.

Water pipe ready to go in the ground.

Those 2 guys worked very hard getting it all done and it was fun to watch the process.

They dug a trench next to the road, up one side of the driveway and along the front side of the house.  From there, lines will go out which will be drip lines that will water all the plants going in under my trees in the front yard.

Sort of 3 sided square with lines running off.

That machine sure came in handy!

The pipes went in next with wiring and all that goes with putting in an irrigation system.

After all the pipes went in and everything was connected, the machine went back over the trenches putting dirt back in the holes.

Looking at the pipes in place.

This line runs under the sidewalk in the front yard and over to the wall that goes in my garage.  The box for the irrigation system is mounted on the wall just inside my garage and the water pipe going into my house was luckily in a great place.

That handy dandy Boxer machine.

They turned it on so I could see the stainless heads pop up and see how they worked.

They were all working great and with some adjustments should hit all the grass and flower beds that will be going in.

The main junction box with all the wiring in place is right in the front yard.

I’m so, so grateful to have this opportunity to work with Carmen and get my landscaping done.  I can’t even believe this is happening!   I am paying for some of this, but at a much reduced cost and for that I’m so thankful to Carmen for doing this for me.  She’s such a doll and with her working with Southern Living Plants, I’m going to have the finest yard around with the most lush and beautiful landscape.

I’ll be blogging the whole process so you can see it come alive.  They will be back in 2 weeks for the next phase of landscaping.  I can’t wait to see it all go in!

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