Irrigation near you

A residential system starts at a connection to the home's water supply, passes through a backflow prevention device and a shutoff, then splits into zones. Each zone is a group of heads or drip lines with its own valve, so areas with different needs, such as a sunny front lawn, a shaded side yard and a shrub bed, are watered separately. The controller opens one valve at a time, since household pressure and flow are rarely enough to run every zone at once.

Good design groups plants by water needs and sun exposure, spaces heads so their spray overlaps evenly, and keeps water off hard surfaces and the house. Ask for a plan showing zones, head locations and pipe routes before trenching starts, and keep it for future repairs.

A basic timer waters on a fixed schedule whether it rained overnight or not. A rain sensor mounted outdoors interrupts the schedule after rainfall, and a soil moisture sensor skips watering while the ground is still damp. Smart controllers go further, adjusting run times from local weather data and the season, and letting you pause or change the schedule from a phone. They also make it easy to program the exact days and hours your municipality allows.

Municipalities regulate when an automatic system may run. In Montreal, automatic systems may water only from 3 to 6 a.m., on even or odd days matching the address, and new landscaping or a new lawn may be watered every day for 15 days. Many other cities, in Ontario and elsewhere, publish their own schedules and can tighten them or ban lawn watering during a heat wave or a shortage, so program the controller to local rules and check them again each spring.

Backflow prevention keeps water from irrigation pipes, which can carry soil, fertilizer and bacteria, from being drawn back into the drinking water supply when pressure drops. Plumbing codes and municipal water by-laws decide when a device is required and which type. Toronto's Water Supply By-law, for example, makes a backflow prevention device on the water supply mandatory for industrial, commercial and institutional properties and for larger residential buildings covered by Part 3 of the Ontario Building Code, and the City names the certified cross-connection control specialists who may test them. For a house, ask your municipality and a licensed plumber what your irrigation connection needs, and make sure the quote includes the device and any permit.

Water left in a sprinkler system over a Canadian winter can freeze and split pipes, heads, valves and the backflow device. Before the first hard frost, the supply is shut off and drained, and in most in-ground systems a technician connects a compressor and pushes the remaining water out zone by zone. The backflow device and any exposed piping are drained and insulated or removed, and the controller is switched off. Compressed air can damage parts when it is poorly controlled, so the blow-out is usually best left to a technician.

In spring, wait until the ground has thawed before turning the water back on. The start-up opens the supply slowly so trapped air doesn't slam through the pipes, checks the backflow device, then runs each zone to find broken heads, leaks and heads that tilted or sank over the winter. It is also the moment to update the controller for this year's watering rules and replace its backup battery.

The most efficient system runs only when plants need it. Deep, infrequent cycles in the early morning build deeper roots and lose less to evaporation than frequent short ones, and on slopes or clay soil, splitting a zone's run into several shorter cycles lets the water soak in instead of running off. Lawns need less in the cool of spring and fall than in midsummer, so the schedule should change with the season.

Planting matters as much as hardware. Switching beds from spray heads to drip lines, replacing thirsty lawn in awkward corners with native or drought-tolerant perennials and shrubs, and mulching beds so the soil stays moist all reduce what the system has to deliver.