Browse Forums Landscape & Garden Design Re: Well priced plant and irrigation suppliers in Adelaide 4Jan 27, 2010 11:49 am Irene, best I mention, for subsurface installations under turf, this is a serious exercise that will be expensive. It needs to be done different to garden beds. They are worth while with grey or black water systems but not on systems run with domestic water supply. For those, pop up sprinklers using what are known as "MP rotators" are the most cost efficient means of watering a lawn without compromising water efficiency too much. They retail around the $20 mark each but you can design a lawn system with less sprinklers using them. They operate best on lower pressure so a "high flo pressure reducer" is needed for both subsurface and MPs. They will retail at around $30. Re: Well priced plant and irrigation suppliers in Adelaide 5Oct 14, 2010 4:26 pm Hi Fu So you recommend subsurface drip irrigation for garden beds, and veggie patches, but not for lawn, is that correct? For veggie patch and garden beds, do you simply add mulch over the top of the irrigation lines? That is, it's not buried under a lot of dirt. What is the added complication for subsurface irrigation with lawn? What is your view on the Toro KISSS system? That is what seems to be recommended here in Adelaide. Re: Well priced plant and irrigation suppliers in Adelaide 6Oct 14, 2010 6:10 pm bclare Hi Fu So you recommend subsurface drip irrigation for garden beds, and veggie patches, but not for lawn, is that correct? For veggie patch and garden beds, do you simply add mulch over the top of the irrigation lines? That is, it's not buried under a lot of dirt. What is the added complication for subsurface irrigation with lawn? What is your view on the Toro KISSS system? That is what seems to be recommended here in Adelaide. bclare, I have just finished installing the Kisss system to my lawn area, It seems to be working really well. We turfed 170sqm and the system we got cost just over 2k. Including all hoses fittings and a 4 section controller. We ended up not using as much of the irrigation tubing and took one roll back to the shop (the $380 refund was a nice surprise). I went into Thinkwater with our land design and where we wanted turf, we got them to design the system we needed. Give me a yell if you want a bit more info and i'll see if i can help. Katherine Re: Well priced plant and irrigation suppliers in Adelaide 7Oct 18, 2010 8:10 pm bclare Hi Fu So you recommend subsurface drip irrigation for garden beds, and veggie patches, but not for lawn, is that correct? For veggie patch and garden beds, do you simply add mulch over the top of the irrigation lines? That is, it's not buried under a lot of dirt. What is the added complication for subsurface irrigation with lawn? What is your view on the Toro KISSS system? That is what seems to be recommended here in Adelaide. When using it on lawn areas the complication is the costs associated often make it prohibitive. No other reason. I find it highly effective for lawns don't get me wrong. Wonderful systems. However the domestic water supply is more likely to have it's integrity compromised where this stuff is laid under lawns. An RPZ valve is required to be installed by a plumber and this must be calibrated each year. The conventional back flow or check valve won't be sufficient to protect domestic water supply from contamination. Lawns also require the use of an additional filter that is impregnated with a herbicide that is slowly emitted each use to prevent root intrusion into the line. That is not something you want to have contaminating your domestic supply. Another reason why an RPZ valve is required with subsurface use in lawns. Say someone even in your street, down stream of your mains, has subsurface under lawn and it was installed incorrectly. They decide they have "lawn beetle problems" and apply possibly carcinogenic pesticides to the lawn. That dilutes and finds it's way into their house hold water they are drinking from or showering in. That then finds it's way into your house hold water supply without you knowing Not good. The use of fungicides is just the same as many of these are as harmful to our health as pesticides are. Conventional chemical fertilisers require water to wash them through to the roots, the same can also be said of bio fertilisers like the ones I mention as a better alternative. Subsurface has no means to do that. So many people find some problems there like burnt lawn. (bio fertilisers won't do that but will be less effective) What happens if the fertilisers make their way into the domestic supply as well? Granted that this is also possible in other parts of the garden but the lawn is where the greatest risk is for this to occur. For feeding to occur, these systems are excellent for delivering nutrients via the irrigation itself. This is done via fertigation which adds further expense but increases lawn health considerably. These are equally suited to deliver bio fertilisers like molasses. So for lawns to work well, the client has to be prepared to spend the money and be willing to maintain the system. They will need to be retrained so as to learn a newer way of maintaining the turf. I prefer to use slightly less efficient set ups using MP rotators or gear drive sprinklers. These are still water efficient and allow for the lawns to be maintained in ways familiar with most domestic turf owners and reduced risk of contaminating the water supply. As I said, I do love subsurface under lawns and it's great when a client is prepared to do it right. 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