Spring is here and the days are warm enough to get working hard in the yard. This week I started on a project to improve the watering of our lawn and a flower bed. We’ve made a lot of changes in the garden in the almost four years we’ve lived here and the original garden irrigation system has needed a lot of upgrades to keep up with our plans. Our back lawn has always gone brown in the hottest times of summer and as we’ve added drip irrigation we’ve noticed one drip zone seemed to be losing water pressure.
The solution:
Simple – just find the existing one inch main irrigation line, dig, cut and add in a new irrigation valve box with two new watering zones. Then you get your trenching shovel, sod cutter, spade, iron bar, gloves, water bottle, a large bottle of ibuprofen, band-aids, ice packs and you dig eight feet of trench across your lawn:
This trench gets two 3/4 inch water lines, one for a flower bed and one that will water half the lawn. I’m added eight new sprinkler heads to the lawn and likely around six for the flower bed. I haven’t really added it up (because I wouldn’t have started the project if I know this number), but I think there will be around 50 feet of trench to dig.
So far I’ve been at this for three days and hope to finish the whole project next week. Being an old guy, I only work four hours day before my body says stop so it’s not as much as you think. I do find it best to take the ibuprofen before and after working. Yes, I could have hired someone to do this, but then I wouldn’t get the joy of going to the home improvement store to buy parts and going back to get the parts I forgot.
I should mention that having a good supply of band-aids is important. I only have two cuts right now and no real idea how I got them … wait, three cuts … when did I scrape my elbow?
Tomorrow I fill this trench in and put the sod back. That’s it for this week. More pictures next week so until then, if you need me, I’m limping to the kitchen to get an ice pack for my knee.
Andrew's View of the Week 
I’m tired just from reading! Gardening has never been my forte, but I’ve done a little. I’m too busy writing in my free time since I’m still working, and my husband is too busy with his motorcycles. So those days of us puttering in the yard are gone. 🙂
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I didn’t feel really tired until I stopped to look at how big the dirt pill was.
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😄😄😄
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You’re really working hard. That’s a big project. Of course, we’ll want to know if it works! LOL. Great ending where you limp to the kitchen. Old age, aches and pains come with the territory. Fabulous job!
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It’s a very big project. So far it works, but then there’s still time for problems … 😉
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Well, we will know soon enough, right! 😉
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Ah, a “simple” trench. I’m pretty sure that’s an oxymoron. It is satisfying to do it yourself, though, isn’t it? (After the pain subsides, I mean.) ;-)
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It is so satisfying to be able to point to something and say, “I built that.”
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You got quite a bit done on your project…and that evenly dug trench (no surprises there) is a sight to behold 🙂
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I try to be neat in my work!
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Aren’t you the clever boy. Do you hire out?
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Heather claims that now that I’m retired, she’s the only one who gets to schedule my time.
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Four years in Reno already? Where did THAT time go? I swear you just moved there. Way to get a jump on the to-do list. It won’t matter how much more you get done later in the season – you’ve already had a productive spring!
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It’s hard to believe it myself, but yup, four.
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It never quits, does it.
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It’s constant.
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I am sure you will take care of yourself. It is satisfying to do what we can do.
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I always take care and try not to over do.
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Four years!? Already? It seems like only a year or two. Time flies when you’re digging trenches, I guess. Pace yourself, please.
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I know, hard to believe, but it’s four.
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