Easy DIY Lawn Irrigation with Rain Bird

Lawn irrigation! Lawn irrigation! Lawn irrigation!

I am so. Freaking. Excited!!! And you can’t really blame me… we have been living in a severe drought these past few years in the smack dab center of California. This means everything I plant dies. It doesn’t just die either. It shrivels into a horrible dehydrated mass of misery, baked to its excruciating death under the cruel California sun.

So it is quite ironic that this project has been DELAYED because.. well.. it is FINALLY raining in California! This fills up my happy more than I can say!

The rain also helped to make the ground all soggy, so digging for this project (in between rainy days) was a snap! (My husband will probably roll his eyes when he reads that… there were some areas with MASSIVE clumps of tree roots in some areas that he had to hack through all jungle man style..)

But aside from the rain and the magnolia tree roots giving us heck, this was easily a one day project, suitable for ALL levels of DIYer home owners!

More About Rain Bird Lawn Irrigation Kits

Rain Bird offers the first professional grade sprinkler system designed for homeowner installation. It provides everything you need to keep your lawn green season after season while saving water.

The system attaches to any outside faucet and includes six high-efficiency rotary sprinklers with patented Rain Curtain nozzle technology. The same sprinklers used in professionally installed systems worldwide, these rugged sprinklers deliver a rotating curtain of water with large droplets that fall quickly to avoid windblown overspray and to cover evenly from head to perimeter for reduced overall watering time. Simple adjustments for spray rotation and distance help you keep the water on your lawn and off the house, sidewalk and driveway.

Controlling the sprinklers is Rain Bird’s heavy duty timer with large readout screen and simple scroll settings for automatic watering any days of the week and up to two times per day. Flexible scheduling allows customizing your settings for specific needs such as watering of slopes where two short cycles will allow the water to soak in better, avoiding runoff waste. The timer also features manual buttons for “Water Now” and “Cancel” watering without affecting the program.

Some highlights of this kit include:

Patented system design waters your lawn automatically the whole season

Eliminates constant hassling with hose and sprinkler adjustments

Attaches to your outside faucet and installs in a weekend

Sprinklers retract into the lawn for a clean, uncluttered appearance and easier mowing

Complete kit includes timer, 6 high efficiency rotary sprinklers plus tubing and connectors

Self draining to avoid freeze damage in colder months

Covers medium size lawn areas from 1000 – 3000 sq. ft., with average residential water pressure and flow

Provides uniform coverage, even close to the sprinkler heads, reducing overall watering time

Wind-resistant Rain Curtain nozzle technology reduces overspray and saves water

Easily adjustable coverage pattern and distance using a flat blade screwdriver

Avoids overwatering with easy-to-set schedules that help you meet the moisture needs of your yard

Easy to program automatic timer helps you comply with local watering restrictions

Rain Delay feature suspends watering from 1 hour to 4 days without affecting stored program

More About Rain Bird

From the Rain Bird website (CLICK HERE to visit):

Rain Bird Corporation is a privately held company founded in 1933 during the agricultural boom in California. We are the leading global manufacturer and provider of irrigation products and services. Since the beginning, Rain Bird has produced and offered the industry’s broadest range of irrigation products for farms, golf courses, sports arenas, commercial developments and homes in more than 130 countries around the world.

Over the past eight decades, Rain Bird has been awarded more than 450 patents worldwide, including the first in 1935 for the original horizontal action impact drive sprinkler (U.S. Patent #1,997,901), which revolutionized the food production industry and ushered in a new era in irrigation, worldwide. The original impact sprinkler was designated a historic landmark in 1990 by the American Society of Agricultural Engineers. Today, Rain Bird offers over 4,000 water-saving irrigation products and services and has offices around the world.

Rain Bird is committed to The Intelligent Use of Water™. Our commitment extends beyond products to education, training and services for the industry and the community. In 2015, Rain Bird developed the 25 Ways to Save 25% website to provide a resource to consumers on water irrigation options, http://25ways.rainbird.com.

It is our legacy to design and manufacture only those products of the highest value and quality. We are appreciative to have received numerous recognition awards from many of our valued partners.

In 2016, we received the 2016 Readers Choice Award from Facility Executive magazine in the category of “Water Management.” In 2015, the National Business Research Institute (NBRI) recognized Rain Bird Corporation with the Circle of Excellence award based upon our outstanding Employee Engagement

Rain Bird employees work to achieve long-term, responsible partnerships with our customers, vendors, and the cities in which we live.   We are proud to work at Rain Bird and believe in the honest and ethical treatment of everyone in our diverse communities.

At Rain Bird, we take pride in our involvement with our global and local communities. Community involvement is an important part of our corporate values and beliefs. Our company and our employees have a long-term commitment to volunteering in a wide variety of charitable activities that benefit diverse groups of people.

Our Experience With Rain Bird Lawn Irrigation

I have been sitting on this project since BEFORE Christmas, eagerly waiting for a free weekend without holidays, visiting relatives, or rain. I finally said, screw the rain, and enlisted the husband to go toil all Jean Valjean style in the mud and weeds of our barren front yard.

The rain made digging super easy, but as I mentioned earlier, the roots were a big pain in the butt to chop through.

During the excavation of our lawn, we discovered an abandoned lawn irrigation system, which ran on close to the same lines we were planning to use for this new system. While digging out in our yard, the neighbor came over to chat, and she said that she faintly remembers the previous neighbors having a lawn irrigation system about 15 years ago or so.

A lot of the old lines were still intact, but about 50% were busted through from roots and what looked like shovel marks. During our archaeological excavation, we discovered that the old irrigation system was… a Rain Bird!!

Archaeological excavation at the Freeman’s… an old Rain Bird sprinkler head!

Once the irrigation was installed, it took us about 20 minutes to set the rotation and length of each sprinkler head (might have gone faster if we didn’t have half nekkid babies running around trying to dance in the sprinklers / drink from them / play with them) and then, voila! We officially have an irrigated lawn! Just. Like. That.

The timer is crazy simple to program and understand. The easy, one push “water now” button option makes turning the sprinklers on without messing with your pre-programmed times a cinch. The lines were easy to run and install. The sprinkler stream has an impressive reach and an incredible coverage in its stream – it really is like a curtain. Overall.. I cannot believe that I at once time thought that lawn irrigation was a project that should only be tackled by professionals!

Now that our lawn irrigation is fully installed and ready to go, we are going to begin the process of killing our yucky weed laden yard, and will be reseeding with a native, drought tolerant meadow type grass this spring / summer! Crazy exciting, and will be following up on this project in the near future!

[Disclaimer: There are no affiliate links in this review. I am an independent product reviewer. I only review products I am truly interested in. I don’t accept payment for reviews. The products I take the time to jabber on about are either items I have personally purchased, or the product has been provided for review after me initiating contact and incessantly nagging for a sample. All of my reviews are unbiased regardless of how the item was obtained.]

What plans do YOU have for your lawn and garden this spring? Share below!