Fern Valley is getting automatic irrigation.....and that's a good thing.....on balance

 

Most of the collections already have this irrigation; Now it's time for Fern Valley to get theirs.  The contractors have begun and wouldn't you have thought that there'd be more plumbing and less wiring? It just goes to show how little I know. I guess it's all about control. There will be a lot of hand digging to minimize the generally invasive nature of the installation.. Having the system in place will largely eliminate the morning and evening rituals of moving rainbirds, oscillators, and hoses. I remember feeling like that was sometimes almost all I did during the summer and in fact two hours in the am and an hour or so in the afternoon was pretty standard. Occasionally if it seemed necessary one or the other of us would slip in on the weekends to get a few more hours water in a few more places. 

I have been a long time skeptic as to the efficiency/utility of automatic watering but this one is mighty sophisticated, taking into account vegetation types, soil types , slopes, accumulated moisture, rainfall, temperature, humidity.....really more factors than I know and it does seem to be able to do at least as good a job as we did before. I expect Joan has been awaiting this with a combination of anticipation and dread. I'm the optimist though, I know everything will be fine and result in a net plus.