I went to www.doityourself.com and there was nothing on irrigation.

You can do it yourself. Technically it's not that hard. Check your local
bookstore for books on lawn and gardens. Also go to the L&G section of home
improvement stores. Or - the library!

You need to know how many gallons per minute your water source supplies -
that will determine how many sprinkler heads you can run in each section.
Then you want to map out each section, be sure to allow for plenty of
overlap - I forget what the percentage is (maybe 100%), but you should have
a significant amount of overlap between sprinklers. For instance if you have
2 sprinklers that each spray 20 feet, don't put them 40 feet apart thinking
that that will cover everything. Probably 30' apart at most and 20' at
least. (At 20' you should have 100% overlap)

What kind of soil you have will determine if you "really" want to do this
yourself. Digging in some areas can be backbreaking. I live in Florida where
we have mostly sandy soils - so digging is relatively easy. You can also
rent a ditch or trench digger that will save your back.

G

wrote in message
...
I just got a quote for an irrigation system.
$3600 for my front lawn, and an additional $3800 for the back. I have
about 1.8 acres, with a huge bhack yard, so I had him quote it both
ways.

I know that's a decent deal as far as irrigation goes, and this guy
has put in systems for several neighbors, and they're happy.
Other landscape companies were double the price.

However, I was wondering how difficult it would be to do it myself,
given that I will have the winter to read up and educate myself.

Can anyone recommend books, sites about this?
What do you think about Toro? Their site claims to spec out
everything you need, although I'm not sure how accurately I can
measure our pentagon-shaped lot and circular driveway.