Sorry for piggy-back on your message.

My suggestions on his request a

- I second another newgroup member's suggestion of making sure that
the system can self-drain. Mine isn't. The installer could have
installed in a way that it could self-drain (the house is at the
highest point of the property); but he didn't and I didn't know any
better. Now, every year I must ask him to winterize the sprinkler
system, and I will have to get someone to stay home waiting for him --
money and time wasted every year.

- Don't install a sprinkler system until you are sure about the
future plan of your garden. I had it installed the same year when I
moved to my house. I didn't have a good idea of my gardening plan at
that time. Therefore, the sprinking system zoning is just not right. I
encountered problem when I tried to convert a lawn area into a
vegetable garden because that area happens to be in the same zone as
another lawn area. I must stop watering that other lawn area in order
to convert the first lawn area into a vegetable garden.

- Flower garden and vegetable garden is better to use drip irrigation
system instead of overhead sprinkling system (reduce water consumption
and reduce fungi diease). You need to explicitly ask for it;
otherwise, the installer will install whatever is easier for him to
install.

- Insist on head-to-head coverage according to Toro guide line. The
"so-called" Toro-certified installer who installed mine didn't do
that. The watering coverage is simply not even. Some areas in my lawn
only have one sprinkler that can reach, and those areas are much drier
than the rest. If I wanted to keep those areas watered enough, I would
have to run that sprinkler much longer than usual, and I would have
watered significantly more in other areas that the same sprinkler
serves.

Hope this helps.

Jay Chan