Gardens and lawns should be watered early in the morning. This allows the turn to absorb water deeper, instead of being blown around and drying up in the later afternoon, when it is hotter and tends to be windier.

However, not everyone has the time or the willpower to get up early every morning to water the garden. Not only that, but busy schedules--especially during the summer months when people go on vacation--means there may be times when you will be away from home and can't water your garden.

The best solution for this is automatic watering. With an automatic sprinkler system in your garden, the sprinkler goes off at regular timed intervals, so you never have to drag yourself out of bed in the morning to water or find people to water your garden for you while you're gone.

You can pay a landscape company to do this, or you can set it up yourself. Setting up automatic watering for your lawn is really not difficult, and can be done yourself with a few things from the hardware store. You can also buy a DIY kit for automatic watering and set it up yourself.

What you need
To set up automatic watering for your garden, you will need the following:

• Electronic sprinkler times


• Hoses (get enough to cover the space of your garden. When in doubt, round up. It's also a good idea to measure to make sure you are getting enough hose to get your lawn and garden watered.)


• Two-way hose flow valve (you will attach your hoses to this. If you are running more than two hoses, you might have to find a specialty valve.)


• Metal sprinklers (again, get enough to cover the space of your lawn and garden)

Setting it up

1. Decide where to put the sprinklers. You can put one in the front and one in the back, or multiple ones to make sure the whole garden and lawn gets watered. When determining where to put your sprinklers, keep placement in mind--you don't want to water the house, your sidewalk, or your cars. Not only that, but make sure you place them so that you can camouflage the hoses. Then, attach the sprinklers to the hoses.
2. Attach the flow valve to the water spigot, and then attach the timer to the spout on the timer. The hoses you are using should attach to the hose valve as well.
3. Next, program your timer. There are many different timers on the market, so it's a good idea to shop around and choose the one that is the most convenient to program, and that will allow you to program multiple days and times.
4. Finally, test your sprinkler system. It may take a few cycles for you to get an idea of the placement of the sprinklers and the hoses.

Automatic sprinklers can make your life easier and your garden healthier. Best of all, you don't have to spend a fortune on getting automatic watering installed. These are a few tips for helping you set up automatic watering for your garden and lawn.