What Happens When Your Sprinkler Freezes

In Virginia, it is a given that your inground sprinkler system has to be winterized each Fall. Failure to do so will result in the exposed pipe to freeze and burst.

How This is Accomplished:

To winterize your sprinkler system, you must first cut off the water. Usually this will be a valve in the ground near your water meter or a valve in the crawl space/basement. Either way, the cut off has to be in an insulated/heated environment. Otherwise it would freeze at the valve. Don't make the mistake of cutting off the water outside at the backflow. This will not end well!

Once the water is cut off, you must connect an air hose from a compressor to just downstream of the valve you just shut off. Usually there is a fitting within a foot or so of the shut off valve. If this is not available, then you can hook to the backflow device that is usually located on the side of the house.

Your compressor should be set between 45 psi and 60 psi. Any less will not generate enough pressure to push out the water. Any higher pressure could damage your pipes.

Once the air hose is attached and the compressor running, simply manually run through each zone until water ceases to come out. IT'S THAT SIMPLE. 

Unhook the air hose and wait till mid April to turn the valve back on.

TIP: - Make sure to use pipe tape on any cap you had to put back on where the hose connected. Otherwise you will have a drip next year when you turn it back on.

winter fertilization

 

Why Fertilize Lawns in Winter?

It may seem like a complete waste of time and money to throw fertilizer on your lawn in the dead of Winter. As a matter of fact, no matter what you put down or how thick, it won't amount to a 'hill of beans' difference to what the lawn looks like over the next couple of months. Right?

Well the truth of the matter is that there are some big benefits. 

SPRING GREEN UP

If you choose a winterizer fertilizer (high in Nitrogen - the first number in the rating), then this will reap big rewards in Mid to Late April. What is happening here is that the Nitrogen in this fertilizer is stored by the turf. It is not fully used until the ground temperature improves. Once this happens in mid to late April, it is available for consumption by the plant immediately. If you wait until April to do this treatment, then the fertilizer, has to dissolve, leach into the sub soil, then be absorbed by the roots. This process takes time and slows down spring green up by about a month.

WEEDS

Want to cut down on Spring Weeds? Add Prodiamine (Barricade) to the mix. This product forms a vapor barrier right at the thatch level that kills newly germinating seeds. While great for Crabgrass Prevention in March/April, it really does a good job on Broadleaf annuals when applied at the labeled rate in December/January.

ROOT DEVELOPMENT

Another thing to consider is soil temperature. Although the air may have a nip, the ground lags behind this chill by nearly a month. That means below that thick turf it is business as usual. Pick a fertilizer with a heave phosphate content (the second number in the fertilizer rating) and you will help root development tremendously.