Most of the water a typical sprinkler throws never reaches a root. It lands on the sidewalk, drifts on the wind, or evaporates off the leaves on a warm afternoon. Meanwhile, the bed in the far corner stays dry and the lawn by the driveway turns into a swamp. Across San Rafael and the flatter parts of central Marin, a lot of yards still run on spray systems put in decades ago, with timers nobody has reset since they were installed. Out on the water in Belvedere, wind carries spray off target before it ever lands.
A good irrigation system does the opposite: it waters each plant what it needs, when it needs it, with as little waste as possible. This page covers signs your system needs work, the difference between drip, spray and smart controllers, how we design and install a system, and how to keep it running. Irrigation and plant choice go together, so most of our systems are paired with drought-tolerant landscaping that needs far less water to begin with.
Signs Your Irrigation Needs Work
Your system will tell you. Brown patches next to green ones mean uneven coverage. Water running down the driveway or sidewalk means heads are aimed wrong or running too long. Soggy spots that never dry out point to a leak or a broken line. Sprinklers spraying the house, the fence or the street are wasting water and damaging what they hit. A water bill that jumps for no clear reason is often a hidden leak underground. And if your timer still runs the same schedule in November as it did in July, you're watering far more than the yard needs during the cooler, wetter months. Small problems like these add up fast, especially in summer, when a single broken head can run for weeks before anyone notices.
Drip, Spray and Smart Controllers
Drip irrigation delivers water slowly through small emitters or tubing right at the base of each plant, so almost nothing is lost to wind or runoff. It's the best choice for shrubs, perennials, vegetable beds and trees. Spray and rotor heads still make sense for lawns and low ground covers, as long as they're matched to the space and don't overspray. A smart controller adjusts the schedule automatically based on local weather or soil moisture, cutting back when it's cool or rainy and adding water during a heat wave. Many Marin yards do best with a mix: drip in the beds, efficient rotors on any remaining lawn, and one smart controller running it all. Converting old spray zones to drip is one of the easiest ways to cut water use without changing what you plant. On slopes, drip also stops the runoff that spray causes, since water goes in slowly enough for clay to absorb it.
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Call [TRACKING NUMBER]How We Design and Install a System
We start by walking the yard and grouping plants by how much water they need and how much sun they get. Each group becomes its own zone, so a shady fern bed and a sunny lavender border never share a schedule. We check your water pressure and flow, then size the pipe, valves and emitters to match. Mainlines go in early in a landscape project, before patios and paths, with sleeves under any hardscape so lines can be reached later. Drip tubing goes in after planting, staked down and covered with mulch. Finally, we set up the controller, run every zone, check every emitter, and show you how to make seasonal adjustments yourself. On existing systems, we can often reuse the valves and mainlines and convert zones to drip one at a time, which keeps the cost down.
Keeping Your System Running Well
A little attention keeps irrigation efficient for years. Check each zone a few times a season, watching for clogged emitters, broken heads or pooling water. Flush drip lines once or twice a year to clear sediment. Adjust the schedule as the seasons change, or let a smart controller do it for you. Before winter rains, many Marin homeowners can switch their system off entirely for months. In spring, turn it back on zone by zone and look for anything that broke over the winter. Local water agencies, including Marin Water and North Marin Water District, have offered rebates on smart controllers, drip conversions and lawn replacement, so it's worth asking us what's available when you upgrade.
If you're planning a new yard from scratch, irrigation gets laid out as part of landscape installation, so the lines go in before anything is built on top of them.
Common Questions
Drip has a few trade-offs. Emitters can clog from sediment or hard water, so the system needs a filter and an occasional flush. Tubing on the surface can get nicked by a shovel or chewed by animals, which is why we bury or mulch over it. Because drip waters such a small area, it's hard to tell at a glance whether it's working, so zones need a quick check now and then. It also isn't the right tool for lawns. For beds, shrubs and trees, the water savings easily outweigh these drawbacks.
Almost anything that isn't a lawn. Shrubs, perennials, trees, vegetable beds, container plants and hedges all do well on drip, since it waters the root zone directly and keeps leaves dry, which cuts down on mildew and fungus. Drought-tolerant and native plants are a great match because they need deep, infrequent watering, which drip handles well. Low ground covers that spread across a large area can be done with drip, though inline tubing laid in a grid works better than individual emitters.
Often, yes. Marin Water has offered rebates on WaterSense-labeled smart controllers and discounted spray-to-drip conversion kits for its customers, and North Marin Water District, which serves Novato, has run a Cash for Grass lawn replacement program. The details and amounts change from year to year, so check with your water agency before you buy. When we design an upgrade for you, we'll point out any programs that apply so you can claim them.