If you are not convinced of the need for an automatic irrigation timer, then you either don’t have a landscape or have never had anyone walk you through the reasons to go automatic. Of course, it may be you hand water things as therapy. You will still be ahead of the game if you automate your irrigation watering. Here’s a few reasons why.

1. If you have plants that need regular watering, whether it is a whole landscape, a veggie garden, or a few potted plants, you should set up an automatic timer to do the watering.
2. If you ever leave your home to go on vacation or if you travel for work, you should have an irrigation timer. Better to return home to lush, green, happy plants than limp, wimpy plants near deaths door.
3. Plants peform better with consistent watering schedules. Most plans will bounce back from lack of water. However, when your plant gets stressed from lack of water, it weakens it and it’s ability to do what healthy plants do – things like grow and bloom and fend off pests.
4. Save your precious time. Even if hand watering is something that you do as therapy, you can still opt to override your timer and do things by hand if you want to. However, you won’t have that option if you don’t have one installed. You are either a slave to your hose, or, you have to go around turning valves on and off for your system manually. This is a huge waste of time.

By now you should have realized that this installation on the installation of irrigation timers is for you. In fact, you may already have a timer and just need to change it out because it got old, or stopped working. Regardless, you are about walk through installing a timer with me step by step.

Of course, before installing a timer you have to have one. If you don’t already have one, you will need to buy one. And, since there are about as many different products on the market as there are days of the month, we will use one of my preferred vendors. Actually, there are 2 that I typically use. The first is a RainDial which comes in either 6, 9, or 12 station varieties. This is the one I use for normal residential installations. The other controller that I use is the Hunter ICC series. This comes in two models. The first is a plastic cabinet which can have stations added to it starting at 8 and going up to 32 in 4 station increments. The other model is a steel cabinet that goes up to 48 stations starting at 8 and continuing up in 4 station increments. These are for larger estates, parks, you know – large areas. As a large area controller, it also has an option for a remote control module that is invaluable when it comes time to do maintenance on these larger sites. Instead of shouting or radioing to your helper to turn a valve on or off, you simply press a button. Of course, if you have a smaller site but simply want to have the ability to turn on the irrigation remotely for neighborhood pets that have wandered into your front yard. Heck, use it for mail carriers who have wandered into your yard. Professionally, they are great for initiating new people onto your landscape crew.

OK, for starters, let’s assume you are using one of the slightly larger controllers. We’ll assume that because this is what I am installing in my yard. I could get away with a smaller controller, but, my yard isn’t just my yard. It is also my laboratory. This means I have quite a few valves for the different things I am experimenting with.

Step 1. You need to decide on an area to put you irrigation timer. For this first step you will be considering a few different things: How do I get power to my controller easily? How do I get the low voltage controller lines to my controller? Is it easily accessible? Smaller controllers usually come in 2 different configurations, the interior and the exterior. Simply, one goes inside, someplace protected from the elements like your garage, a breezeway, etc. Another, goes on the outside of your house where it is exposed to the elements like sun, wind and rain. There are 2 differences between these configurations. The interior will have a power supply or transformer that converts your house power of 110/120 volts to 18 volts. So, you just plug this into an outlet and voila you are ready to go. The exterior will have a cabinet that is sealed against the elements, and it will have a transformer inside the cabinet. This means that you will need to hardwire this into the power instead of simply plugging it in.

Here is what you’ll need:

1. A 3/8” electric drill. This can be cordless or with cord.
2. A black sharpie felt tipped marker.
3. A hammer.
4. A metal center punch.
5. A masonry bit for drilling small holes in stucco. If you are going into wood instead of stucco, you won’t need a punch.
6. A wood type drill bit for drilling holes through your timer cabinet so that it can be securely mounted to the wall.
7. A level. You can “eye-ball” your installation, but why not make sure that it’s level when you install it.
8. Some screws with matching plastic wall anchors.
9. A pair of wire strippers.
10. A screw driver.

For those of you who have never done this, I will be going step by step.

First, unpack your timer. You should have documentation as well as some hardware included for installing it.

Second, I like my timer solidly secured so I am going to drill some extra holes through the cabinet itself in order to provide for the extra mounting.

This would be a good time to remove the outer cabinet door as it makes performing different installation tasks easier without it. To remove the door, simply remove the stainless steel pin connecting the two halves together. To re-install, just insert it the way it came out.

Third, if you are hard wiring your timer as I am, make sure the breaker to your wires is turned off so that you don’t zap yourself. Once you have turned off the power, double check to be sure you got the right breaker for your wires by using a volt-meter or a “ticker” (it’s an inexpensive device that sounds an alarm when it senses electricity in a line). Now, you are ready.

Fourth, set your cabinet against the wall where you intend to mount it. Take a small torpedo level and verify that you are – level. Once you’ve got it level, put the tip of your felt tipped pen through the holes you drilled and mark where the holes are going to go on the wall.

Next, you are going to take your metal center punch, line it up on the marks from your pen and whack it with your hammer so that there is a little indentation. This helps keep your stucco drill bit centered and drilling in the right place. Then, take your stucco drill bit and put some holes where your marks are.

Place the plastic inserts into the fresh holes you made and tap them in with a hammer so that they are flush.

Once you’ve mounted the timer cabinet to the wall using the plastic inserts and screws, you can re-mount the timer face. This face, the portion with the LCD read- out un-attaches and re-attaches by simply flexing one of the plastic tabs that holds the timer face’s hinge pin. Next, you can re-attach the ribbon connector to the board. Note – it’s important to make sure you don’t have the power connected until after you complete this as sparks made while connecting or disconnecting this with power can damage the electronics.

At this point, you can see that I’ve already connected up my additional block of stations and wired them with the wires coming from the individual valves. Also, you can connect up the power to the wires to the timer as well. Then, you can turn on the power, set the date and the time, etc. These things are pretty intuitive on this particular brand of timer. That’s one of the reasons I use it. Timers have greater and lesser degrees of sophistication. However, they all more or less do the same thing. In my opinion, if you are just trying to program your timer for some basic functions, and it takes reading the manual and re-reading the manual, you should try another timer. Using your new irrigation controller, aka controller, aka timer should be straightforward and easy to do. If you need a tutorial on how to program this one, it has notes on the inside of the cabinet door. Nice, don’t you think.

Purple Cow Landscaping

Good lighting doesn’t happen by accident. It is more than simply putting out a few lights here and there and calling it a day. This is why a lighting person will want to be on site during the day as well as at night to study it. The fact is that good lighting begins before any materials are even brought to the job. Perspectives are looked at. That is to say, how many different views are there that need to be addressed. Lighting magic happens when a site’s different perspectives have been studied and incorporated into the overall scheme. There is a cohesiveness that results from looking at these different areas as part of a whole.

Normally, if you are doing someone’s house, their front entrance is going to be a main attraction. What unique elements can be highlighted to emphasize the positive and create a sense that one has arrived? A good lighting person will know the answer to this question. And as such, they will know whether to use up lighting, down lighting or a combination of both. They will even know when something is missing. And, it is not unheard of to suggest the addition of a statue, or specimen tree to complete the composition. And, occasionally, things need to be removed for an area to look right.

I hear it nearly every time I set foot on a prospective client’s site. Either they say, “I don’t want it to look like Vegas when you are done,” or, “I don’t want it to resemble a landing strip. Please, no runway lights. We don’t want too many lights.” This is a fear of having too much light. The truth is that, as strange as it may sound, more light is often less.

This is because good lighting relies on emphasizing or de-emphasizing certain elements in a landscape. This is done by using varying levels of light. For instance, level 1 is the brightest. Level 2 is slightly lower intensity, and, level 3 is lowest. Emphasis is created by carefully using these different levels of light. Let’s say you have just one light on a specimen. Regardless of how bright it is, it becomes the main attraction. Then, place another light on a nearby specimen you would like to emphasize. Seems like a good idea, right? Here is the problem. You now have separate points of interest with the same level of light on them and nothing in between. This creates black holes, or areas where there is no light. Now, having the same level of light repeated is not always wrong. You may want to create a visual rhythm, for instance, on a series of Italian cypresses lining a driveway. This can be an effective technique. In a less linear setting though, the prodigious use of various levels of light allows a designer to create emphasis, and transition from one interesting scene to another without the viewer being aware of how it is happening. It is the visual equivalent of listening to your child trying to play a new piece of music for you versus a professional musician. One interrupts the music and leaves you nervously waiting for the chord change. The other lets you relax into the music that effortlessly unfolds and enfolds you.

I’ll close with a story about a meeting with a client who challenged me not to use too many lights. So, I did what I often do. I set up a demonstration of lights for a particular area. The client looked at it and said, “Wow, that is sexy.” Ok, maybe they didn’t say that exactly. But they were thinking it. Then, in the interest of not using more lights than necessary, they began tipping lights over so as to see the effect between with and with out. They ended up keeping all the lights. What happened? Well, they finally got it. Sure, I love to sell lights. But, I don’t put lights out on a property based on how many I want to sell. I use lights the same way a painter uses brush strokes. When the picture is done, you know it. After you’ve done it a few hundred times, you may even create some magic.

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But, while the concept is not all that new, the low voltage industry that has grown alongside the landscape industry is relatively new. It’s only been within the past 20 or so years that the delivery of low voltage electricity (less than 30 volts) has become the preferred method of illuminating ones personal outdoor space.

There are several reasons for that: First of all, low voltage power is safer to work with. Case in point. Get a line that comes from your low voltage transformer. Strip the insulation from the wires. Now, with the power on, grab one end with one hand and the other end with the other hand. You’re fine. Now, if you were to repeat these steps, simply substituting line voltage 110/120 volts, you would not be fine. Best case scenario, your hair would be much curlier. Worst case scenario, you would no longer need to tend to earthly concerns such as how curly your hair is or isn’t. Please, do not try the above experiments for yourself – just trust me.

Another reason for using low voltage in the great outdoors is because of its simplicity and flexibility. This is a great advantage for design. Low voltage lighting can be run in places that regular house voltage (120 volts) can’t go. For instance, code won’t permit you to run house voltage wires across your lawn at a depth of less than 18”. Although I don’t recommend this, you could do this with low voltage wires and it would be acceptable in the eyes of the law. This possibility alone makes designing and installing your system easier.

Now, just so you don’t begin to think that low voltage is the answer to everything, let me point out a few challenges. Working with low voltage means dealing with voltage drop. In the same way that a sprinkler system requires a certain amount of pressure to function, so does a low voltage lighting system. In fact the whole analogy of water and electricity is a pretty good one. With water, you need a certain amount of pressure. For electricity, this is equal to voltage. With water, you need a certain amount of volume. For electricity, this is equal to amperage. Wattage is a measurement of the amount of electrical work that can be done.

Voltage drop is a natural part of electrical systems but especially low voltage systems because of the way power is delivered. Voltage drop happens when you are trying to run lighting cable too far. For typical 12/2 direct burial lighting cable, this is distances of 50’ or greater. Without enough voltage, your light appears very yellow or orange. The reason it is important to understand voltage drop is because it will affect both the appearance of your lighting installation as well as the longevity of your bulbs. Essentially, using the metaphor of water above, voltage drop is a lack of sufficient electrical pressure to get the job done. This impacts the look and life of your lighting design. Additionally, if your lights aren’t getting 12 volts to them, the life of the bulb can be shortened. This is equally true of giving your lights too much voltage.

The solution to voltage drop is more pressure. This comes in the form of what is known as a multi-tap transformer. This is not your grandfather’s transformer, not even your father’s. These are the transformers that lighting professionals use. You won’t find them at your local mega-hardware store. They are expensive. What they do is provide extra pressure/voltage for longer runs. So, if you find that you started with 12 volts and ended up with 9 by the time you got to the end of your run, you need another 3 volts of pressure. So, you start with the 15 volt tap and when you check the end of the run again, voila! You now have 12 volts to your lights.

Without going deeper into low-voltage electrical theory, there are some important things to take away from what you learned so far. There is a specific voltage range that works best for your lights, between 10.8 and 12.3 volts. Voltage drop happens which means that you will need a multi-tap transformer for any runs greater than 50’. Delivering the correct voltage will keep your lights in the right color range and ensure that they last as long as possible. Of course, now that you know this, you also know that your lighting person should have a voltage meter as one of their main tools for installation. How else will they know when they are in the right voltage range? The answer is that if they don’t have one they won’t. Subsequently, if you hire someone to install your lights and they aren’t using a voltage meter in conjunction with your multi-tap transformer, get someone else.

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Let me begin. There are 2 major components of a good landscape lighting installation: the scientific, and the artistic. The scientific, as I call it, is all the electrical theory and the mechanical stuff that goes into a lighting installation. This has to do with things like the size of the transformer, size of the wire, how long of a run one can make before it becomes problematic, why long runs are challenging, how to meet those challenges, control systems such as switches, photo-cells, motion sensors, what lights to use where, what lights not to use, installation tricks, etc. This scientific part, the part that has to do with resistance, voltage, amperage, digging in the dirt, unfortunately, none of this is very sexy. It is very necessary though. A good grasp of electrical theory as well as practical, hands-on experience with the different phases of landscape construction are all useful for the first component, the scientific component. And, an artistic eye, child like playfulness and curiosity as well as lots of time spent in the dark with lighting systems is something that is invaluable to the artistic component of landscape lighting. These are both areas with more information than I want to try and address in one issue. Instead, let’s save the details in these area for subsequent installments and for now, let’s wrap up with a few reasons for having lighting. Did I mention it’s sexy?

If you haven’t invested in landscape lighting just yet, perhaps it’s because you haven’t considered the following. Safety is always an issue. And, if you don’t think lighting is that important, ask yourself this question. Would you rather walk to your car at a well-lit venue, or, in a dim, sparsely lit place? How about the sheer practicality of being able to see that step? Did you notice the fluorescent lights over the table where you took your date for that romantic dinner? Of course not! No restaurant owner in his right mind would light his place like that. Why? Because restaurants use light to bring out beauty not hide it.

Clearly, that’s what you want to do with your property. You want to bring out the beauty. You want to make it safer and sexier, right? Now, what if I told you that you can make your property 50% more enjoyable? Ok, humor me here. But, if you have any kind of landscaping at all, and you don’t have proper lighting, you are only enjoying its beauty during the daytime. It only sounds strange because you are sighted. I had a sister who didn’t have her sight and I learned a lot from her. Think about it. A lot of what allows you to enjoy your landscape, and your home, is the fact that it is visually accessible. You can see it. So, how about it, how about making your home safer and sexier by 50%?

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I love landscaping.  In fact, sometimes it’s a little strange how much I love the different aspects of it.  Sure, it’s normal to love a beautifully planted flowerbed, or a majestic tree.  But, I even love the smell of freshly wetted base rock before concrete is pumped onto it.  I love to see a structure take shape and move from idea to rough materials to the finished focal point of a yard.  It’s not hard to understand the joy of watching sod go down like rolls of organic carpet only to be knit together over a matter of days as the sun works its magic.

There are so many things to love about landscaping.  But there are two things that are by far at the top of my list – Water and Light.  Here is why: water in a yard makes you go wow.  Whether you install a big water feature or a little one, it gives you a sense of awe and inspiration.  Now, not to diminish the value of a nice lawn or a well planted flowerbed, but they don’t compare to the impact that water can have.  Water brings life by animating its surrounding.   It reflects light.  It bounces sound around.  It provides rhythm.  It commands attention and at the same time it blends into the surroundings.  Take a look at these photos for a few samples:

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Remember the Sesame Street song – “One of these things is not like the other, One of these things just doesn’t belong…… “  Ever find yourself singing this song as you watch the tourist in front of you at the check out stand?  It’s all a matter of context.  If you were in Europe, buying groceries at the market, someone behind you would be singing the Sesame Street song about you – albeit in French or German.

The same thing is true with plants.  It’s all a matter of context.  In fact, contrary to popular opinion, there are no bad plants.  There are, however, bad locations for plants.  Put a cactus in a tropical zone – Nope.  Put a shade plant in the direct sun – No way.  And yet, it happens all the time.  People choose plants because they are attractive, have pretty flowers, or, nice leaves.  Then, they scratch their head when the plant doesn’t live, or worse, it lives but just barely.

When you see a beautifully combined group of plants with colors that compliment each other, textures that contrast and cause you to take a longer look and give you a distinct sense of place, thank a landscaper.  If you know how to do this yourself, you are either gifted, have worked very hard, or, probably a little of both.

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First, let me say that I am not here to convince you to put a BBQ or an outdoor kitchen into your landscape.  You either understand the limitless value of having a counter top complete with a place to plug in your margarita blender, or you don’t.  I don’t have to convince you because you already know that there is no better way to get your boss to loosen up outside of work than to serve him a few blended beverages of conversation lubrication.  I am not here to convince you that one of the strongest aphrodisiacs known to the opposite sex is the sight of you confidently working your meat mojo at the grill.   You know all this and more.

I am here to give some advice on what elements to include in your outdoor entertainment area.  As far as fire goes, if you are a purist, get a wood fired set up for cooking your carne.  If you aren’t sure – you’re not a purist – put in a gas grill.  Also, if you install a gas grill, WHATEVER YOU DO, MAKE SURE YOU INSTALL A WARMING DRAWER.  You will never be sorry.  You can cook things and keep them warm so you can stage your meal, or, keep things warm for late friends.

Outdoor sinks are nice but something you can live without.  They require additional work to install the drain, venting and water.  If you do put in a sink, definitely include an insta-hot for the water.

A fridge is nice for keeping spoilables handy.  Other refrigeration can come in handy.  For instance, if you drink a lot of beer, have an outdoor beer chiller included in your set up.  Unless you drink a lot of beer, though, keeping some cold ones in the fridge is going to be plenty.  Of course, if you are a wine drinker, you need a wine cooler.

There are many other options that can be included.  I suggest avoiding things like TV’s outside simply because they cut down on personal interaction, which for me, is one of the main reasons for enjoying a meal outside with friends and family.  Now, having said that, keep in mind that I would love to install your outdoor theatre for watching movies after the grill has gone cold.  If you don’t want the video, please consider audio.   In my mind, nothing goes better with meal under moonlight than a little jazz.   And, this is easier to do than most people realize.

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