At our old house, we had a sprinkler system installed to water the trees and the little bit of grass we had. We did live in the high desert where the precipitation was just about zero most of the year. All of us, even people who hated rain, were glad to see the monsoon season get underway in late summer and to have a little bit of snow in the winter.
In the Midwest, usually Mother Nature is a little more generous with the precipitation, be it rain, snow, sleet or hail. All of it eventually becomes water to help keep the flowers blooming and the grass growing.
This is true for the most part, but we do have those periods where it is just plain hot and dry. The grass starts to go into a bit of hibernation, turning brown. The trees start to look a little droopy. The flowers start to wilt. All this means it is time to get the hoses out to do some watering.
Although the house came with a couple of sprinkler heads, they have never done it for me. They are somewhat adjustable, but it is either water in places one doesn’t want water, or move the sprinkler all over the yard to make sure all the grass is watered. Never a very efficient or eco-friendly way to go.
I had finally had enough and did a little more in-depth research on a sprinkler head. It had to be flexible in how to aim, be able to adjust the pressure, and cover a large swatch of land. Finally, after finding some I liked, and reading many reviews, I found the sprinkler head I thought would be perfect.
The Melnor is my new favorite thing to own (along with the timer I also bought). It is fantastic! I can adjust how far back and forth it goes, the pressure of the water, even the width of the spray of water. Being able to adjust the width of the spray has been what I love the most about the Melnor.
We have several areas of our yard that are a bit narrow. With the old sprinkler head, it was always the same width, meaning the house got a lot of water on it by nature of the shape and width of certain portions of the yard. This meant a lot of wasted water.
With the Melnor, the width can be just a few feet across, very concentrated, much more precise. It can also be very wide to where I can now water most of one part of our front yard with just two placements of the sprinkler. The one sprinkler I used most in the front needed at least three placements, and four was best to hit all areas.
Where the head starts and where it stops is also a “longer” reach. This feature is how I only have to move it a total of four times to hit the whole of the front yard. With the preciseness of the spray, I can also water just where the roses and a potted plants are without getting the entire front porch wet.
After using it the past week, I wish I had purchased it sooner. It might have helped with the water bill and with the water waste. Attaching it to the timer has also helped in saving water. I don’t know how many times I turned on the water, forgot to set a timer, or went into a day of meetings with very little time in between to turn the water off. No longer do I have to worry about whether I turned the water off or do I have time to water.
There was a meme recently that talked about how one needs less as one grows older, and it is the simple things that make one happy.
Well, at least for this week, I can attest to the simple things making me happy. These two little gadgets, a Melnor and a timer, has made my life so much easier, and my grass so much happier. They have brought a little peace to a life full of chaos.
Who knew?
Personal Reflections of a Middle-Aged Man 