To celebrate Smart Irrigation Month in July, Rain Bird unveiled the CLC Landscape Renovation Project, a charitable partnership showcasing irrigation products and smart watering practices. The smart watering practices stem from the company’s 25 Ways to Save initiative from 2015.
“Community Lutheran Church (CLC) and Saddleback Children’s Center in Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif., had a 30-year-old landscape and outdated irrigation system that was using an average of 1.2 million gallons of water annually,” said Alex Nathanson, Rain Bird’s corporate marketing brand manager. “With California’s recent severe drought, their water bills were continuing to climb, the landscape was suffering and runoff was damaging the parking lot and other hardscape.”
In September, a survey conducted by the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California revealed broken sprinkler heads, leaks, high water pressure and generally poor sprinkler coverage throughout the CLC’s property. The church turned to Santa Margarita Water District for help. An outdated control system and the lack of any weather-sensing or rain shut-off devices further contributed to the irrigation system’s overall inefficiency, Rain Bird said. The landscape also consisted primarily of turf with substantial thatch build-up, making it difficult for water to reach the underlying soil and roots.
Rain Bird also received donations of time and materials from the following sources:
- Peter Mowery, design director with C2 Collaborative Landscape Design, who developed a detailed, professional landscape plan;
- Mountain States Wholesale Nursery and Apollo Wood Products, which stepped up with donations and discounts on beautiful native plants, trees and a mountain of mulch;
- A-G Sod Farms, which helped provide new water-efficient sod for the functional turf areas; and
- Contractor George Alonzo and his crew at Advanced Patio & Landscape provided the project labor, taking advantage of the powerful tractor loader backhoe from Compact Power Equipment Rental to remove old plants and shrubs, dig holes for new trees, transport materials and improve the site grading.
Rain Bird donated all of the water-saving irrigation products needed to transform the old sprinkler system, including the following products, according to the company:
- XFD dripline and QF dripline header were used to convert much of the site to water-saving drip irrigation;
- Rain Bird 1800 Spray to Drip Retrofit Kits were used throughout the property to create a connection point for drip tubing;
- The addition of a PRS Dial pressure regulator and Quick Check basket filter made it possible to adapt an existing Rain Bird 1.5-in. brass valve to control a new drip zone;
- A new smart control system was created by replacing the two outdated controllers with a single Rain Bird ESP-LXME modular controller, WR2 wireless rain sensor and IQ v3.0 central control;
- By incorporating a PESB master valve and FS150B flow sensor, the system can accurately track water use and send automatic alerts if any leaks or breaks occur; and
- Rain Bird’s RWS root watering systems are helping new trees flourish, and VB Series valve boxes are keeping the valves protected.
Throughout Smart Irrigation Month, Rain Bird will be sharing photos, tips and ideas from the project on its social media pages and continue to raise awareness on smart water practices.
