Winter may not feel like irrigation season, but for homeowners in Northern New Jersey, it is actually one of the smartest times to plan ahead. If you are considering a new sprinkler system or upgrading an existing irrigation system, booking your project during the winter helps ensure everything is completed early, before spring growth is in full swing.

Morris & Bergen Irrigation serves residential and commercial clients throughout Bergen County, Morris County, Essex County, Passaic County, and surrounding areas. Because sprinkler system installation in New Jersey is highly seasonal, winter planning helps homeowners get ahead of the busy spring schedule.

Get to the Front of the Spring Schedule

As soon as temperatures rise, demand for sprinkler system installation in Northern New Jersey increases quickly. Homeowners who wait until spring often face limited availability and longer lead times.

Planning and booking your irrigation project during the winter helps secure an early place on the schedule, increasing the likelihood that your system is installed at the beginning of the season rather than during the peak rush.

Start the Growing Season With Your System Already Installed

Spring is when lawns and landscapes across Bergen County and Morris County come back to life. Having your irrigation system installed early ensures consistent and efficient watering from the start of the growing season.

Instead of dealing with digging and installation while your lawn is actively growing or when you want to enjoy your outdoor space, your sprinkler system is already in place and operating as soon as the season begins.

A Smooth Transition From Planning to Spring Completion

When your irrigation system is planned during the winter, installation can begin as soon as ground conditions allow. This creates a more predictable timeline and avoids the uncertainty that often comes with scheduling work during the busiest months.

The result is a professionally installed irrigation system that supports a healthier lawn throughout the entire New Jersey growing season.

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When an Irrigation System Upgrade Makes Sense

In many cases, an existing sprinkler system can be improved without replacing everything. Upgrades are often appropriate when the core system is in good condition but certain components are outdated or inefficient.

Common reasons to consider an upgrade include uneven watering, aging sprinkler heads, outdated controllers, or changes to your landscape since the system was installed. Smart controllers, improved zoning, and water efficient heads can significantly improve performance while extending the life of your system.

Upgrading can be a cost effective way to improve coverage and water efficiency without the disruption of a full replacement.

When Replacement Is the Better Long-Term Option

Sometimes replacement is the more practical choice. Older irrigation systems may have widespread wear, inefficient layouts, or recurring leaks that make ongoing repairs less effective.

Replacement may be recommended if your system uses outdated materials, lacks proper zoning, or no longer matches the size and layout of your property. Homes that have undergone major landscaping changes or additions often benefit from a new system designed to meet current needs.

Planning for replacement during the winter allows time to design a system that supports healthy lawn growth and efficient watering from the start of spring.

How Early Planning Leads to a Better Outcome

Evaluating your sprinkler system during the winter creates flexibility and avoids rushed decisions once the season begins. Early planning allows time to review options, determine whether an upgrade or replacement makes more sense, and schedule work before demand peaks.

With a plan in place, installation or upgrades can be completed early in the season, before lawns are fully active. This reduces disruption to your landscape and ensures your system is ready to support growth from day one.

Homeowners who plan early also avoid last minute scheduling challenges that often occur in spring.

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• Saves money on your utility bill.
• Nurtures green spaces that deliver real environmental benefits.
• Protects your community’s water supply for generations to come.
• Minimizes needed investments in infrastructure to store and carry water, which must be paid for by property taxes or municipal bonds.

Automatic watering or sprinkler systems – known in the trade as irrigation systems – deliver exactly the right amount of water at the right time. Efficient irrigation systems:

• Minimize overwatering while keeping your lawn and garden beautiful and healthy.
• Adjust watering automatically to account for rain and other conditions.
• Put every drop of water to work by minimizing evaporation and waste.
• Make maintaining your yard easy and convenient.

With just a few simple strategies, it’s easy to save water, save money and see better results.

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A professional spring sprinkler activation and tune up should consist of the following items to ensure your system is operating at optimum performance and is not wasting water.

Morris & Bergen Irrigation provides the following system inspection and basic tune up.

1. Recharge pipe system slowly to avoid pipe damage from water surge.
2. Inspection and cleaning of backflow to eliminate leaks.
3. Pressure test mainline pipe to detect leaks.
4. Zone inspection to ensure each zone is operating correctly.
5. Do a visual pressure test of each zone and note any pressure issues with recommendations for repairs or adjustments.
6. Clean sprinkler spray nozzles to ensure proper sprinkler coverage.
7. Inspect rain sensor for proper function and inform customer if repair is needed.
8. Replace batteries in wireless rain sensors.
9. Set a basic schedule for proper watering and to minimize excessive watering or run off.
10. Check and adjust sprinkler coverage to insure water is not being wasted on pavement.

Not all spring sprinkler activations or irrigation start-ups are created equal. Ask your lawn sprinkler service provider for a list of tasks that are included with their sprinkler start up.

When should you have your sprinkler system turned on? Usually any time after the second week of March is a safe bet for starting up your sprinkler system. I recommend calling early in the season to schedule your lawn sprinkler start-up; the best time to tune up your system is before you need it.

If you wait to call to schedule an irrigation Spring start-up when you need to run your sprinklers, you have waited too long. Your sprinkler company will have a back log and you might have to wait for a couple of weeks to get them out leaving your landscape to suffer because of a lack of water. If your system needs a major repair, which could also take some time to complete, there could be a delay of needed water for your plants.

Having your sprinkler system started up for the season early will eliminate thirsty plants when the rain stops. When the time comes that watering must begin, all you have to do is turn the dial on your controller to the on position and you will be ready to water, ensuring you have a lush green lawn and a healthy landscape!

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Over time, an automatic sprinkler system will pay for itself. The savings are incurred by eliminating over-watering, and providing perfect, efficient coverage. Hand watering is no match for the efficiency of an irrigation system. The most satisfying benefit of an automatic sprinkler system is the look of healthy, lush, green grass. Once the optimal times are programmed in the controller you won’t even know the sprinklers are there.

Call Morris & Bergen Irrigation today to hear about our Winter Special at (973) 628-7077!

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• Fertilizer and nutrient loss is minimized due to localized application and reduced leaching.
• Water application efficiency is high.
• Field leveling is not necessary.
• Fields with irregular shapes are easily accommodated.
• Recycled non-potable water can be safely used.
• Moisture within the root zone can be maintained at field capacity.
• Soil type plays less important role in frequency of irrigation.
• Soil erosion is minimized.
• Weed growth is minimized.
• Water distribution is highly uniform, controlled by output of each nozzle.
• Labor cost is less than other irrigation methods.
• Variation in supply can be regulated by regulating the valves and drippers.
• Fertigation can easily be included with minimal waste of fertilizers.
• Foliage remains dry, reducing the risk of disease.
• Usually operated at lower pressure than other types of pressurized irrigation, reducing energy costs.

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Drip and subsurface drip irrigation is used almost exclusively when using recycled municipal waste water. Regulations typically do not permit spraying water through the air that has not been fully treated to potable water standards.

Because of the way the water is applied in a drip system, traditional surface applications of timed-release fertilizer are sometimes ineffective, so drip systems often mix liquid fertilizer with the irrigation water. This is called fertigation; fertigation and chemigation (application of pesticides and other chemicals to periodically clean out the system, such as chlorine or sulfuric acid) use chemical injectors such as diaphragm pumps, piston pumps, or aspriators. The chemicals may be added constantly whenever the system is irrigating or at intervals. Fertilizer savings of up to 95% are being reported from recent university field tests using drip fertigation and slow water delivery as compared to timed-release and irrigation by micro spray heads.

Properly designed, installed, and managed, drip irrigation may help achieve water conservation by reducing evaporation and deep drainage when compared to other types of irrigation such as flood or overhead sprinklers since water can be more precisely applied to the plant roots. In addition, drip can eliminate many diseases that are spread through water contact with the foliage. Finally, in regions where water supplies are severely limited, there may be no actual water savings, but rather simply an increase in production while using the same amount of water as before. In very arid regions or on sandy soils, the preferred method is to apply the irrigation water as slowly as possible.

Pulsed irrigation is sometimes used to decrease the amount of water delivered to the plant at any one time, thus reducing runoff or deep percolation. Pulsed systems are typically expensive and require extensive maintenance. Therefore, the latest efforts by emitter manufacturers are focused toward developing new technologies that deliver irrigation water at ultra-low flow rates, i.e. less than 1.0 liter per hour. Slow and even delivery further improves water use efficiency without incurring the expense and complexity of pulsed delivery equipment.

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Primitive drip irrigation has been used since ancient times. Fan Sheng-Chih Shu, written in China during the first century BCE, describes the use of buried, unglazed clay pots filled with water as a means of irrigation. Modern drip irrigation began its development in Germany in 1860 when researchers began experimenting with subsurface irrigation using clay pipe to create combination irrigation and drainage systems. Research was later expanded in the 1920s to include the application of perforated pipe systems. The usage of plastic to hold and distribute water in drip irrigation was later developed in Australia by Hannis Thill.

Usage of a plastic emitter in drip irrigation was developed in Isreal by Simcha Blass and his son Yeshayahu. Instead of releasing water through tiny holes, that are blocked easily by tiny particles, water was released through larger and longer passageways by using velocity to slow water inside a plastic emitter. The first experimental system of this type was established in 1959 by Blass who partnered later (1964) with Kibbuta Hatzerim to create an irrigation company called Netafim. Together they developed and patented the first practical surface drip irrigation emitter.

In the United States, the first drip tape, called Dew Hose, was developed by Richard Chapin of Chapin Watermatics in the early 1960s.

Modern drip irrigation has arguably become the world’s most valued innovation in agriculture since the invention of the impact sprinkler in the 1930s, which offered the first practical alternative to surface irrigation. Drip irrigation may also use devices called micro-spray heads, which spray water in a small area, instead of dripping emitters. These are generally used on tree and vine crops with wider root zones. Subsurface drip irrigation (SDI) uses permanently or temporarily buried dripperline or drip tape located at or below the plant roots. It is becoming popular for row crop irrigation, especially in areas where water supplies are limited or recycled water is used for irrigation. Careful study of all the relevant factors like land topography, soil, water, crop and agro-climatic conditions are needed to determine the most suitable drip irrigation system and components to be used in a specific installation.

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HOST: The grass plant itself.  You must have a susceptible host plant in order for the disease to cause damage.  Some plants such as turf-type tall fescue are not susceptible to common diseases.

PATHOGEN: This is the disease or fungus. Most disease organisms are present in the thatch layer all year long.  The fungus is activated by just the right combination of temperatures and moisture.  This is why we see most diseases during the summer months when it is warm and wet.

ENVIRONMENT: As previously explained, it takes a perfect environmental storm to activate any disease.  Overcast days, poor air circulation, higher daytime and nighttime temperatures, and excessive moisture all contribute to potential disease development.

For turf grass professionals, diagnosis is easy because most diseases look just like their names: red thread, leaf spot, dollar spot and fairy ring to name just a few.

Solutions are not so easy.  We cannot change the environment, the pathogen is always present, and changing grass varieties (the host) is not a simple process.  Contact your lawn specialist for proper diagnosis and recommendations.

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• Clean up all the leftover leaves and trash that have accumulated in the landscape over the winter. Cleaning up litter removes hiding places for bugs that can attack your plants later.
• Most trees and shrubs benefit from annual pruning. It keeps them in shape, gets rid of dead and diseased wood and encourages new growth. But not all trees and shrubs should be pruned early, especially some of the flowering ones- always check with a professional gardening center or landscaper.
• After a long winter your lawn needs to be mowed, aerated and fertilized. It’s a good time to patch in or reseed bare spots.
• Walk around your yard and look for bare spots in the mulched beds. Add mulch to areas that are thin. If you have gravel mulch in your beds rake the beds to even out the gravel.
• If you have an irrigation system, do a thorough check up of the system. This may be the time to add or move a sprinkler head to get rid of that annoying dry spot in your lawn.

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