If you have a lawn in Mandurah, Western Australia it is necessary to water it yourself - or it will just about die (if not completely). The recommendation is about 10 mm of water twice a week. More than that and you may be slapped with a fine - water is a limited resource (I could debate the merits of water pricing vs water restrictions but that's another blog post entirely).
Replacing some of the lawn with garden beds is a great idea, but then you need to think about the impact on the sprinklers and making sure they actually water the lawn this required amount.
In our case, we made a garden bed along the side about 20 years ago and planted a bay leaf tree. It was planted directly in front of a sprinkler, blocking it.
The lawn suffered considerably.
This was one of the most challenging places to move the sprinkler. The necessary removal of the bush made it a bit easier but it was a case of extending the pipe, not shortening it as I'd initially hoped. I identified this schematic from a previous project:
Digging the trench was the 'fun' part. First, cut through the roots as best as you can with a spade. Then it's a combination of using a trench shovel, secateurs, loppers and hedge trimmers.
This video shows just how much roots there were.
When joining the new pipe, make sure you have enough time before the sprinklers come on!
Cut the riser to length and fit the sprinkler you need. Here, we used a full circle sprinkler. Before fitting the sprinkler, rinse out the pipe. Here, we got a white fitting that does nicely.
Consider a 50-100 mm pipe to cover the riser and a cap, for ease of maintenance.
Finally, backfill and watch your lawn grow back! 😎
