Automated watering at night - does anyone do that?

I had mowed my meadow piece. It was originally knee-high. Unfortunately, very dried out and had laid down. I think the stubble field will recover once it rains, but something beautiful is something else.

So for us, mulch on the beds and some more robust plants help. The lawn is now kept at 5cm by Robbie at these temperatures. After a month without any significant drop of rain, watering is necessary here as well. Yes, it doesn't look so great anymore, because the underlying gravel causes the water to drain too quickly. But what can you do. It's just brown. As soon as 1-2 weeks of rain come, it recovers very quickly.

First of all, many thanks to rick2018 for the great experiences. The Hunter system really looks great and it can also be integrated into Home Assistant, at least a little bit.

I have a lawn that is mowed by a robotic mower (of course only during the day). It is watered with rainwater from the cistern. Our district has no water shortage at all, so even during the most severe drought periods, there has never been a call to save water.

My goal is irrigation
- of the lawn areas
- of the elongated hedge
- of specific plants that sometimes also have increased water needs and therefore need to be switched separately
I would prefer an underground irrigation system (also because it saves a lot of water), but quickly only sprinklers will probably be feasible.

The lawn only gets the essentials to force it to develop deeper roots.

This is actually one of the keys to heat-resistant lawn. I often experience people complaining about dried-out lawns and then spreading the so-called "heat lawn" from discount stores in August. Deep roots, correct fertilization, and regular mowing ideally with a robot, then much less water is needed. This is also one of the reasons why I have looked at underground systems like Hunter Eco Wrap or Lite-Soil Bluelite-Net. Although I have a 10m³ cistern, it eventually runs dry, and then I prefer to save the evaporation losses.

10m3 is really not much for lawn. The underground systems are good but you have little control, are significantly more expensive and complex, and if something breaks... Therefore, I would always choose pop-up sprinklers. With low water consumption and not so susceptible to wind. So Hunter rotators or comparable products from Rainbird or Perrot.

So far, I have never seen the bottom of the cistern, provided it was really only used for my garden. So for my garden with about 240m² of lawn and some border planting, it is quite sufficient - however, there are also 170m² of roof area connected to it, and that's why a summer thunderstorm is enough to refill it well. Yes, I am painfully aware of the disadvantages of underground systems, especially a continuous network obviously means a complete garden redesign. What I still find very tempting, as mentioned, is the lower water consumption but also the neighbors who are already setting up the bonfire again because there is a water shortage in Brandenburg and I am watering with my rainwater in an area with a water surplus. I spare myself the discussion when the irrigation is not visible. What of course does not work with the underground system is the targeted control of the sprinkler via Home Assistant to deter unwanted visitors.