Irrigation - Detailed Planning and Fundamental Issues

you can go ahead. But sanitary and landscaping work is already too late.
Will you have a cistern? Well? Or will you have to use the water pipe?
If the latter, you should have a 25mm water meter installed right away.
For the control lines, you will also need a penetration into the house.

Sorry that I briefly hijacked your thread.

No problem

So. As I said, 32mm PE-HD pipe is already ready. That’s probably a bit over the top, but the 25mm pipes weren’t much cheaper either (100m for €70 vs. €100).

I already understood the thing with the T.I.P. pump correctly. I also think I will use the existing setup as is for now. Tomorrow I need to find out why the check valve doesn’t work and the water column always drops…

Then a few detailed questions about the planning.

[*]Attached are the planned circuits. There, mostly due to the shape of the property, most sprinklers are always arranged in series. How bad is that? It is usually recommended to branch the circuit instead.
[*]How do you deal with unplanned areas? The rectangle at the top edge of the property is a garden shed only tentatively planned. We should probably at least roughly fix its size and position and plan the sprinklers accordingly around it?
[*]I want to distribute about 3 Gardena water sockets across the property. I will branch their common line (3/4") before the valve box with a T-piece and keep them permanently under pressure. Does that make sense?
[*]For the area around the well (greenhouse) as well as for the property edges (hedges) I would at least prepare a line to install a drip line later if necessary. For now it will just be capped. (Planned is an 8-valve box and the 12 Hydrawise)
[*]Are there significant differences in fittings? There is about a factor of 3 difference there. Is a Unidelta T-piece 32 x 32 x 32 really worth €8.10 if you can get the same from HTC for €2.45?

20 o’clock? Your kids asleep?
Our four-year-old is still awake in Corona times. What are we doing wrong?
Just kidding, very interesting topic. I will follow it with great interest.

We can’t manage 8 p.m. either. But ~9 p.m. is doable. The wasteland is wonderfully suited for the kids to run themselves exhausted. And on the (fenceless) neighboring properties there are sprinklers, rabbits, chickens, etc.

1. Pressure-regulating housings, so no problem if the sprinklers are in series as long as at least 2.8 bar still reach the very end.

2. Yes, plan "around the outside" right away. If it will only come in a few years, keep watering normally and only move the sprinklers during construction.

3. Branch off the water outlets before the valve box. There are few use cases that make a valve necessary or sensible. As long as the pump is powered, the outlets can be used.

4. Place the reserve circuits, e.g., for drip irrigation, right at the supposed locations. Let them protrude a bit from the ground and put an end cap on them.

5. I have already had some cheap fittings break (partly while screwing them on) and/or later become leaky. Most connections hold without problems. I only use Unidelta now. I haven't had any failures with them yet. Of course, the additional costs add up significantly, but I don’t have to dig up the garden again for it. It’s a risk assessment. If you document the location of your pipes and connection points well, you can also use the cheaper ones.

Gardena is less durable, more wind-sensitive, has no homogeneous irrigation, etc.

I’m afraid we’re not that demanding. In my opinion, the advantage of Gardena is that it is simply the brand you can get everywhere. If you want any additional part, you just go and get it. With alternatives, that often requires internet research first.

At the beginning and end of the range, the precipitation is lower. Therefore, the sprinklers should always overlap.

Strange, I can’t confirm that. It’s exactly the opposite with us. Are you sure?

The irrigation (droplets, roots, area irrigation...) must be adapted to the respective planting.

Yes, that’s why I would advise the OP to plan the planting first before planning the irrigation.

After two weeks of drought, even the natural meadow doesn’t look good anymore.

It can endure that as long as it’s not mowed. But without any water eventually it turns to desert - of course.

The thing is also that climate change here is so severe that at some point you can hardly water enough. A cistern won’t get you very far. It just runs empty too quickly.

Yes, that's why I would first plan the planting in the OP's place before planning the irrigation.

Basically, we have that too. There are several areas where "planting" is only planned so far; I lay a conduit there and can irrigate later. In two weeks the landscaping gardener is coming, the garden will be tilled, and then seeded. Until then, I want to have the trenches for the pipes closed again. In the worst case, the planting will only take place in all areas in years to come.

1. You mean the PRS40, right? Now I understand their advantage. I had only planned with pressure-regulating valves in the box and thought that would save me having to use it in the sprinkler. Do I understand correctly that with the PRS40 I prevent a sprinkler at the beginning from using too much water or taking away pressure? Do I even need the valves with pressure regulation then?

Thanks for all the feedback. It's really good to read that I wasn't completely on the wrong track.