Watering lawn in a remote location?

[cold1313]

I was hoping someone might have a few ideas.

Long story short - I need to establish some grass to avoid erosion problems on my property that is a bit far from my house. I couldn't get grass to establish well enough last year and the lack of water had part to do with it.

I could run several hundred feet of hose out to the area from the house and water from my well. If I go this route, I think I'd have to purchase a bulk roll of "tubing" and use it as a garden hose.

OR

The area is right next to my pond. The problem is that I do not have electric out there and my generator is bolted next to the house. I have a 12V pump but it isn't a continuous duty to handle a ton of water. Even if I had a pump to handle the volume, connecting a sump pump (for example) to a garden hose with a sprinkler seems like a bad idea since the pump will be trying to move more water than the sprinkler puts out.

Not sure what to do. Thought about an IBC tote and gravity watering, but then I'd have to go buy a tote (or luck out and find one that's actually clean), a pump, a way to power a pump....etc etc.

 

[RNeumann]

Is this a temporary or permanent situation? Once the grass is established do you plan to continue watering?

 

[cold1313]

Temporary.

My friend (an agronomist) said as long as I could water for 2 weeks, daily, he should be able to get everything established (the soil is not good - old fill dirt).

However if I can see the need kill the existing grass in a few locations where the slope is very high. ODOT has a blend of brass see for "high slope, low growth" so hopefully I don't have to mow those slopes again. Just spray for weeds.

I could buy 4 - 6 100' sections of garden hose, but I'm not sure how much pressure drop I would have. Or run 500' of PEX out.

 

[turnkey4099]

I was hoping someone might have a few ideas.

Long story short - I need to establish some grass to avoid erosion problems on my property that is a bit far from my house. I couldn't get grass to establish well enough last year and the lack of water had part to do with it.

I could run several hundred feet of hose out to the area from the house and water from my well. If I go this route, I think I'd have to purchase a bulk roll of "tubing" and use it as a garden hose.

OR

The area is right next to my pond. The problem is that I do not have electric out there and my generator is bolted next to the house. I have a 12V pump but it isn't a continuous duty to handle a ton of water. Even if I had a pump to handle the volume, connecting a sump pump (for example) to a garden hose with a sprinkler seems like a bad idea since the pump will be trying to move more water than the sprinkler puts out.

Not sure what to do. Thought about an IBC tote and gravity watering, but then I'd have to go buy a tote (or luck out and find one that's actually clean), a pump, a way to power a pump....etc etc.

Little 3hp gas engine (may have been a 5hp) and a pump from a pump supply house. They will advise on the pump type to suit the application. That is what I used for several years to water out of a small creek. House supply didn't have enough pressure to run sprinklers.


Later:

ooops you probably don't have a convenient creek or pond.

 

[Streetcar]

It is terrible time to start grass in Ohio. You will need to water for at least a month. For remote location, I have used 500' of 3/4" hose with decent pressure. How large of area are you trying to grow grass?

 

[MossRoad]

I was hoping someone might have a few ideas.

Long story short - I need to establish some grass to avoid erosion problems on my property that is a bit far from my house. I couldn't get grass to establish well enough last year and the lack of water had part to do with it.

I could run several hundred feet of hose out to the area from the house and water from my well. If I go this route, I think I'd have to purchase a bulk roll of "tubing" and use it as a garden hose.

OR

The area is right next to my pond. The problem is that I do not have electric out there and my generator is bolted next to the house. I have a 12V pump but it isn't a continuous duty to handle a ton of water. Even if I had a pump to handle the volume, connecting a sump pump (for example) to a garden hose with a sprinkler seems like a bad idea since the pump will be trying to move more water than the sprinkler puts out.

Not sure what to do. Thought about an IBC tote and gravity watering, but then I'd have to go buy a tote (or luck out and find one that's actually clean), a pump, a way to power a pump....etc etc.

Poly pipe is probably a lot cheaper than a pump, tote, power source, etc....

How's your soil? I ran a hundred feet of poly pipe underground out to my garden many years ago. I just dug a hole by the house, attached the poly pipe to a plow share that I bolted vertically to a support, slipped it 8" into the hole, and drove out to the garden. I was shocked at how easy it pulled in our sandy soil. It was so easy, that after I was done, I wanted to see how tight it was. I grabbed the pipe at the end and was able to easily pull it with just my arms. So if you don't have too many curves and can make straight runs, I'd suggest that over getting a pump, tank, power source, etc...

 

[Streetcar]

Why are you killing existing grass

 

[RNeumann]

A little 12v submerged pump in the pond is how I’d do it if it was more than about 500’. Under that and I’d do the flex hoses- Amazon has several.

We water all of our juvenile plants with the hoses. Not ideal with regards to speed but it works for a temporary solution. I put a splitter near the end so two of us can water at the same time.

 

[gsganzer]

I use a roller pump on my little Kubota BX2200 PTO to water my pasture. You then get a rolling hose cart and a good sprinkler. Here's the one's I bought. Works like a champ. For the suction side of the pump, I use a suction hose and an inlet filter from Tractor supply. I wrapped my inlet filter with a couple of layers of some shade cloth netting I had lying around to make it even more debris proof. I just back the tractor up to the waters edge, set the brake and put two wheel chocks down to be safe. (just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean they're not really out to get me :laughing

Here's some links:
Northern Tool Wheeled sprinkler
Northern Tool hose cart
TSC Suction hose
TSC Basket Strainer
TSC Roller pump


I actually have both a 4 roller and an 8 roller pump, but the 4 roller seems to work fine. I don't recall what diameter suction hose I bought, but I think it's 1 inch, maybe it's bigger.

 

[TractorGuy]

A couple of years ago I bought a 500' roll of 1/2" poly pipe to get some grass established in my drive. I cut it into 4 pieces and bought male and female hose repair ends and pressed them in to make the pieces more manageable. Had to heat the tube a little but not too much to get the hose ends to go in. My well would only support one sprinkler at a time so I had to do a fair amount of monitoring and moving. I stuck a 360 degree sprinkler head on an old light tripod and just kept moving it to get full coverage. I had less than a hundred bucks in it.

 

[cold1313]

It is terrible time to start grass in Ohio. You will need to water for at least a month. For remote location, I have used 500' of 3/4" hose with decent pressure. How large of area are you trying to grow grass?

I agree....that's why I'm looking at how to get water out there now, instead of in August. Plus I need to address the compaction in the soil and get my soil samples back to see what I need to add back in the ground.

 

[cold1313]

Why are you killing existing grass

Did you continue to read where I said I have high slopes and I can reseed the area with a grass mixture that does not require mowing - or only a single mowing each year?

 

[cold1313]

I'm thinking the PEX ($150 for 500 ft) and then add 2 -3 sprinklers, valved, to control what is on and off and to avoid pressure issues.

 

[shui5612]

An IBC tote is somewhat cheap.. I manage to get them for around 50-60$ a piece from a local factory that buys chlorine in IBCs. Plastic barrels are around 10-15$ here.

But here's what I would do..

I managed to get a couple 2inch gas pumps for relatively cheap.. they move a lot of water quick so you can make a DIY attachment if you want and use it as a garden hose.. however a 2inch hose is heavy to drag around so maybe look for a 1 or 1.5 inch version.. harbour freight should have them... I got mine from princess auto in canada..

And then sell the pump after you're done with it..

For the attachment I made one that looks like a T from ABS plastic pipe and capped both ends of the T part with holes drilled out. About 10 holes each about 1/4 inch.. shot water far enough with enough flow that watering a 60000sqft lawn took under 20 mins ..

 

[Streetcar]

Did you continue to read where I said I have high slopes and I can reseed the area with a grass mixture that does not require mowing - or only a single mowing each year?

If you let the fescue ( most common grass in Ohio) go to seed it will start to lay down. Then you mow only to control weeds or brush. ODOT low height grass is still over a foot tall

 

[Jstpssng]

If you have a small horizontal shaft gas motor lying around you can get a pump to bolt onto it for 99.95. It's something that you can sell afterwards, or store in the garage until you need it again. The problem with a gas pump for a small area is that it puts out a LOT of pressure to scrub back off so that you don't need to reseed again. Aside from that the tote mentioned above is probably the easiest/most economical use, as long as you have a good well. It's pretty amazing what you can do with a little gravity, I've run soaker hoses with a 75 foot run and about a 5' drop.
In a perfect world your pond would be higher than the place that you're trying to seed.

EditAfter rereading your original post, you already covered what most of us suggest.
I have a 275 gallon oil barrel for hauling water.It was dry when I got it, and my father couldn't remember if he had ever used it. He also pointed out that plants can handle a small amount of oil. i.e., 10-10-10
end edit.

 

[zzvyb6]

Many years ago, I ran 700' of garden hose out to my road to water a dozen new pine trees. You don't need a large flow rate, just a quantity over a relatively long time. Garden hoses around here are plentiful at garage sales and estate sales. Soaker hoses may be what you want at the end of the route, but why get all complicated ? Couple the hoses to a flow meter or water timer and grow the grass. Watering at night is the way to go (minimal evaporation).

 

[fishheadbob]

I would suggest you wait until September when mother nature is likely to provide adequate water.

 

[BLSXJ]

if you decide to go the gas powered pump route.... pay attention to "output head" aka output pressure. most gas pump are high flow, low pressure.... you need high pressure, low flow for running a sprinkler.

the roller pump powered off the pto is likely the cheapest option for you.

I can't water my lawn using my well... it just cant keep up.

 

[gsganzer]

I can't water my lawn using my well... it just cant keep up.

I have the same problem with my well.

A roller pump is pretty handy. I have cam-lock connections on mine so I can easily swap it from my 3-pt sprayer to using it solo for irrigating.

When I irrigate, I run mine off the rear PTO (540rpm) on my little Kubota BX and put it at a fast idle. I've never tried it on the mid-PTO, but I think that one runs at 1000RPM and would really move some water.

Impact spray heads have a pretty big nozzle and don't plug very easily, so I haven't had an issue yet. But, the roller pumps are capable of generating 150- 300 PSI (depending on model and speed), so a relief valve somewhere probably isn't a bad idea. I have a relief valve from an old sprayer that I might re-purpose.