NJ Lawns Community

Hey neighbors, I'm in Hackensack and had my sprinkler system checked out last week cause I've been getting these weird dry patches along my backyard fence line and around the corners of my patio. The tech said the heads 'should' be covering everything but honestly I'm not convinced. Has anyone else dealt with this? I'm running standard Rain Bird pop-ups and I've read that they might not rotate properly in tight corners. My lawn is mostly tall fescue with some KBG mixed in and those brown spots are driving me crazy. What should I be looking for?

LawnLover - standard Rain Bird pop-ups are notoriously bad for corner coverage, especially the 1800 series. Those things throw a pretty tight radius and if your system was installed by the builder's minimum-code spec, they've probably got the heads spaced too far apart for proper coverage in corners and along fence lines. What I'd do is get a bucket and some marking flags and manually map where each head is actually throwing water. You'll probably see overlap gaps. Also check if you have proper MP rotator heads - they're about $12-15 each at Lenni Lawn and Garden in Paramus and totally worth the upgrade.

Can I suggest maybe going a different direction here? Before you throw money at new heads, I'd look at your soil first. I had similar issues in Rutherford and come to find out my soil along the fence line was completely compacted from when the house was built - water was just running off. I started topdressing with compost and using a core aerator (rent one from Bergen County Tool Library for like $25) and honestly my coverage improved dramatically even with my older system. The organic matter helps the soil actually hold water instead of it beading up and running off. Just my two cents!

GrassGuru - thanks, that's really helpful! I didn't realize the standard pop-ups had that limitation. My system is original to the house (2015) so yeah probably builder-grade stuff. Quick question - do MP rotators fit in the same housing or do I need to swap out the whole body? And CompostQueen - I hear you on the soil, I definitely have clay-heavy soil back there, hadn't thought about that contribution. How long did it take for you to see improvement after the aerating?

LawnLover - you can keep the same housing, just swap the nozzle. Put an MP Nozzle in and you're good to go. Pro tip though - don't cheap out and get knockoffs, get genuine Hunter or Toro MP nozzles. The ones at the big box stores are hit or miss. Also for your clay soil situation, set your controller to run shorter cycles more frequently - like two 15-minute sessions instead of one 30-minute - helps water actually soak in instead of running off. You're in luck too, spring is the perfect time to make this switch before the heat hits.

LawnLover - I saw real improvement after about a month honestly, but stick with it. I did three rounds of aerating over that first season and kept up with the compost topdress each time. The earthworms came back which was honestly super satisfying to see. Now my fence line is actually the greenest part of my yard lol. Might be worth doing both - fix the heads AND work on your soil. Best of both worlds!

Alright I'm convinced - gonna do both. Got a quote from a local irrigation company (Turnkey Irrigation in Little Ferry, they've done good work for neighbors) to swap to MP rotators and I'm gonna rent the aerator this weekend. Will report back! Thanks everyone 🙌