At least the front yard. :-)

First of all, it's not because I don't know how to run it or fix it. I'm a licensed irrigator (Texas), two certifications from IA, am in charge of a 27k+ student college campus and am currently teaching an irrigation course in our Ag Dept.

We moved into a our house in March and it had an irrigation system already. It started with drought restrictions in our city. One section of my system had heads right up against the curb... instant violation of the ordinance when they run into the steet which they will always do.

Then our water bills were too high and my wife was not happy! I was trying to get the landscape going again in a house that had not been lived in for a while. We were in the second year of a drought and way behind on rainfall... which is still a problem.

So, I let our St. Augustine lawn in the front die off and, what didn't die, I sprayed. Most of the front is shady (Cedar elms) and I'm now planting native plants and watering by hand. In the process, it occured to me that I PREFER watering by hand! I enjoy keeping an eye on the plants and knowing just when the plants need water and when they don't. I think gardeners probably don't like irrigation systems as much as they do watering by hand because they can stay in touch with their gardens more...?

Of course, my system was designed to irrigate turf and I no longer have turf in the front so I'm taking the heads out but I may use the valves for drip or something later... just no more sprays for now. I did convert one section already (the one that used to be sprays along the curb). I 90'ed up off the pipe coming out of the valve and put in a hose thread adapter so now I can hook up a hose and have a hose-end sprnkler to water just the area that I want during the night. Haven't used it yet but it's available.

Sorry for rambling but, as I teach in my class, mismanaged residential irrigation systems drive most of the permanent infrastructure demands for cities to supply water during the peak use periods, something all of the residents pay for. This really hit home when I became one of those people due to the system design - zoning that didn't match my needs and poor distribution uniformity throughout. I'm kind of enjoying working my way backwards. Next step, rainwater collection system to supply the landscape irrigation needs!