An age-old question--which came first, the chicken or the egg?--has been mulled many times over. There is an answer, of course, the chicken. It is biblical and is one of the creations of that first week. But you will not find the answer to the age-old question/argument about which comes first--the landscaping or the irrigation--in the Bible. This answer comes from experience.

The response from landscape/ irrigation contractors has been overwhelmingly unanimous. The irrigation goes in first. In fact, many contractors focused only on landscaping and out of necessity, incorporated irrigation into their business.

Those purists, the irrigation contractors, have a strong argument for their side. In many cases after they install a system, the landscaping design will change as it is installed, requiring them to return to the site to make sometimes rather drastic changes to the irrigation system.

Landscape contractors respond that the plant material they are installing requires water. And in 90° weather, the plant material simply cannot wait for the irrigation to be installed. Chuck Messer, of Messer Landscape, Inc., has three locations in Richmond, Staunton, and Norfolk Virginia. He began in the landscaping business, growing his own plant material, and was sub-contracting the irrigation out to several different contractors. He was continuously running into scheduling problems. "That's what made us get into irrigation, and now that we're into it, we've found it to be profitable and exciting. We enjoy it as a major part of our business now."

Messer installs the irrigation first, then the plant material. He uses drip irrigation in areas that require drip, such as rose beds, or when they are installing irrigation in an established landscape. But he personally prefers using mist, shrub, and pop-up heads. He has had a few problems with the drip systems occasionally becoming clogged. The landscape maintenance crew won't realize there's a problem until they see a dead shrub, and then it's too late.

Eric Kolb and Brad Hughes of Triangle Green Scene, Inc., located in Raleigh, North Carolina, began as a landscape maintenance company. This led to maintaining and repairing existing irrigation systems as their landscaping business grew. "We almost learned what not to do before learning what to do from all that we were repairing!" They later chose to attend an irrigation school sponsored by a local supplier to learn the basics of irrigation to complement their "hands on" experience. Today they install landscaping as well as irrigation systems.

Janet Moyer Landscaping in San Francisco, California, began as a design, build, and maintain firm, focusing on residential landscape and irrigation installations. They begin their job with grading and elevation changes, then add any hardscaping such as patios, decks, fences, etc. The third step is the turf irrigation, followed by the actual turf. They like to get all the 1/2" tubing, controllers, pipe, valves, etc., installed before they even begin to plant. As they build their plant beds, they run the 1/2" drip tubing through the beds. When they begin to install the plant material, they add the 1/4" tubing with the individual emitters built in. They create sets and as one person plants, another follows behind and plugs them into the 1/2" tube, thus the plant material and irrigation are installed simultaneously. "If it's a warm day, we can have those plants getting water two minutes after they are in the ground." Located in Jacksonville, Oregon, Gary Krause, of Gary Krause Landscaping, very seldom will install a landscaping job without installing irrigation. He doesn't particularly care for installing irrigation, finding it more stressful than landscaping. But, like most contractors, he refuses to sub out any part of his job.

Krause begins with grading or building up the soil, then installs the irrigation, sometimes planting simultaneously where drip irrigation is involved. If he has a customer who simply does not want irrigation, he has him sign a waiver that if a plant dies, the customer will maintain responsibility. In that part of the country, the rainfall can be unreliable, often going from May until November without any downfall. This factor makes irrigation very easy to sell.

In Albuquerque, New Mexico, irrigation has been a way of life almost since the beginning of time. So, for Dave Danniell of Heads Up Landscape Contractors, Inc., irrigation is an established part of the landscaping job. His company started out as an irrigation company, and later added landscaping. He uses drip irrigation in most areas except for the turf, where pop-ups are used.

His procedure is similar to Janet Mayer's Landscaping, the irrigation basics going in first, then, as the plant material is planted, the drip irrigation is finished simultaneously. "Because of city ordinances, in the last 5-6 years, only 15% of any new landscaped area can be used as high water use turf, and the rest has to be low water use shrubs and ground cover areas, drastically reducing the number of pop-ups now installed on any job." ctions, many landscape designers are incorporating a variety of gravel mulches, colors and sizes, etc." Annual and perennial beds are installed using drip irrigation, or whenever it's suitable, they're placed where they will receive the overflow from the turf pop-ups.

The one common denominator all these contractors share is this: When it comes to deciding between irrigation supply companies, service is the determining factor, then product quality, then price.

The reason that service is at the top of the list of importance is that the contractor's time is money and they want to get in and get out as quickly as possible. If there's a problem, they want it taken care of promptly, with basically a "no questions asked" policy. They want a two-way trust business relationship with their supplier.

The contractors we spoke with require a signed contract, and most require a deposit that ranges from 30­50% of the overall cost of the project. All offer warranties on the plant material if an irrigation system is also installed; this warranty is usually for one year. The service of offering a drawing of the final system and landscape design varies. If a customer asks for it, it is generally included. The size of the job also plays a factor; the smaller jobs don't necessitate a drawing. Industrial jobs always receive a final drawing; this is usually at the request of the architect who hired the contractor.

Backflow devices are required by code; however, codes vary from state to state. Some states require you to obtain a special license to install them. About half of the contractors will sub-contract this part of the job out to a plumber. The rest will include this installation in their contract to save their customer an additional cost.

The popularity of water gardens and fountains varies throughout the United States. The western coastal states and the eastern states seem to use water in landscape design more frequently than anywhere else. This is a matter of taste and trends in the different areas.

Contractors who do use water designs in the landscape enjoy installing and maintaining them. They seldom have trouble finding the materials needed to build. The greatest challenge is making it fit into the scheme of things, as though put there by nature. But most contractors like a challenge and the finished product can be a personally rewarding experience. More and more contractors are using drip irrigation for the flower and shrub beds. If designed properly, overspray on sidewalks and streets is not a major problem. With the many adjustable arc pop-ups, and the large variety of nozzles in the various arc degrees available today, overspray should be a thing of the past. It is not surprising that trenching machines are used more frequently than the machinery that pulls the pipe in the ground. The reasons varied from problems with the pipe kinking up, to cost of the machinery, to the fact that most contractors are installing either sod or re-seeding the turf area anyway, so the mess that trenching makes is not a problem. In established landscaping where the designs are being modified and irrigation is being added, having the use of this type of machinery is an advantage.

The drought on the East Coast last year played a major role in the irrigation industry at that time and will continue its impact for the next several years. While the drier, western states are confronted with water shortages and restrictions as an ongoing challenge, the eastern states very seldom had to deal with it to the degree that they had to last year.

Some cities passed emergency ordinances halting installations of new irrigation systems. Some also restricted the use of existing systems, with the threat of a heavy fine to back them up. Better not be caught with green grass! In most cases, though, homeowners were allowed to use a certain amount of water for irrigation, and this is where the use of drip irrigation became an important advantage. While the turf may get brown, and even die, it can be replaced at a much lesser cost than flowers, trees, and shrubbery.

Industry predictions are that last year's drought will increase irrigation sales tremendously. This is already proving to be true. Normally, winter months are slow months, but contractors are keeping a steady stream of work this year, partly due to the milder winter weather.

Many contractors offer maintenance as one of their services. They try to educate their customer on the growth habits and water requirements of their plant material. Over-watering is the most common cause of problems and the homeowner does not understand this. Generally speaking, their instinct is that "more is better." In the case of water, this is not always true and can cause major problems for the landscape contractor if the homeowner decides to adjust the schedule or use the manual override on their control clocks.

Overall, no matter what part of the country you're working in, the basics of landscaping are the same--your mission is to get water to the plant material so it doesn't have to depend on Mother Nature. Your reputation is your greatest asset, and word of mouth is your best advertisement.