View original postmy back yard is taken up mostly by grass, and the previous owners (an LLC which flips houses like mine) installed a sprinkler system before sodding. i hate sprinkler systems, but i got the idea that i am going to rip out the vast majority of the grass (or all, i haven't decided yet) and put in stone paths with areas for planting. this way i can just set the sprinkler to water the garden automatically so i don't have to spend 20+ minutes doing it. this way i can put the sprinklers to good use and actually use the drip irrigation that comes along with it for the flower beds on the side of the house like it was originally set up to do. and i get the added benefit of only having to mow my measly front yard instead of both!
It depends on your setup, watering isn't much of an issue for me, it can be but usually only intermittently and my problem is flooding, hence the digging of various small bonds through out the yard and installation of buried drainage pipes. Raised beds can't be over-watered, and if you mix in a good amount of peat moss they don't dry out too fast either, and on those occasions it gets dry enough water is advisable it gives me an excuse to cheat and ad din some miracle gro.