Oh boy, more fun with sprinkler systems! Digging in dry clay is HARD. I put the shovel on the ground, and stand on it, and it goes in 1/6th of an inch. So I can slam it down with my hands and break it up some. It is like digging through very well compacted gravel.
25 years ago when I installed my sprinkler system, I was a 100% novice, but I wanted a top quality system as we plan on living here until I go out in a wheelchair to the assisted living center, or on a gurney to the morgue. I used 1 inch pipe for the laterals and 1.5 inch for the main pipe from the pump to each section. 10 sections, 99 spray heads originally. Lots less to mow, lots more to edge.
Way back then this are of the yard was covered in Bermuda grass, and I mowed it. Then my wife went to school to become a master gardener. Now, the grass is less and less, and more and more areas become flower gardens.
So explore the area to find the pipe. This entire area was once just grass to mow. Now it is all flowers, and gardeners need a compost, so in the corner is her compost pile, and the compost barrel. I dump the yard grad clipping in the barrel, and rotate the barrel, and in no time it is soil to be added to the pile.
That is the very corner of our driveway parking area for our guests to be off the streets. What you can't see in the photo is tons of bees and butterflies buzzing on the flowering plants. Also hidden is one of the sprinkler heads I had to move once before when there was a huge bush in that corner. That bush was removed, and a compost replaced it.
If you look close, to the right and down a bit is the old cap from where a head was, but I was required to move to keep the master gardener happy.
So I had to add a new head, back where it was originally as that mega bush is gone.
This is the compost barrel and the photo is just a year or so ago. The area changes constantly at the whim of the master gardener, I just dig holes for the new plants, and dig out old dead ones, or unwanted plants.
That barrel is back in place, and the new head is adding water to the zone.
Who know what changes are due next spring. She has really gotten into flowers for the butterflies, and bees. It was almost freaky last fall as the Monarchs were passing through. I was mowing the back yard, and there were just swarms of butterflies swarming. I know for certain, butterflies don't bite or sting, but swarms of them fluttering around as I am trying to mow is just freaky. Not as freaky as the bush the honey bees love the most. It was literately buzzing with hundreds of bees all over it. We found the local bee farmer, and he came over to get some cutting of the plant, and gave us a bottle of raw honey.