By late May and early June, most Fresno and Clovis lawns are still riding the green momentum they built up through our mild spring. That’s exactly why now is the right moment to look closely at your irrigation system. The weeks before Central Valley summer hits its stride are the quiet window when small problems are still fixable — before a stuck head or a misaligned zone turns into a crispy brown patch you’ll be staring at until October. With California’s water-use restrictions tightening every year, a tuned-up system isn’t just about curb appeal; it’s about not wasting a drop.

Why Late Spring Is the Right Window

Once daytime highs in the San Joaquin Valley settle into the 100 to 105°F range and our clay-loam soils start baking, both tall fescue and Bermuda lawns shift into survival mode. Fescue especially struggles — it’s a cool-season grass holding on through a Mediterranean summer, and any weakness in sprinkler coverage shows up within days. Bermuda is tougher, but uneven coverage still leaves thin, stressed strips that weeds quickly colonize.

There’s a financial argument too. The City of Fresno, City of Clovis, and most Madera County water providers enforce assigned watering days and time-of-day restrictions, and tiered summer rates climb quickly once you push past your allotment. A leaking valve or a head spraying the sidewalk costs noticeably more in July than it did in March — and it can put you on the wrong side of local water rules.

Start With a Full System Run-Through

The audit begins with running each zone manually, one at a time, while you walk the yard. You’re looking for the obvious first: heads that won’t pop up through compacted Central Valley clay, heads that pop up but won’t rotate, geysers from cracked risers, and fine misting that signals pressure that’s too high. Misting is easy to overlook because the system looks like it’s working, but in our dry summer air that fine spray evaporates or drifts away on the Valley breeze before it ever reaches the soil.

Bring a notepad or your phone and mark every issue by zone number. You’ll save time at the repair stage when you don’t want to be guessing which station controls the strip along the back fence.

Check Coverage and Head-to-Head Spacing

Good irrigation design relies on head-to-head coverage, meaning the spray from one head reaches the next. Our heavy clay-loam soils settle over time, lawn equipment knocks heads sideways, and years of foot traffic gradually tilt risers out of alignment. The gaps between them are where summer dry spots are born — and on Bermuda, those gaps fill in with crabgrass and spurge before you know it.

Watch the spray pattern from each head and confirm it reaches its neighbors. Adjust the arc and radius where you can. If a zone was originally designed for lawn but you’ve since converted part of it to drought-tolerant California natives or Mediterranean plants, the nozzle type may need to change entirely — or that section may belong on its own drip zone. Rotor heads and fixed spray heads should never share a station, since their precipitation rates are very different and one area will always be over- or under-watered.

Look for the Leaks You Can’t See

Underground leaks waste the most water and are the easiest to miss. Walk each zone after it runs and look for:

Soggy areas that linger in our otherwise dry climate
Sunken or eroded soil along lateral lines
Unusually lush green strips where a line might be weeping
Mineral staining or constant dampness around valve boxes

Compare your water bill from April or May against the same month last year. A jump of 15 to 20 percent with no change in habits almost always points to a hidden leak. Also inspect your backflow preventer — required by California code and by Fresno and Clovis water departments. A cracked bonnet or worn poppet will drip continuously, and many homeowners only notice when they walk past it on a quiet summer evening and hear it hissing.

Reprogram the Controller for Valley Summer

Spring schedules are not summer schedules. As temperatures climb into the triple digits, your lawn needs deeper, less frequent watering — typically two to three longer cycles per week rather than daily short ones, split into “cycle and soak” runs so water actually penetrates our clay rather than running off. Deep watering pushes roots down, which is what carries fescue and Bermuda through August and September.

A few specifics for our region:

Water before sunrise (typically before 9 a.m.) to comply with Fresno and Clovis restrictions and to minimize evaporation
Honor your assigned watering days — usually two or three per week depending on your address and current drought stage
Set the seasonal adjust feature on your controller, or upgrade to a WaterSense-labeled smart controller that pulls local ET data
Confirm any weather or soil moisture sensors are actually communicating with the controller

If your lawn is fighting a losing battle no matter how dialed-in the schedule gets, it may also be worth weighing synthetic turf for the hottest, hardest-to-irrigate corners of the yard.

Don’t Forget the Drip Zones

Drip irrigation in beds and around trees is often forgotten during a check-up because there’s nothing spraying in the air. Walk the beds with the zone running and feel for emitters that have clogged with our hard Valley water minerals, popped off, or been buried under mulch. Established trees — especially valley oaks, crape myrtles, and fruit trees — may have outgrown their original emitter count and need additional lines extended out to the dripline of the canopy.

Filters on drip systems should be cleaned at least twice a year, and pre-summer is one of those times. A clogged filter starves the entire zone, and you won’t notice until your Mediterranean plants start wilting in 102°F heat.

Your Next Step Before the Heat Arrives

Block off an hour this weekend to run every zone and write down what you find. Most Fresno and Clovis homeowners can handle nozzle swaps, head adjustments, and controller reprogramming on their own. For pressure problems, stuck valves, mainline leaks, or a system that’s never quite worked right, bring in a licensed irrigator before the calendar flips to July. Catching these issues now, rather than in mid-August when your fescue is already thinning, is the difference between a steady green lawn and a recovery project that runs into fall — and it’s the single best step you can take toward staying within California’s water budget this year.

Ready to get ahead of summer? Contact Longhorn Scapes for a free quote on a professional sprinkler and drip system tune-up before the Fresno heat arrives.