I'm in one of the hottest parts of Los Angeles (West Hills), and I'm about to change my front & back lawns into native drought-tolerant plants using the "soil lasagna" method.

So, I'll be layering paper/cardboard over the live grass, then about 4 inches of compost, then about 2 inches of mulch, then planting immediately by digging through the layers (sometimes people wait a few months for the lasagna layers to develop into quality soil before planting, but I've read that's not necessary, and I prefer to plant immediately).

As part of this process, I'll be converting my sprinkler system to drip irrigation. I believe this can be done by simply replacing the sprinkler heads with some kind of drip irrigation heads/lines (? not sure what they are called ?). And I'll be capping any sprinklers where I don't need another drip thingee.

QUESTION: Should I convert the sprinkler heads before putting down the lasagna layers, or after putting down the layers? If afterwards, do I do it after I've also put in my plants or do I do it at the very end?

I was thinking doing it at the end made sense because during the planting, I may wind up varying from my written landscape design somewhat. But then it occurred to me that it would be easier to access the sprinkler heads before adding 6 inches of cover on top. Especially those in the middle of the lawn (the sprinkler heads adjacent to the sidewalks should be pretty accessible even afterwards, since the lasagna layers will taper to sidewalk-level at the edges of the yard).

I thought of capping the sprinkler heads in the middle of the yard before adding layers, then add the layers with the expectation of using the edge sprinklers to feed my drip system, and if I decide later that I do want to add drip lines coming off any of those capped sprinkler heads, I'll dig them up as needed. But I'm not sure that's the best approach.

Thanks,

Ken