The Brain Dump

There are several great reasons everyone should be using drip irrigation compared with simply using a hose or a watering can. Water conservation : by delivering water directly to the roots of the plant there is less water lost from evaporation and less water lost to run-off since the soil has a chance to soak up the water before it can drain away.  We can also use recycled water or captured rain water to further save precious water resources (OK, you can do this in a watering can too). Lower risk of disease : wet leaves can lead to fungus when they can't dry off quickly enough and plants almost always do better when the leaves are dry. Effective Nutrient management : Decreasing run-off also helps to keep the nitrogen in the soil from being diluted or washed away.  Fertilizer can be added to the bucket and distributed easily with less waste. Weed management : Delivering water directly to the plant means less water for weed germination Effective labor utilization : Fill the

There are several key components when it comes to paying for someone to do work for you. education/experience/skill time/labor materials The cost of any job will factor those components in proportionately to arrive at a dollar value for which you will pay to have the work completed. So if you have no idea how to change the timing belt in your car, you are basically either paying for your ignorance or for the convenience to have someone else do the work When I moved into my new house, the Bermuda sod was put down during a dry and hot late August. Seeing how the other houses were built, I know that our lawn started as a weed infested lot which was cleared and leveled with a bulldozer.  A thin layer of topsoil was spread before a mostly dead sod (due to sitting outside for a few days in the sun) was laid down and a hose dragged around to get some water sprinkled. We moved in late September and I couldn't find my hoses while I unpacked.  I was lucky to only have 1/4 o

My development has a community garden that has been unused for the last 2 or 3 years.  Without a water source there wasn't a lot of interest to garden down there because it was too much effort for most residents to carry water to maintain their garden.  There is a rain barrel station setup but without a large surface area to catch the water and channel it to the rain barrels, there was never enough water captured for more than 1 bed. This year I out grew my home garden because I wanted to grow pumpkins and watermelons and lots of tomatoes and peppers.  Luckily, the POA decided to run a water line down there and do some rudimentary trimming of the weeds. I'll be using the rain water until that supply runs out because the untreated water provides more nourishment and less shock to the plants With several years worth of weeds, there was a fair amount of work to clear the beds before anything could be planted. A few ambitious gardeners  tilled their bed and pulled weeds prior