Rebooting the Yard and the Blog

It's been a couple of years since our last post. Yes, things in real life just spun out of control and so hectic that I just didn't have time to keep up on all of our Musick Channel blogs. The good news is that I retired in March. The bad news is I'm still very busy but a lot of the stress has been let go and I should be able to start keeping up on our other blogs now.

So, the big news was the 5+ year extreme drought that we had in Southern California. Early in 2017, the drought was declared over...although 2018 is back to light rainfall...and it was time to take stock of the damage. 

The big thing is that our front yard was just scorched beyond repair. I really only had two options...remove all plant life out front or re-landscape.  I chose the second option.

This was not going to be a project I could do alone or cheaply, I'm afraid, so I enlisted the services of my neighbor's gardener.  He's a great guy and gardener but has a phobia of telling you a price. I do trust him, though, so into the breach we went.

I drew up what I had in mind for my new yard...a new lawn with sprinklers that took up a little more than half the room of the old lawn. Next, a strip of wood chips that I could put some drippers and shrubs in, and the last part - next to the driveway  a strip of rocks that could double as part of the driveway, if needed, but would just be part of the landscape for us. This was to alleviate the part of the lawn I'd have to drive over if I had a second car (I got rid of our second car when I retired).

First job, at a couple hundred dollars, was to kill and remove the old lawn. Then, he ground up all the dirt and added a couple of inches of mulch.

Next was installing a sprinkler system. More spendy at $1600 but I got a state-of-the-art automatic system that would evenly water the grass and I wouldn't have to remember to water. Plus, it only waters where needed and doesn't splash all over the street. The last station on the sprinkler system was connected to a spigot. This I used to put a drip line through my rose garden and also the new shrub garden under the bark. It is also on the timer.

Last, another $400, my gardener installed Marathon Sod for the new lawn. We'd talked about St. Augustine but he went with the Marathon. I'm glad he did because it feels much finer on the feet and grows much thicker than St. Augustine, choking out potential weeds very well.

Plus, as a Marathon lawn family member now, the company sends me periodic reminders telling me when to fertilize, overseed, how much I should be watering during current seasons, etc.

The lawn was spectacular...it looked fake. Now the gardener was done, it was my turn to finish.

First, I planted nandina around my roses. This is supposed to repel deer, which have been munching on my roses for a few years now.

Next I planted dwarf nandina going up to regular nandina at the top of the bark strip. I also put in some leptospermum which puts out little, bright red flowers. Around the mailbox by the curb, I planted tancetum...which is a gray-leaved yellow daisy like flower...and at the top of the strip by the house, I planted a dwarf nectarine tree.

I went to a local quarry and ordered enough pea gravel to fill in the last strip.  A large truck was dispatched, and the driver got this special fork lift and dumped the gravel in the spot.

It was up to me to spread that out. Lastly, I went back to the quarry and bought some of the biggest rocks I could carry myself (at 9 cents a pound...about $19 all together) and placed them in the gravel.

There, I'm finished.

Six months later, everything still looks great. I had to have the gardener add another zone to the sprinkler system because of low water pressure, that's why you seen the brown, damaged lawn at the top, but everything's worked out great. The sprinklers being timed and soaking better than I could save me about 30% on my water bill and my lawn is still the greenest on the block.

It was more than I like to spend on my garden but well worth it in the end.

Darryl Musick
Copyright 2018 - All Rights Reserved

Making Every Drop Count

Notice the three orchids on the top row starting at the second from the left. See how dry they are?

That's why I do sprinkler pattern checks now and again. You'll notice that the spray is not hitting the top row. Resetting it into first pot and re-aiming it fixes that problem.

Chores done, what else is happening this week? To start off, our first dragon fruit bud has come up.

The recently transplanted zucchini is putting out some spectacular flowers.

Anaheim chiles are looking great...

...and the cherry tomato hanging basket is about ready for first harvest.

Darryl
Copyright 2015 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved

A Lush Lawn?

Coming back from our little hiatus to update you on the big, fall lawn project.

After a couple of months of dethatching and aerating, I overseeded a couple of weeks ago, set the sprinkler timer to water three times a day at ten minutes each time, and left for Tennessee.

Gone for eleven days, I was anxious as to how the lawn would look when we returned.

As you can see from the picture above, the seeds have sprouted. They're not quite established to the point where I feel comfortable mowing them yet, so I will let them go another week or two before trimming.

It's looking promising. Here's the before picture...

...and here's the after picture.

Darryl
Copyright 2013 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved

The Poor Man's Sprinkler System

At some time, every serious gardener gets to the point where there are so many plants that watering becomes a dreaded chore.  I'm not one to want to spend all my precious time watering my plants. I'm the Cheapskate and time is money, after all.

To alleviate this, I installed my own custom and low-cost automatic sprinkler system. Here, I present to you, the Poor Man's Automatic Sprinkler system, customizable for any garden.

What I use is a drip irrigation system. It has the benefit of being used as sprinklers or drip and is very stingy with water use. In fact, many jurisdictions (my included) exempt drip irrigation systems from water rationing laws.

I have two distinct growing zones in my backyard and another one in the front yard. In the back, I have a sunny zone (Zone 1) and a shady zone (Zone 2)

This creates a quandary because each zone requires it's own watering schedule. I resolve this with a dual-zone water timer that is attached to the fawcett.

With this, I set a more frequent schedule for the sunny side and a little less for the shady side. I might water for 15 minutes every other day on the sunny side and for 10 minutes every three days on the shady side. I'm able to adjust the schedule very easily when seasons change. There's also a manual button that gives me an immediate 10 minutes of water with one push, and a separate hose connection on the end for manual hose use.

Most of my plants are fine with the sprinkler heads. You can get these in a variety of spray patterns, from 45 degress to 360 degrees. Most of mine are 180 degree (half circle), though I do have some 90 degree heads for corners.

For some of our trees and our hanging baskets, I use drip emitters. You can also get these in a variety of flavors, from half a gallon per hour up to 5 gallons per hour.

There are specialized hoses that you can get for this but I find that a cheap garden hose works just as well. I buy one on sale, use the hole-poking tool that you get with the drip kit, poke a hole in the hose, and insert either the sprinkler or emitter. You can also see that you can get stakes to hold your watering devices into the spot you want.

In the front rose garden, I use this old Melnor rotary timer. Does everything the other one does but you use a dial to set it instead. It is very sturdy and reliable...of course, that means they don't make them anymore.

Maintaining the system is a piece of cake. Watch occasionally for blocked sprinkler or emitters, clear them out with a nail or needle if they do get blocked. About two times a year, I need to change the batteries in the timers. Total cost of my system, including timers, about $70. So far, it has lasted a decade and I never worry about watering my plants again.

UPDATE: I forgot to put in a link to the drip irrigation starter kit, click below for an easy-to-set-up system to start with.

 

Darryl
Copyright 2013 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved