Problem – The Yard

Watering

I went to the hardware store and picked up a new sprinkler. It’s one of those pulse sprinklers that make that ticking sound like you see on golf courses. The entire unit is metal which is annoying because it looks too valuable to leave out but which should stand up to vandalism (though if I don’t leave it out, when will it have to stand up to anything?). I put it out and adjusted the spray and found that I could hit the entire front yard without moving it. It wasn’t easy to adjust but I eventually got it adjusted. I checked on it after 20 minutes and there were still spots that looked like they were barely hit with water so I let it run for an additional 20 and checked it again and then an additional 10 and then gave up. I’m thinking I’m going to take it back and replace it with the sort I had before. I may give it one more try.

I also noticed that the basil needs more water. I’m thinking with the heat and dryness, once a week is insufficient. I’ll start watering more regularly and not leave it out in the sun as much as the websites suggested and see how it does.

Vandal!

When I came home from work today I found that someone has vandalized my sprinkler. It wasn’t the best sprinkler in the world but someone clearly came onto my property and broke it. It looks like someone snapped it clean in half. They also moved the hose. It almost looks like they didn’t like the fact that I leave my hose in a coil on my front walk. There’s money I didn’t want to have to spend right now! How frustrating!

Basil plants

I found, after a quick search of the net, that Basil plants watered once a week thrive. Further, that basil plants like a lot of sun. After I purchased my basil plants and potted them in the potter Dana bought for my birthday a year ago, I figured water them once a week and put them in a place that gets lots of sun. I apparently was wrong. Denver is such a dry place that once a week wasn’t enough water. After watering them over the weekend, I figured I could wait until the following weekend to water them again. This evening I looked at the basil plants and they were completely wilted (a dramatic change from this morning when I saw new growth popping up). I immediately brought them inside and gave them a drink. The soil was bone dry and each of the three little pots (which are about 1 and 1/2 cups if I had to estimate) took nearly 1/2 cup of water. The soil soaked it up. We’ll see how they do with a day out of the sun.

Watering

Dana took care of the night watering as well. Looks like the plumber stopped by mid afternoon (even though Dana told him she wouldn’t be here). He checked the pressure on the outside of the house and discovered that it was set to the same pressure level as the inside of the house. He did say that he thinks he installed the limiter low enough that if we redo the lawn and have a sprinkler system installed we can put the system on before the limiter. In other words, for now, we are out of luck. Oh well.

Watering

Again it was up before seven for me. I went out to start the sprinklers and decided to try one in front and one in the back at the same time. While we’re not giving much of an attempt to making the backyard grass grow this season we do have some potted plants that we are about ready to put in the ground and they need water too. To my extreme dissapointment the pressure dropped so low on both front and back that neither was useful. There is definately something wrong with the outdoor water faucets. Looks like it is time to have the plumber come to the house again. It is supposed to be near 90 degrees today so watering is going to be especially important today. As always, I did the watering in the front on both sides.