Soaker hose vs. Sprinkler & Water restrictions

[youngins]

My neighbor was told by a person at Home Depot that soaker hoses are better for a foundation than a regular sprinkler system.

What does the Brain Trust think?

Keep in mind that our city is in what they call Stage 3 drought contingency, which basically means that we can only run a automated sprinkler system one day a week either before 10 am or after 6pm.  We are allowed to use a hose with a manual hand sprayer any day of the week, before 10 am or after 6pm.

thanks

[glenn kangiser]

[size=36]Depends[/size]

[MountainDon]

I had a neighbor who tried a soakerhose a number of years ago. As the summer wore on his lawn developed green and brown stripes. However, the vegetable garden did quite well.

[Amanda_931]

Doing away with the lawn sounds like a pretty good idea--but the homeowners association might not like that either.  Seattle, I think, put out standards for energy efficiency certification, giving people points for various things they add or subtract.  No lawn at all gave you a big chunk of points, less than 25% of the garden-able area in lawn awarded you some.

What you don't want is to put the water into the nice dry air to evaporate.  Especially at the hottest part of the day.  Also true of soil at the hottest part of the day.

The square foot garden guy, in the first edition of his book, recommended taking a bucket and a cup out to your 4' x 4' garden, and watering that way--in the evening or early morning.  

[Dustin]

You can do some very neat things with drip systems nowadays. Take a look at you local Home Despot or Lowes sprinkler section. It's pretty easy to use, and there are all kinds of attachments, from drippers to minisprinklers to drip tape and mini soaker hoses, and branching off of the standard black poly hose.
Replacing lawns with decorative rock, native plants and shrubs, or something like Fleur de Lawn or EcoTurf might also be to your benefit.

[MountainDon]

Replacing lawns with decorative rock, native plants and shrubs...  

When  read that Dustin I thought to myself you must live in the SW. Utah I see; I love the place!  

Then I wondered what visions popped into the heads of those unfamiliar with rockscaping and xeriscaping. So I thought I'd show my own home in suburbia New Mexico. The only thing that gets some irrigation, via drip, in the front is the Blue Spruce. In the rear there are 6 trees on a drip system


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front, looking SE
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front, looking NE
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backyard, artificial grass  

[glenn kangiser]

Looks great, Don.

I love the way you keep your artificial grass all mowed so nice and neat with your artificial lawn mower. :-/

[MountainDon]

 Thanks.

Another great thing is I've managed to keep both the genuine and the artificial weeds at bay. Hard work!  

Here's another photo with the new metal roof and the summer window shades removed. We still have to paint the trim to match the Patina Green metal roof  

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[glenn kangiser]

Is that the same cactus as what the Mexicans call Tuna out here?   I think that is what I have.  When mature it has nice big apples.

[MountainDon]

This is a type of Prickly Pear. I believe this is the "tuna" you mentioned tho' I haven't heard the name locally. This stuff lays over and plays dead in the cold weather. Easy to propagate; cut off a "leaf" and bury the cut end in the ground, moisten the ground lightly once a week or so for a month and forget about it.

They produce nice flowers, yellow, purple or red, we have some of each. Then the fruit comes along. The "pads" as they are called (leafs?) are also edible. ($1.99 a pound at Kroeger's) I've had them in an omelet with jalapeños and in salads. Taste a bit like a tart asparagus.  :-/  or maybe a green bean, or  ...

The pads have medicinal uses such as a poultice for wounds; needles removed, I think, or maybe the needles are used to hold it to your wound  :-?

They also grow in New Jersey apparently   :-?

And FYI, the tree on the left of some pictures is a Pinon Pine, makes great firewood (not this tree!!!   ) and produces nuts that are popular with some, but not me.

I've not tried eating the blue spruce.

Attached prickly pear photo, not mine but representative

[glenn kangiser]

I understand that the stickers can be torched off - with a propane torch to prepare them for eating - Mexicans call the food from the pads nopales here.

We have Bull Pines that the Native Americans ate the seed from.  Also make necklaces by grinding the ends off the seeds then putting string through them.  Pitch is cooked over a fire and makes nice black plastic handles for soap root fiber brushes when it cools.



http://www.perspective.com/nature/plantae/soap-plant.html#Chlorogalum-pomeridianum

[MountainDon]

Good link....   quote: "Around the turn of the 20th century one V.K. Chestnut even claimed that the soapy juice of its onion-like bulb (Soap-plant) could cure Poison Oak".

G'night Glenn Boy

[glenn kangiser]

My Native American buddy also mentioned that now that you reminded me.  G'night Don-Boy

[glenn kangiser]

Also - they grow here.  Someone mentioned that usually within a short distance of poison oak is a plant that will cure or relieve it.

[Amanda_931]

I've never seen a prickly pear with so much fruit on it.  No wonder it's considered an edible.

Here, I think it's native but endangered--only blooms every other year--if then--and nowhere near that amount of fruit.

[MountainDon]

Around here it's quite common to see them loaded like those. There's a large tract of land about 8 miles from home that's a part of a ranch. There's a large number of prickly pears. The owner used to tolerate the gathering of the fruit if you were responsible about accessing the land. Unfortunately there are too many idiots with 4x4's and dirt bikes and he's made access difficult and will prosecute those he finds doing nasty stuff. We used to gather the fruit for a friend who'd make jelly and share it with us. Made some wine one year, but decided it wasn't worth the effort when we tasted it.