Whine, whine, water, whine

I hate to be a whiner, but this summer taxes my resolve. It is blasted hot every single day and no rain. Okay, that's off my chest, now I can move on. Since I spend a lot of my days watering, I thought I would pass along my expert opinion on the best ways to water.

 Here is my business partner Sharon at the nursery watering. You see we use a heavy duty, kink-free hose. I have decided there is no truly kink-free hose. We roll ours up every day after use so they all eventually kink up. We have water wands to you can direct the water into one little pot if needed, and a water breaker on the end so when you direct that water into that little pot it doesn't blow all the soil out. There are quick-connects on the hose end so you can detach the hoses in a flash. They work great as long as you remember to push them on fully before letting go. Kendel at work is always forgetting this step. The hose blows off the quick-connect and sprays water like a fountain, usually drenching him. Not too bad these days; the drench feels good. I have this same set-up at home: good hose, quick-connects, water wand with breaker. It irritates me to water without the necessary gear.

This is what I use on my smaller beds: a spot sprinkler. They come with various patterns of holes on the top for a different water spray: round, square, etc. With a lot of water pressure they can cover an area about 15 feet around.

James got this sprinkler and when I first saw it I thought it was really stupid. You dial in the water pattern you need. It actually works really well for a number of different situations. I use it a lot now.

Black rubber soaker hoses like the one above are very efficient. We turn the water down low so the hose just drips, not sprays. You can leave it on for hours to get a good soak. We use them at the nursery to water our trees during the night. Unfortunately, we are having to water a lot of trees this summer because of the drought. (Oops, sorry, I just thought I was through with the whine).

My favorite way to water - with an automated system. It comes on by itself, never needs moving around, no hose dragging. It does need tweeking though. We re-set our timer every few months and check the system regularly to make sure it is all working correctly. In fact, I am off to do that now. Last week we found several pop-up heads that had been covered by San Augustine grass that could no longer pop up. Made them very ineffective.