Watering the roses

Wednesday, Aug. 07, 2002 – 11:31 p.m.

2002-08-07 11:31

Well, the car is packed and I leave at the crack of dawn. After driving all day, I will be at Pennsic! WhooHoo!

Water Water everywhere

Being gone for 10 days with the drought we have been having could have some detrimental effects on the roses so I bought a 7-day programmable timer for the faucet. Since I have soaker hoses run in all the beds, all I had to do is connect it between the faucet and the “Y” connector that the hoses attach to. The big problem then was what to do about the potted roses. I suppose I could have moved them into the beds and set part of a soaker hose over the edge of the pot but that would mean digging the hose out of the mulch. Well, I did have a hose running under the front porch so I can water the herb bed (now pretty much a rosemary bed). Hmmmm. I also have a section of soaker hose that had developped some “holes” so that it didn’t drip, it sprayed. I cut out a section tha didn’t have holes and used some hose fittings to make a shorter soaker hose. That section developped some holes when put under pressure and even BROKE at one point. [sigh] I think this is a bad hose. It is brittle and just doesn’t work. Then I remembered that I had gotten some water emmiters from Witherspoon. I had an extra section of hose so I cut a short length, drilled the holes and install the emmitters. With a little testing, I got the roses arranged so that they all get water. Now the big problem was that I didn’t have a place to hookup this section of hose. Well, that was solved by getting a 5-way splitter. Now I can connect all the hoses and even have a open faucet for filling watering cans!

Between the new 5-way splitter and the timer, this setup was starting to get a little heavy to only be supported by the faucet so I built a small extension. This seemed to work… until I got home yesterday to find that the extension I had made had burst and a part of the yard was flooded. ARGGGG! I hate to think what my water bill is going to be next month. Given that there are water restrictions, I guess I am luck I didn’t get fined.

Ok, now what? I manage to find a brass on-off valve so I used that between the faucet and the timer, and I supported the 5-way with a brick. I think that should resolve the problem.

It’s bedtime and I am getting up early so I will talk again after Pennsic. Oh, I am taking two of the smaller potted roses (two Kitty Hawks) to the war with me. [grin]