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  • Re: Garden Geeks thread

    Originally posted by FreshFish View Post
    soaker hoses work much better. you can get an inexpensive kit of soaker hose - regular hose - connectors and set up a custom arrangement.

    We put them in when we planted shrubs, very handy. also have them throughout the garden.
    This is the first time it has been this bad in yrs. Usually the plants on the hill are on their own and do just fine. Also the amount of hose needed to get to that area never mind populate the beds with soaker hoses would be ridiculous.

    Comment


    • Re: Garden Geeks thread

      Originally posted by leswp1 View Post
      This is the first time it has been this bad in yrs. Usually the plants on the hill are on their own and do just fine. Also the amount of hose needed to get to that area never mind populate the beds with soaker hoses would be ridiculous.
      we have probably 300 feet of soaker hose and maybe 120 feet of non-soaker hose connections, on six different "circuits." Too much hose on one tap just doesn't work.

      In some places, the hose is now "buried" below vinca and leaves so that you can't even see it. For the shrubs, we don't use it very often, just when it is really dry for a long time. It is just so much easier than dragging hoses and sprinklers from place to place.

      We didn't lay it all out at once, it has gone through several expansions.
      Last edited by FreshFish; 07-26-2016, 02:23 PM.
      "Hope is a good thing; maybe the best of things."

      "Beer is a sign that God loves us and wants us to be happy." -- Benjamin Franklin

      "Being Irish, he had an abiding sense of tragedy, which sustained him through temporary periods of joy." -- W. B. Yeats

      "People generally are most impatient with those flaws in others about which they are most ashamed of in themselves." - folk wisdom

      Comment


      • Re: Garden Geeks thread

        I started to lay down soaker hose a few years back. A few problems for veggie gardens...
        Soaker hose requires about 10 psi to work properly. My well pumps out water at 70-90 psi. Need a pressure regulator to reduce the water pressure, but I need the 70-90 psi for the rest of the yard. Can be done, I had it figured out, but read below.
        I have 15 raised box beds. Have to customize soaker hose and regulator per each bed. Took an hour to get half way through 1 bed with elbows and terminators, etc., and then realized I have to take this out every fall and reinstall every spring. This is so I can till the soil for the new growing season without destroying the hose. And what when I rotate the crops, which I do, so the soaker hose in one bed will be positioned incorrectly for a different veggie planting pattern the following season? Lots of work. So I tore out that soaker hose in that bed and scrapped the project.

        I have a well with timed whirly bird type sprinklers that are simple and git 'er done. Takes 15 minutes to get it set up each year (two hoses, 3 sprinkler heads on top of 4' high pipe). 30 minutes of water (6:00am - 6:30 am), 3 days per week (M-W-F). Simple.

        I can see where soakers work well with shrubs. Perfect for a veggie garden as well, just not very easy for my raised bed gardens. I'm with les on this one.
        'Eavesdropped the BC forum in USCHO. A range of intellects over there. Mostly gentlemen, but a couple of coarse imbeciles' - academic_index, a Brown fan

        Comment


        • Re: Garden Geeks thread

          Any best practices on keeping deer out of the garden?

          Things that go boom or twang are not allowed where we live.
          CCT '77 & '78
          4 kids
          5 grandsons (BCA 7/09, CJA 5/14, JDL 8/14, JFL 6/16, PJL 7/18)
          1 granddaughter (EML 4/18)

          ”Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both.”
          - Benjamin Franklin

          Banned from the St. Lawrence University Facebook page - March 2016 (But I got better).

          I want to live forever. So far, so good.

          Comment


          • Re: Garden Geeks thread

            Originally posted by joecct View Post
            Any best practices on keeping deer out of the garden?

            Things that go boom or twang are not allowed where we live.
            You can buy products that are made to simulate the smell of predatory animals' urine. Or if you have a dog, teach it to urinate near the property line that the deer cross. I think blood meal is supposed to work too, though that may just be for rabbits (it's been a while since I've had to think about this). Blood meal has the added bonus of being good for your plants, too.
            "The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command." George Orwell, 1984

            "One does not simply walk into Mordor. Its Black Gates are guarded by more than just Orcs. There is evil there that does not sleep, and the Great Eye is ever watchful. It is a barren wasteland, riddled with fire and ash and dust, the very air you breathe is a poisonous fume." Boromir

            "Good news! We have a delivery." Professor Farnsworth

            Comment


            • Re: Garden Geeks thread

              Originally posted by joecct View Post
              Any best practices on keeping deer out of the garden?

              Things that go boom or twang are not allowed where we live.
              Beat two eggs very well per 1 gallon of water. Spray your plants. Deer do not like the taste of the egg. I add a little garlic powder as well. They don't like that either. Been doing it for years. It works.
              Don't use garlic oil. It coagulates the egg whites and clogs the sprayer. From experience.
              'Eavesdropped the BC forum in USCHO. A range of intellects over there. Mostly gentlemen, but a couple of coarse imbeciles' - academic_index, a Brown fan

              Comment


              • Originally posted by St. Clown View Post
                You can buy products that are made to simulate the smell of predatory animals' urine. Or if you have a dog, teach it to urinate near the property line that the deer cross. I think blood meal is supposed to work too, though that may just be for rabbits (it's been a while since I've had to think about this). Blood meal has the added bonus of being good for your plants, too.
                We tried coyote urine. The deer laughed at us. Trying soap shavings.
                CCT '77 & '78
                4 kids
                5 grandsons (BCA 7/09, CJA 5/14, JDL 8/14, JFL 6/16, PJL 7/18)
                1 granddaughter (EML 4/18)

                ”Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both.”
                - Benjamin Franklin

                Banned from the St. Lawrence University Facebook page - March 2016 (But I got better).

                I want to live forever. So far, so good.

                Comment


                • Re: Garden Geeks thread

                  Originally posted by FiveHole12 View Post
                  I started to lay down soaker hose a few years back. A few problems for veggie gardens...
                  Soaker hose requires about 10 psi to work properly. My well pumps out water at 70-90 psi. Need a pressure regulator to reduce the water pressure, but I need the 70-90 psi for the rest of the yard. Can be done, I had it figured out, but read below.
                  I have 15 raised box beds. Have to customize soaker hose and regulator per each bed. Took an hour to get half way through 1 bed with elbows and terminators, etc., and then realized I have to take this out every fall and reinstall every spring. This is so I can till the soil for the new growing season without destroying the hose. And what when I rotate the crops, which I do, so the soaker hose in one bed will be positioned incorrectly for a different veggie planting pattern the following season? Lots of work. So I tore out that soaker hose in that bed and scrapped the project.

                  I have a well with timed whirly bird type sprinklers that are simple and git 'er done. Takes 15 minutes to get it set up each year (two hoses, 3 sprinkler heads on top of 4' high pipe). 30 minutes of water (6:00am - 6:30 am), 3 days per week (M-W-F). Simple.

                  I can see where soakers work well with shrubs. Perfect for a veggie garden as well, just not very easy for my raised bed gardens. I'm with les on this one.
                  Have raised beds and a hardware cloth fence. Tried soaker hoses for one season and came away with the same result. Waaaay to much work for the little area I had. The hill garden has the added challenge of being down a steep hill through some dogwoods, lawn and a rock wall. Way too much time and logistics involved to work out a viable system even if I wanted to burrow through the Civil War era rock wall (which I do not)

                  Originally posted by joecct View Post
                  Any best practices on keeping deer out of the garden?

                  Things that go boom or twang are not allowed where we live.
                  Give up.

                  Originally posted by St. Clown View Post
                  You can buy products that are made to simulate the smell of predatory animals' urine. Or if you have a dog, teach it to urinate near the property line that the deer cross. I think blood meal is supposed to work too, though that may just be for rabbits (it's been a while since I've had to think about this). Blood meal has the added bonus of being good for your plants, too.
                  Originally posted by joecct View Post
                  We tried coyote urine. The deer laughed at us. Trying soap shavings.
                  Tried all the above. as well as human pee after steak dinner and capcasin. Still searching for an answer. The best one I have found so far is plant stuff they won't eat. This worked until we got groundhogs and bunnies. Between them, they freaking eat everything. Dam the people who decided to reject making the local farm down the way land trust. Idjits rejected it, developers are cramming in McMansions in what used to be fields. More wildlife lost habitat. They seem to have relocated to our yard.

                  Comment


                  • Re: Garden Geeks thread

                    Originally posted by leswp1 View Post
                    Tried all the above. as well as human pee after steak dinner and capcasin. Still searching for an answer. The best one I have found so far is plant stuff they won't eat. This worked until we got groundhogs and bunnies. Between them, they freaking eat everything. Dam the people who decided to reject making the local farm down the way land trust. Idjits rejected it, developers are cramming in McMansions in what used to be fields. More wildlife lost habitat. They seem to have relocated to our yard.
                    The egg solution didn't work? Wow. I have a bunch of deer around here and they don't eat anything I've sprayed.

                    Here's another solution. I put these out in the fall when the deer are feeding heavily pre winter and during winter, when natural food sources are scarce. These protect my evergreen shrubs, but work in the veggie garden as well.
                    Wireless Deer Fence. https://www.wirelessdeerfence.com
                    There's a scented tube in the center of the shocker wires. The deer are attracted to it and when they touch their nose or tongue to it... Zap. Can always tell when one got zapped... you can see the the hoof prints in the mulch around the shrub and then the disturbed mulch after he got zapped, jumped and ran. Deer have a fantastic memory, and whenever they smell the scent that associates with them getting zapped, they don't even come in the yard anymore. I see them in my neighbor's yard looking over the stone wall into my yard. I put them out every year because the newbies haven't had the exciting experience yet.

                    They're pricey, but work very well. Lots of info on the site for other remedies as well.
                    The two methods I have posted work very well for me over the last 15 years.
                    'Eavesdropped the BC forum in USCHO. A range of intellects over there. Mostly gentlemen, but a couple of coarse imbeciles' - academic_index, a Brown fan

                    Comment


                    • Re: Garden Geeks thread

                      Originally posted by FiveHole12 View Post
                      I started to lay down soaker hose a few years back. A few problems for veggie gardens...
                      Soaker hose requires about 10 psi to work properly. My well pumps out water at 70-90 psi. Need a pressure regulator to reduce the water pressure, but I need the 70-90 psi for the rest of the yard. Can be done, I had it figured out, but read below.
                      I have 15 raised box beds. Have to customize soaker hose and regulator per each bed. Took an hour to get half way through 1 bed with elbows and terminators, etc., and then realized I have to take this out every fall and reinstall every spring. This is so I can till the soil for the new growing season without destroying the hose. And what when I rotate the crops, which I do, so the soaker hose in one bed will be positioned incorrectly for a different veggie planting pattern the following season? Lots of work. So I tore out that soaker hose in that bed and scrapped the project.

                      I have a well with timed whirly bird type sprinklers that are simple and git 'er done. Takes 15 minutes to get it set up each year (two hoses, 3 sprinkler heads on top of 4' high pipe). 30 minutes of water (6:00am - 6:30 am), 3 days per week (M-W-F). Simple.

                      I can see where soakers work well with shrubs. Perfect for a veggie garden as well, just not very easy for my raised bed gardens. I'm with les on this one.
                      Hmm...
                      It works really well for our vegetable garden, we have separate beds with paths in between (including some raised beds) and sprinklers watering the path just seemed wasteful to us. You have a well, we pay for water we use, so that there is an economic incentive for us to reduce waste.

                      For pressure regulator, a circular disk with a small hole in it works really well for us. It came with the kit. You just place it inside the female connector like a washer.

                      We do not use elbows in the beds, merely snake the hose back and forth in serpentine. Just lift it up in the spring, till the soil, put it back down again.

                      Also, only the vegetable garden soaker goes directly to the water supply. for the others, I have a long piece of thin rope attached to the end of each soaker (so that I can find it), then drag the supply hose over and connect it.

                      For some plants, you don't want the water on the leaves in hot weather, I forget why (for roses, I think there is risk of a fungus of some kind).


                      The one problem is leaks. That can be annoying, you have to cut out a small section and then reconnect the ends. Not a problem in some areas, really challenging in others because of restricted access.


                      Different things for different layouts in different parts of the country. One other factor that you might have to deal with in fifteen or twenty years is the physical labor of dragging the hoses around. You can scoff at one age and then nod your head at another. I don't mind it (yet) but for my wife it is different. A long hose full of water is heavy for her and there are lots of places to water.
                      Last edited by FreshFish; 07-27-2016, 07:29 AM.
                      "Hope is a good thing; maybe the best of things."

                      "Beer is a sign that God loves us and wants us to be happy." -- Benjamin Franklin

                      "Being Irish, he had an abiding sense of tragedy, which sustained him through temporary periods of joy." -- W. B. Yeats

                      "People generally are most impatient with those flaws in others about which they are most ashamed of in themselves." - folk wisdom

                      Comment


                      • Re: Garden Geeks thread

                        Originally posted by joecct View Post
                        Any best practices on keeping deer out of the garden?

                        Things that go boom or twang are not allowed where we live.
                        We have a tall fence.
                        "Hope is a good thing; maybe the best of things."

                        "Beer is a sign that God loves us and wants us to be happy." -- Benjamin Franklin

                        "Being Irish, he had an abiding sense of tragedy, which sustained him through temporary periods of joy." -- W. B. Yeats

                        "People generally are most impatient with those flaws in others about which they are most ashamed of in themselves." - folk wisdom

                        Comment


                        • Re: Garden Geeks thread

                          Originally posted by FreshFish View Post
                          We have a tall fence.
                          Has to be a pretty tall fence for white tails. Deer jumping fence.
                          I have 3 times on different occasions seen a deer jump a 6' high fence from a stand still, at the end of our road, early morning, from my neighbor's back yard back into the woods. I spook it when I approach in my truck. I assume he jumped the fence to get into the back yard, as it is surrounded by fence. They must have some desirable deer goodies in that yard. Here's a good example... this is probably a 6' high fence. Jump
                          On the run, they can probably clear 8', maybe more. How high can a deer jump?

                          I'm not picking on you Fresh... what works for one doesn't always work for others, especially in different regions of the country. Just speaking from experience. We all have our little niche's.

                          Soaker hoses are definitely a great way to water and save water. My boxes are only 10' by 5' so every inch is valuable growing area. I tried snaking hoses but need sharper corners to save space, hence the elbows and T's, etc. Regarding watering in hot weather... it's more about watering in bright sun. The water drops on the leaves can act as a magnifying glass and burn the leaves. I have read many places that watering at night causes disease on lawns, etc. Can't prove that by me. I have been watering my lawn from 9pm thru 4am, in total darkness, for 30 plus years. Looks like a golf course. I water the veggies at early morning so they have time to dry before the bright, hot sun arrives.
                          'Eavesdropped the BC forum in USCHO. A range of intellects over there. Mostly gentlemen, but a couple of coarse imbeciles' - academic_index, a Brown fan

                          Comment


                          • Re: Garden Geeks thread

                            Originally posted by FiveHole12 View Post
                            Has to be a pretty tall fence for white tails.
                            Ah, yes, I forgot to mention that the path from the farm behind the neighbors across the street to our garden has an arbor right outside the garden so that they cannot jump the fence because there isn't enough vertical clearance under the arbor for them to fit between the top of the fence and the bottom of the arbor.
                            "Hope is a good thing; maybe the best of things."

                            "Beer is a sign that God loves us and wants us to be happy." -- Benjamin Franklin

                            "Being Irish, he had an abiding sense of tragedy, which sustained him through temporary periods of joy." -- W. B. Yeats

                            "People generally are most impatient with those flaws in others about which they are most ashamed of in themselves." - folk wisdom

                            Comment


                            • Re: Garden Geeks thread

                              Originally posted by FiveHole12 View Post
                              The egg solution didn't work? Wow. I have a bunch of deer around here and they don't eat anything I've sprayed.

                              Here's another solution. I put these out in the fall when the deer are feeding heavily pre winter and during winter, when natural food sources are scarce. These protect my evergreen shrubs, but work in the veggie garden as well.
                              Wireless Deer Fence. https://www.wirelessdeerfence.com
                              There's a scented tube in the center of the shocker wires. The deer are attracted to it and when they touch their nose or tongue to it... Zap. Can always tell when one got zapped... you can see the the hoof prints in the mulch around the shrub and then the disturbed mulch after he got zapped, jumped and ran. Deer have a fantastic memory, and whenever they smell the scent that associates with them getting zapped, they don't even come in the yard anymore. I see them in my neighbor's yard looking over the stone wall into my yard. I put them out every year because the newbies haven't had the exciting experience yet.

                              They're pricey, but work very well. Lots of info on the site for other remedies as well.
                              The two methods I have posted work very well for me over the last 15 years.
                              Hmmm

                              Comment


                              • Re: Garden Geeks thread

                                Originally posted by leswp1 View Post
                                Hmmm
                                Be careful if you put them in the veggie garden. My wife backed into one once. Scared the bajeepers out of her.
                                That's a good site. Many alternative remedies listed as well.
                                'Eavesdropped the BC forum in USCHO. A range of intellects over there. Mostly gentlemen, but a couple of coarse imbeciles' - academic_index, a Brown fan

                                Comment

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