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Build Your Own Eco-friendly Water Soaker Garden Irrigation System – Conserve Water

September 30, 2018

You looked at installing a underground sprinkler system on your property. And then stopped short when you realized the thousands of dollars it would cost! How could plastic pipe and sprinkler heads cost so much? Here is a lasting inexpensive water irrigation system that is near maintenance free and will have your neighbors wondering why they never see you watering your garden and plants. You can claim yours to be an environmentally friendly garden soaker system (or water drip system), using the minimum amount of water to sustain your plants and shrubs.Get the water as close to the plant roots as possible. Using less water is important to our global environment.Communities now encourage water soaker systems instead of sprinkler systems. Water applied near the ground will mostly be absorbed into the earth where it is needed by the plant and grass roots. Water sprayed above the plants and grass lands on the leaves and flowers before dripping to the ground. This longer exposure to the air will cause much of the sprayed or sprinkled water to evaporate into the hot summer air.More than ever now communities control the watering of lawns and gardens during the summer months. Sometimes you are restricted to garden watering only – not lawns. An automatic water timer system combined with a soaker hose system makes plenty of sense in reducing the amount of water dispensed to water your garden plants and shrubs. So how can I make an effective soaker system for my garden for under $500?With some off-the-shelf components, you can have a simple but elegant soaker system that with be automatic and near maintenance free. With a simple water timer system, Y-connectors, faucet multipliers, some 1 1/2″ abs pipe, quality 1/2″ garden hose and your choice of soaker hoses or irrigation hoses for potted or hanging plants, border gardens, row gardens or (dare I say) even lawn sprinklers. You now have the elements for a simple soaker irrigation system for your garden. This do-it-yourself automatic water irrigation system will ensure you water plants at the best time every day; specifically, early morning and late afternoon. As an added home security feature, when you are away from home your garden will sustain its beauty and make it look like someone is at home.Here is the material list required for your automatic garden soaker system. (Note: there is a complete Picasa image gallery of all the required components of this inexpensive soaker system at http://picasaweb.google.com/carl.chesal/GardenIrrigationSystem ):1) Select your water timer I selected Orbit from Home Depot. Make sure it has a battery timer so power outages won’t alter your scheduled watering times. It should allow for at least 3 watering zones.2) Select your main faucet multiplier (or Valve splitter) that will attach to your outside water faucet and can accommodate the 3-4 water zones plus a spare to allow for regular garden hose watering. You can secure these special faucet multipliers from garden centers or at Lee Valley Tools. 3) Enough 1 1/2″ ABS pipe (and glue) and 22.5 degree elbows to run underground (6″ – 10″ depth). Use the 22.5 degree elbows only to allow for easy insertion of the garden hose into the ABS pipe. You can cut further costs by burying the garden hoses directly underground. The ABS piping does provide added protection from accidental puncture from aerators, pitch forks and other garden tools. This ABS pipe can also serve double duty to run low voltage wire or speaker wire to the remote areas of your garden.4) Enough quality garden hoses to run through the ABS pipe and connect to the soaker hoses in all your garden beds.5) Soaker hoses for all your garden beds.6) Enough Faucet multipliers (Valve splitters) to extend each watering zone with soaker hose as required.Creating your automatic garden soaker system involves more of a landscaping effort than anything else. Here are 3 steps to completing your eco-friendly automatic garden soaker system (Note: refer to the Picasa image gallery for details of component assembly):1) Bury the ABS pipe feeding the garden hose through it as you connect and glue the pipe sections. Bury the pipe 6″-10″ under your lawn or sidewalk. Have both ends extend out of the ground using the 22.5 degrees elbows so that the stiff hose can still be easily pulled through the pipe.2) Connect the soaker hoses to the ends of the garden hoses and weave the soaker hoses through your garden under plants and around shrubs. Follow the installation instructions of the soaker hose manufacturer.3) Install the water timer and water zone valves on the faucet multiplier. Connect the hoses for each zone. Follow the installation instructions of the water timer manufacturer. Do not set the water time for each zone more than 20 minutes each. Set two water times early morning (around 6 am) and late afternoon (around 7 pm).Maintenance of your Irrigation System and Preparation for Freezing Winter Temperatures:1) Disconnect the [zone] hoses at the main faucet where the Water Timer is located. 2) Using a Shop Wet Vac, suck the excess water from each zone hose. Use electrical tape to secure the vacuum pipe against the end of the hose. Turn on the wet vac and let it run for 10-15 minutes. Empty the water extracted before repeating this for each hose at the main faucet. You will extract enough water from the hoses so as not to incur any winter damage to your hoses from freezing water.3) Tape a plastic bag over the ends of each of the [zone] hoses. This will prevent little critters from getting in the hoses and clogging them when you reconnect the system in the spring.4) Remove the water timer and faucet multiplier. Store them in a warm place where they will not freeze.5) Note: you DO NOT need to disconnect and remove the soaker hoses. They should last 4-6 years before you need to replace them. Check the soaker hoses each spring for holes. You can patch these holes with high-friction Silicone tape. You may also leave outdoors all-year-round any valve splitters that were used to increase the soaker hoses in a particular water zone.You now have an inexpensive water soaker system that won’t break the bank. You have saved thousands of dollars and can boast of being a friend to our environment. You clearly are doing your part for water conservation and the ecology. Nice going!

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Easy Steps To Gardening With Confidence

September 27, 2018

Thank you, good foods from Mother Earth, our life sustainers, for making us happy when we are hungry”. Chief Jake Swamp

Good food from the earth is organic foods. To keep your garden simple and healthy, you must insure that it has a healthy support system. Good soil and plant fertility go hand in hand.

Here are 5 tips to help accomplish your organic gardening goals.

1) Seeds, plants or shrubs must be planted at a particular time. Fruits and vegetables have a specific number of days from planting to maturity. Make a calendar, begin collection planting times, and include instructions for growing by each month of the year. In America there are many different growing zones. There are also frost zones. If you are familiar with these zones, growing and harvesting will be a snap.

2) A garden journal is of immense help. Take pictures of where each plant that produced well is located in the garden. Make note of planting times, where you received the plants or seeds from or any changes that may need to be made. There are many helpful computer programs available that will keep this type of information organized.

3) Using an organic method to grow and harvest foods definitely make a taste difference. Used directly from the garden, these foods can be served raw or with very little cooking, but always must be throughly washed and cleaned before serving. An added plus is no taste of being harvested and shipped green.

4) Growing a pollinator garden includes furnishing flowers, vegetables or both, that humming birds, bees and other insects will frequent. Up to 90% of plants, even the self-pollinated, benefit from cross-pollination and many different insects. The wind also plays a vital role in plant pollination. Honey bees, wild bees and bumble bees are beneficial. Be sure to leave a wild area in a corner for bees needs. Some are ground living, some will nest almost anywhere. Bees are drawn to many different blossoms and herbs. When bees and birds are present, the garden will produce more seed and fruit because the pollen is more live.

5) If there is no time or space, to make an organic garden then seek out an organic farmer. Maybe he comes to the local farmer’s market bringing fresh food daily or twice a week. Many times farmers feature pick your own areas when harvest is plentiful.

Ask friends and neighbors, or your neighborhood health food store for suggestions to find organic produce.

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Setting up a Square Foot Gardening Layout

September 20, 2018

In a lot of countries a day-to-day worry of many people is how they can provide for their own families. The high price of standard fruit and vegetables usually makes doing so an actual challenge. Having said that, several have determined a relatively basic solution, planting some of their own food! Chances are you’ll very well choose to try out beginning a small garden your self. True, there may not be a lot land close to your own house, but probably there is some terrain close by that you can arrange to develop. Think of all the bucks you are able to spend less by producing great tasting and healthy food! Growing plants could even be the best way for you to obtain some necessary exercising. A patio or garden may also be a family project that your children will love. Indeed, cultivating a vegetable garden is certainly useful.

Why pay your resources on stuff that you can grow your self? Depending on the garden soil as well as the local climate, it might be plausible to plant items like okra, peppers, spinach, parsley, lemongrass, green onions, cassava, pumpkins, sweet potatoes, sugarcane, tomatoes, cucumbers, and corn right next to your house. At the very minimum, these types of a vegetable garden can complement your familys diet, and you may even have certain extra goods that you can sell. In the event you do not have the desired area of soil necessary for that garden, it would help to make a square foot gardening design.

The Rewards of a Square foot gardening Design

With the use of several bits of wood made as vegetable garden beds, a square foot gardening layout could already be cultivated inside of a small spot inside your backyard. This kind of square foot gardening layout allow for a number of levels of garden containers placed in on top of the other permitting for that empty space in a yard be applied for the best. Through smartly setting the mentioned plant boxes, a square foot gardening plan shall definitely make a fantastic beneficial matter for your entire family who has a tendency to the mentioned vegetable garden. It’s indisputably true that the explained sort of garden layout best matches the need of those living in locations with smaller free lots which could host significant vegetable back garden cultivation.

This particular square foot gardening design may be used both on indoor or even in vegetable garden designs. With the successful selection of soil and vegetables to grow, this kind of square foot gardening plan would certainly yield the best fruits of labor that had been produced by the cultivators of the vegetable garden.

If you are aiming to make a vegetable garden that will best meet your needs plus your familys wellbeing demands as well, it will be best to take square foot gardening layout into account, especially if you are coping with small area locations for that mentioned garden.

Yes, absolutely, the size of the square foot gardening may possibly not matter so much, but the most important to take into account is that of the soil, the location as well as the type of planting that will be embedded within the garden. Any square foot gardening design, no matter how small the design will surely give you the best advantages that you simply will need.

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I Choose Square Foot Gardening

September 17, 2018

Square foot gardening has been on my radar only slightly less time than any other type of gardening. Until the last couple of years, I had not the time, space, or energy to plant a vegetable garden of any kind, square foot gardening or no. My gardening efforts were limited to a few ornamental flowers in the foot-wide bed outside our front window. Recently, the desire to plant a vegetable garden has been a more feasible goal as I have more space and time for my home and garden. I’ve seen several square foot gardening examples, including my mom’s; she’s very experienced with vegetable gardens, has had success square foot gardening. I’ve been excited all winter to try it in my own garden.

The idea of square foot gardening appeals to me for many reasons, but maybe the biggest in my mind is that a more compact vegetable garden equals less square feet of potential weed terrain. My gardens have not performed to their potential in the past, largely because after I plant, I lose steam and the time I spend working in the garden just isn’t enough to keep up with the weeds. Square foot gardening, maybe in a raised square foot garden, sounds fantastic – less weed potential on two accounts that way!

The compact soil use in square foot gardening appeals to me for reasons beyond the weed factor. I like the idea of efficiency, and by planting somewhere around 16 different vegetable varieties in a 16-square-foot space, square foot gardening gives us the epitome of garden efficiency. Not only is garden efficiency a preference, it’s economical. I won’t need as much peat moss or other garden soil prepping products if I’m only planning to grow vegetables in a small area. Now the only problem will be what to do with the extra garden space! I’m thinking a raspberry bush – a delicious square foot gardening bonus.

Last but not least on the square foot gardening appeal list is the aesthetic appeal. I did a quick online search to check out some square foot gardening and was surprised to find how sharp the beds look! My grandmother’s vegetable garden was amazing, but it wasn’t much to look at – lots of dirt with peas and carrots and other vegetable varieties interspersed. Square foot gardening can be planned around the vegetable variety you want AND ornamental value. There are plans online for endless styles, including vegetable gardens for kids, square foot gardens based on a recipe, and some that just look exotic. I plan to do my square foot gardening in the back yard, but it’s pretty impressive to think that I could put it in the front without compromising on style.

Between the internet and my mother the garden genius, I figure I should be an expert on square foot gardening by the time I can get my husband to build some raised garden beds for our soon-to-be- square foot garden. I can’t wait to choose my vegetable and aesthetic combination and get my square foot gardening plant on!

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Make Your Goal Living the Simple Life

September 10, 2018

A recent article in the New York Times “the Island where People Forget to Die” by Dan Buettner really got my attention. I am a registered dietitian and yes it is a good goal to lose weight if you need to, and to lower your cholesterol, blood sugar and triglycerides if you are on medications for these conditions. I suggest a full examination not of your body, or weight but your total lifestyle. Coincidentally I am writing this article during the recent “Franken storm”. My “normal lifestyle” has changed to a much simpler one. This situation has given me reason to pause.

This article is a must read. It identifies a man in his mid-60’s diagnosed with lung cancer and given nine months to live. He chooses to return to his ancestral roots in Ikaria Greece. What occurred was astonishing. He adopted the local ways of living and his strength started returning. The years passed and his health continued to improve. Today, at 97 years old, three decades later he is cancer-free! He never received chemo therapy, took drugs or sought therapy of any sort.

So what happens on this island that improved this man’s health? Geographically the air and water have been identified as being responsible for extending life. There have been other communities with centenarians. There are similarities within all these communities that can be helpful for all of us to heed.

The residents of this island choose to have a simple life. Their day starts late morning with a breakfast of goat’s milk, wine, sage tea or coffee with bread and honey. Lunch includes beans, potatoes, greens and whatever home grown seasonal vegetables are available. Often dinner is small with bread and honey. Meals and social times extend late into the evening sharing stories, wine and or teas. The Ikarians farm their own vegetables, raise their own animals, and enjoy drinks made from locally grown herbs. Their focus is not on monetary success, multitasking and watching the clock; instead they choose to enjoy an enormous sense of community and time for daily naps.

As an RD I counsel patients and together we create goals. My initial assessment includes information for genetics, lab values, as well as diet and exercise habits. Very often it comes to light that my patients are under stress or don’t have a social network, in addition to other weight and health issues. The Ikarians don’t seem to have these stressors and they certainly seem to enjoy socializing with a close community of friends. Could these differences make so much difference with health? Research has indicated that dementia, cardiovascular disease in addition to cancer have been delayed or totally avoided.

The Times article has brought more of my attention to the importance of “way of life”. So let’s examine this way of life that seems to be so beneficial. Our cultural ways of multitasking, rushing and watching the clock are not included in Ikarian residents thought processes. Focus on taking naps, enjoying the social aspect of eating and having a lifestyle that naturally includes being active as opposed to gym time seem to reap impressive health advantages. Everyday life includes daily walking, gardening, and heavy manual labor. Another topic that I found extremely relevant was not particularly what these residents eat but what they do not eat such as sugar and soda. Their diets are based on the Mediterrean diet, a plant based format for Ikarians consisting of goats milk, wine, teas, coffee, whole grains, honey, beans, and home grown vegetables. The Mediterrean diet emphasizes whole grains, fruits, vegetables and monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats. This diet includes moderate amounts of alcohol but limited dairy and meat products.

Low intake of saturated fat is associated with lower risk of heart disease and olive oil has been found to reduce bad cholesterol and raise good cholesterol. Tryptophan found in nuts, seeds, legumes, soybeans and other soy products, tuna, shellfish and turkey is one of ten essential amino acids. The body uses tryptophan to synthesize serotonin which is helpful in regulating appetite, as well as elevating moods and increasing the ability to enjoy beneficial sleep. Coffee, also included in Ikarian diets, has been controversial but of late research credits it with lower rates of diabetes, and heart disease. Basically to summarize, the additional benefits of the Ikarian diet include fewer pesticides, more foods in their natural form and choices that are loaded with beneficial vitamins and minerals. There is no mention of packaged and processed foods or beverages.

This wonderful article really got my attention. It ended by the cancer victim showing no further signs of cancer, and returning to the US to ask his doctors if they could explain what happened. When the interviewer asked “What happened?”this former cancer victim replied “My doctors were all dead.”

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