At the Beach!

We have been at the beach for the past week at our annual Weaver family reunion! It was great to see everyone again. It was a true vacation from the computer. My day job is very computer intensive work -- so I was determined not to touch a computer or think about work! However, I missed my garden and blogging!

To prepare my gardens before leaving, I set up soaker hoses on the raised bed and on the herb garden. I put timers on the faucets to water every other day. Our summer vacation has been a gardening challenge in years past. My soaker hoses worked well and no plants were lost this year!

In the raised bed, I used one 50' soaker hose and wound it up and back spacing out about a foot apart. In the front I have a long narrow bed, so I took a 50' hose and cut it into 4 pieces. I bought male and female connectors and caps for the hose ends and then hooked them up to a four-way splitter. I cut my regular garden hose so it would be just long enough to connect the splitter to the front faucet and connected it to a timer.

I had a couple of challenges. I learned that you have to inspect the hardware pieces closely before purchase. One piece I bought was the wrong type which had been placed in the bin with the pieces I did need. Another piece had a screw that had no groove in the head. After overcoming those challenges, I hooked up the timer on the faucet, hooked up the hose and turned it on. The faucet stem packing was wearing out and the pressure from the timer caused a massive leak. I had to schedule a plumber to fix it. Just in time, all the work came together and now it works like a champ.

Buzz it up