Sharon ~ My holding garden during the winter was my square foot gardens...then I had to pot them all up until I have a chance to plant them all out...still they were larger than when I put them in and some were divided into 3. So, I suppose I will save 3 or 4 SFG's for plants if I need them in the fall.
Oh, BTW, thanks for saving me a white hardy hibiscus! That is very generous of you.
Gotta' go back out there now....
Campanula lactiflora alba...
One of my problems here is poor, poor water pressure. So our micro system is not sufficient for the summer heat to make adequate watering, for the tall plants blocking water flow. So things kind of look crappy now. I wait for fall to rebound. GRR! some of my little winter sowing stuff disappeared over night, I don't know where. I see Squirrel holes but I don't know...?
What size pipe do yu have coming off the well? If its large couldn't yu step dwn the size and get more pressure as a result of the physics of water pressure? just a thought.
dallas is rainy from TS alex. really not a good weekend but its all about giving kim time with her bestest friend. I can be miserable here just as well as at home. at home I would be stressing about whats not getting done utside....lol .... & yes we all are wine'rs ... I wanna go to miami ... my favorite whine
have a great evening
Dave
Dave, are you writing from Dallas? LOL, can't you take a vacation? Isn't there anything to do down there so you are going to be miserable?
I heard it is so humid, especially with the tropical storm there.
We are on a community well, so what ever pressure we have and what ever pipe is not easily changed out, just for my house. We have a meter that it goes to, before our house. It sucks so bad. Sometimes we can't get enough pressure for our sprinkler heads to pop up, on the one area where we have lawn. That is why the micro-sprinkler was our best bet, so that I did not have to continue to water in the evening every night all night, and it be causing disease and it was too dry by mid day, waiting for water.
I just started some seeds under a shady tree, we will see. By the time late summer comes, maybe they will be something worth planting or I can pot them up and winter them in a warmer place until next spring.
What seeds are you starting Dawn? I really like starting seeds. Love to watch them grow.
Are you hearing fireworks still? They are suppose to shut them down at 11 o'clock and here it is almost midnight. If I was trying to sleep I would complain. Also, we sedated the dog early so she is zonked. She is blind so the loud noises really bother her 'cause she doesn't know where they are coming from.
The 4th is really hard on dogs. My birds get jumpy, but no more so than I do- I don't think their hearing is any better than a human's, particularly.
It'is just pouring rain here this morning- mosquitos are already at a disgusting level. Plus, every time I see it rain I think "I really need to get those rain barrells made!" I learned a while ago that a 1000 sq foot area footprint- like a roof- will get more than 600 gal. of water in a 1 inch rain. What a waste!
Happy 4th of July everyone. Heat and humidity are back and I am going to enjoy it. I am going to sit in the AC and look outside. LOL.
I am going to do a rain dance later because there is no rain in the forcast for another week or more of 90 deg temp. Poor plants are so dry.
Party time today, so I must get busy cooking. Take it easy and enjoy your day everyone.
Thank God for just being alive in a country that is safe from all the horrible things our men and women are fighting for in those awful countries filled with hate and horror. Hugs. JB
avianut I have rainbarrels and love them. Just set them up this year and I just have hoses on them and direct the water to wherever I want it. I put sprinklers on the ends of the hoses so it difuses it instead of going straight down, and I move them around from plant to plant.
JB, did you I watch Ken Burns' show on PBS last night on the Statue of Liberty? It was a remake of a 1985 show and very interesting.
What are you cooking JB?
It is overcast here and suppose to get up to 75. I am sure it will make that. It would be nice if it stayed overcast and I could get some work done out there. It is hard to work out, even at 75, in the direct sun.
Happy 4th of July Everyone.
Wow, I slipped away for a couple of days and catching up is like having a new book to read. LOL
We have had a break in our weather, it is below 90 during the day and actually dropped into the high 60's last night. It feels great, but I have been busy with other stuff and not worked in my garden. I need to quit making excuses.
The idea of rain barrels sounds good. We get a good bit of rain here and if I could use that instead of the stinky well water, then maybe I wouldn't have the rust stains all over every solid object that gets hit by the sprinkler.
I will have to look them up.
Hellnzn11, when I use vermiculite, I like to moisten it and then put it in a ziplock baggie, that way my seeds don't dry out.
Aviannut, You are right about fireworks and the dogs. The only bird that seem to get upset with the noises was my sun conure. My dogs are terrified though and even tho we hold them,they will shake themselves silly. Last night some teenagers in the neighborhood were shooting some big sounding rockets and then every once in a while they would fire shotguns. I hate it when they start doing that. One year fireworks landed on my roof and it was only the grace of God that it didn't catch fire because of all the oak leaves and sticks up there.
My parents are coming down today and hopefully bringing my brother and nephew. We are going to have burgers, hot dogs and potato salad. How easy is that? I am looking forward to it though. Once everyone gets here, we will all relax a bit and just hang out where it is cool.You can't get near the beach today. That is one thing about the island. There is almost no parking available and the homeowners there don't want anybody parking near their houses. I can't really blame them at times, but I do feel like the beach belongs to everyone, not just those who can afford those huge houses.
Hellnzn11, I am in a mobile home too. We bought the lot in the early 90's and got an awesome deal on it. We had to cut out way into the neighborhood after hurricane hugo came through, but it has changed a lot since then. The best part is that it is on the ocean side of the highway and at night I can hear the ocean and it puts me to sleep. There is nothing prettier than a full moon through the live oak trees with the song of the surf for back up music. DH offered to buy me a real house years ago when we were both working, but I refused because I knew we couldn't afford to buy a house on this side and I didn't want to move to the other side. It was a battle for a while, but I won. LOL
We are actually on a kind of peninsula. The waccamaw river and intercoastal waterway separate us from land on the the other side of the street and the ocean on this side. I can be on the beach in 3 minutes or in the river in 5. I can't think of anywhere I would rather be ( until the hurricanes start coming in.) The gulf coast has had more storms than we have had in the past few years, but before katrina, we were like hurricane alley. One year I just stayed packed in case of more evacuations.
I am rambling now so I will shut up and wish everyone a wonderful independence day. Stay Safe and enjoy your day.
Linda I thought that was very interesting. About your choosing the mobile home rather than what we call "stick built". I just don't understand how you guys can wait to see if the hurricanes are going to take your home away. Now, wouldn't you be more apt to lose the mobile than a stick built? I can see why you wanted the mobile, but does just being on the "other side of the street" make that much difference in the sound of the water? Or maybe I misunderstood.
One thing you might like to know about rainbarrels. There are all different shapes sizes etc. AND prices. Most are pretty pricey, but I found them for $29.99 at Ace Hardware. The only problem with those is the spigot at the bottom is too small. We had to replace it with a bigger, regular sized, faucet and then run a hose off of it. I just leave it wide open all the time so there is no problem with running over unless it gets plugged. But, I put a screen under the downspout and don't have that problem.
Also I might add, the pricey ones have more style, obviously.
I don't think rainbarrels are meant to be used the way I do. I think most people use the water for different things than I do. BUT, I have a well that has wonderful water. It is so good, my brother in law heads right for the kitchen and gets a big glass of water when he comes over. He always has several glasses. They are on a city water system and I don't know if they put chemicals in it, I am sure they do, that change the flavor or what.
One last thing on the rooting of cuttings: I know this is not on your subject of vermiculite Dawn, but when I put cuttings in water I put them in the polymers, Watersorb. Those things hold them in place in the water and when the cuttings get roots they grow around the crystals and when I plant them I put them in the hole just as they come out of the water, crystals and all. That way they always have that source of moisture and have to be REALLY dry to run out.
Oh I love that idea Jeanette. I will steal both yours and Ibartoo's ideas for seed starting and propagating.
I like mobile homes, the floor plans are so nice and open usually (not mine) and some things are better than the usual stick built homes, but as you said, the homes are more vulnerable to disasters. My issue here is the neighborhood's lack of care and the counties lack of enforcing codes here. I would want to stay near the Ocean too in a shack if necessary. It is like a tranquilizer to me and most people I know.
Ok Dawn and Linda, what is the difference between mobile and manufactured homes? And what are the things that are better? You mentioned Dawn.
How far away are your neighbors Dawn? Can you plant shrubs or trees for a screen? I guess that way you could imagine that they were as nice as yours. LOL. Maybe offer them some of your seedlings. Think they would get the idea?
Happy 4th of July guys. We have had a cool down and will only reach about 102 today. Nice breeze this morning so the heat did not drive me inside until about 11am. No cooking today. I made a very large batch of pasta sauce, potato salad and fried chicken fingers. Have Rainer Cherries, Strawberries and Blue Berries. The tomatoes are ripening and we love fresh tomatoes with potato salad. DH watched tennis, auto racing, CBS Sunday Morning. I cleaned the kitchen floor and completed the vacuuming. Did not get it done yesterday. Now my shoulder hurts just a little bit so I just took two Tylenol.
Dawn, I know how hard it is to live somewhere where your neighbors do not keep up their end of the bargain and keep up their properties. That is why we moved after living in our last home, which was free and clear, for over 23 years.. The neighborhood had just gone down hill and being a gardener, It bothered me every day. How much do you have to pay for your water. I got much better with gardening when I discovered composting and mulch. I do a large amount of plants under trees but I have them in pots. The plants cannot compete with the tree for water.
My neighbor has the most magnificent Magnolia Tree and it is in its second bloom. This trees leaves are green on the back side, not the normal desert Magnolia brown. The bloom are the side of dinner plates. Why am I telling you all this. She has allowed me to harvest the seed pods. They have to be harvested before they are ready because of the birds. I think it is the birds. They are pretty enough, look like tiny pineapples, they could be used in a dried flowers dish. But I do not think the mow and blow guys are that smart. Rodicap in Arizona grows them from seed so I am going to pick her brain. I took this photo at the top of the tree with a telephoto lens about 1 hour ago. The tree is over 15 feet tall.
Mortgage Banking lingo. Mobile home can have wheels that are covered by a shirt or the wheels are removed and placed on a slab. Manufactured housing is a prefab home that is placed wall by wall on a slab and is considered real property. Mobile homes are considered as personal property. The designation has to do with two different aspects. First is taxes. Real Property is taxed just like a stick built home and you usually cannot tell the difference by looking at them. Personal property is taxes at a lower rate. When the property goes in to default, personal property lender can get a default judgment and on real property, usually, the deed is secured by the property and there is usually no default judgment unless it is VA Guaranteed Loan.
Here is a photo of seed pods of Magnolia.
And I wonder who this is.
What is your pasta sauce Sharon? I am always looking for ideas. What do you do, slice the tomatoes and have them on the side with the salad? I can hardly wait for ripe tomatoes. I have one plant that looks like it is going to have a lot of tomatoes on it and ripe soon if the weather ever warms up. I don't think it made the predicted 75 today. Darned weatherman anyway.
That is a beautiful tree Sharon. I am surprised it does so well in the heat. They are a favorite in the Seattle area and that is cooler and wetter than here.
I still have not used my Shark steam mop. I had cleaned my floor just before getting it.
I ordered a 36 foot vacuum hose last week and was hoping it would get here by now but then we won't even have a mail delivery tomorrow so I guess it won't get here until
Tuesday now. I have had this one almost 15 years now and it is crushed in a couple of places so makes it difficult to use. Guess the new ones are bigger inside diameter and smooth so they have better suction or something. We'll see.
.
But, right now, we have to grab every minute we can working outside. Just trying to keep up with all the weeds around here after all the rain we have had is a major issue. And still have to water my perennials. I just don't think they get enough water. Even with the rain.
I had started so many plants with seeds this spring (cabin fever to blame) I was shoving plants in every planter I had. My daughter told me I was putting way more plants in my planters than she did. LOL, she didn't have all the plants I did. I was giving them away to everyone that came around. Mostly annuals. I still have to deal with all the winter sowed that came up. I haven't had a chance to work with many of them. I am going to cut them into plugs and plant them in individual pots I think and then plant them in the fall. What do you think?? I am afraid if I plant them in the ground that it will turn hot (it really truly does get into the 90s and sometimes triple digits here) and then that will be the end of them. If we go from this cold into real hot all at once.
I also ordered a couple dozen of the Atlas garden gloves for my sisters and myself. I might have a few left over if any of you are interested. They will be medium size. I haven't really figured it out but I think they will run about $3.50 a pair plus postage from me to you. Shipping was free from them to me. I should have them this week also.
Nothing really special with my Pasta Sauce. I used canned crushed tomatoes, sauteed onions, red and yellow bell peppers, just a small amount of chopped celery, a whole bunch of roasted garlic, couple of bay leaves, I have a tree, and some Italian seasoning. Fresh parsley, small amount of oregano and what ever I have laying around. This time I had two small zucchini that I chopped real fine and added it.
My DH loves Pasta and he thinks my sauce is great but he thinks everything I cook is great because he doesn't want to cook it himself. He did tell me about a year ago that maybe I could leave the carrots out of the braised short ribs. I had been making it that way for years. He finally got the nerve to speak up.
With the tomatoes, I just put them on the side of the plate cut up and eat it with the potato salad. I have just about everything to go with canning the sweet relish. My Daughter and her family are leaving Tuesday and going to the mountains in Idaho for a week. When she gets back I will find the recipe, I have 5 copies in 5 different places, and get it posted and a whole big batch made for the family. That can be their Christmas present.
Actually you can give the recipe to anyone. It is no big secret. It is a recipe from the 1950s.
I use surgical gloves for gardening. I get them at Costco. I cannot function with real gloves. I actually have many pair in the garden drawer for items like that. I finally got smart and quit buying them.
We cross posted Sharon.
He sure is cute. Growing like a weed. Maybe with all the rain we have had here. LOL
Those seeds sure do look like pineapples.
Ok then if they default or foreclose on the property, it isn't on the mobile. It would be on the mfg. home. And I think you are wrong because I can tell in a minute they are mfg. homes and not a regular house. Just look at the roofline. Even just look at the roof itself.
I can see now what you are talking about. The bottom of the mobile has the skirt. Never thought of that.
Bob's mom lives in a very nice double mobile in a gated community. She pays rent on the property but owns the mobile. Never thought about it. Her's is a real nice community. The yards are all kept up etc. BUT I think in a situation like that that the owners of the property should make sure there are caretakers that can be hired to keep the yards up and people do things like handyman type stuff. But they don't. So, they have to go out and find people to do anything they need done just like we would. And the community is for people 55 yo and over. So, the elderly people that live there have to fend for themselves.
Such as Comcast came in and switched everyone over to their system but they didn't do any connections for people. Like VCRs, answering machines, televisions etc. That should have been a part of the contract with whoever did the work for Comcast.
I agree that you can tell the difference between a stick built and a manufactured but it is suppose to look similar. The manufactured homes are made in a factory, delivered on a truck and put together like Lego's.
There is a mobile home community in California, near San Diego. They own the mobile home and have 100 yr lease on the land with about 60 years left on the leasehold on the land. Just down the road from Rancho Santa Fe which is one of the most expensive areas in Southern California. The owners of the land have been to court many times over the last 10 years to get out of the lease on the land. No way and there is a rent control on the land so as long as the original lessee occupies the property they cannot increase the rent. Probably rolls over in inheritance also.
That is the same problem with giving low income people home loans. They can afford the house payment but nothing is set up to help them with the repairs and upkeep. When an Air Conditioner breaks down in Las Vegas, it is $1,000+ for a new unit. And that is for a very small home. Our home has 3 different Air Conditioning units. But that was part of my ranting from my soapbox. You cannot subsidize their payment if you do not subsidize their repairs. Then they would sell them cracker box houses without adequate insulation and in the summer their power bills would be over $500. When the sub prime loans proforma hit my desk, I just about fainted reading it. You can have horrible credit, be behind in your credit cards and auto payments but we are going to give you a loan with NO MONEY DOWN because we know you will make our payment. I called by boss and asked him who was smoking POT. We did very few Sub Prime loans because we made the borrowers prove their income. OK, OK, I WILL SHUT UP. I TOLD YOU ABOUT MY SOAP BOX. I has been in mothballs for 5 years and now I will put it back. I have another Soap Box but DG does not allow that discussion. I heard the clapping.
I think you misunderstood me Sharon. I didn't mean to help subsidize the payment for repairs. I meant to have someone to call for repairs. They would pay for the repairs themselves, but think about the fact that you are in your 80s or 90s and your appliance, you name it, stove, refer, washer, dryer, air conditioning, etc., breaks down. Who do you call????
Your lawn needs mowing. Who do you call? You would like your shrubs pruned and shaped, who do you call? Things like that.
If they had someone contracted, on site, just to be there for the calls, it would help. There are over 500 homes in this gated community so I am sure there would be enough work for a company. A landscaping company, an appliance repair, for starters. How about someone to fix a leaking roof? Who do you call?
I won't even get into the sub-prime loan business. Anyone who watched the ads on the TV knew what was going to happen. Whoever heard of loans at 125% ??? Again, for starters.
Hey sweet woman, I was not referring to your parents but that is another problem. I think all Senior Citizens deserve help from whomever to make their life comfortable and stay out of assisted living.
Much cheaper for the government. We need all women in Washington but I do not want to be one, just coach. In the olden days neighbors would take care of each other but you cannot do that if you are are all old. OK Jnette, the ball is in your court. Love you. Let us just let it lie here and go underground. You need to be really careful because I have at least 59 Soapboxes. My husband is threatening divorce if I do not get some out of the garage.
howdy again:
yes I am in dallas just thought I would keep up with the chit chat.
alot of the gated and non gated moble home parks have a list of who does what and will point you in a direction. up keep is the major thing about mobile homas the can go down hill fast.
I am nt board just a quick catchup. I believe mobils have a great spot for everyone in ife they are such that you can afford to live fairly afrdably with out the 200k house loan.
I hpe everyone is safe and had fun on the 4th
Dave
Thanks Dave, how long are you there for?
Think we all have those Sharon.
Hope the fireworks aren't going too long tonight. We are pretty tired from last night. But maybe we are so tired tonight that they won't keep us awake.
Goin' to bed, tty tomorrow. g'nite.
Mobile homes and manufactured homes are the same interchangeable terms. Modulars are the ones that are brought in wall by wall, where they are assembled at a different location and dismantled and brought in pieces. It does not have a metal tag like a DMV license tag on the back, but both look the same.
The good things about them, are that they usually have huge garden tubs and separate showers, in the master. They often have really nice fire places and place them at unique angles or they are double sided, the heat vents come through the floor, like they should since heat rises, usually have very open, large floor plans in a double or triple wide. (Ours does not have a good floor plan, since someone altered it in some odd way, often they have room sized closets in the master and often have really unique windows and a lot of light or sky lights standard. Mine is 2100 sq. feet. It is large enough. We own the land and the house, though we have a mortgage. We are putting a wall or wood fence to block out the one neighbor, who does not have any plants by choice, he sprays all the time to kill everything. We want to block him out. We already blocked the other Hillbillys out with a wall and carport and a cargo container shed, painted to match the house, that is also part of our wall that blocks them out. I will have to take a picture of what it looks like during this time of year, now that my HH are all croaking over from lack of water in the heat.
Dawn when you said "the good thing about them" in your last paragraph, which were you talking about? Modular? Now you said yours is a mobile, but here it sounds like it is a modular?
Wish I could send you some water. Even rain water!! Especially rain water!! LOL.
Well ladies, I suppose I should think about which part of the yard I am going to work on today. Guess I should fertilize my tomatoes.
The weatherman has changed the high from 82 to 68 for the day. Wondered how long it would take them. They LIE!!
LOL, oh well. If it were in the 90s to 100s like the east and northeast I would be complaining then too.
So sorry JB. How was your 4th? Bet all that food you cooked was soooooo good. Did you cook ribs? Yum.
Hi Everyone,
Hope you all had a good 4th.
Sharon that baby is gorgeous! I just found out that my nephew and his wife are expecting their second child and I am so excited.
Jnette, I guess it is more than being on "this " side of the street. I knew when we bought our property that I wanted to be a stay home Mom when my son was born. I couldn't have done this as comfortably in a more expensive home. Here the average starting price for small stick built homes in my neighborhood is around $300,000. It just wasn't worth the trade off for me. As for the safety issue, when the hurricanes come, there really isn't much difference in the "mobile" vs. the "stick built" houses. When the winds are 180 MPH as they were during Hugo, a house is going to crumble as quickly as a mobile will. We get a lot of notice before a storm comes our way too. We have plenty of time to evacuate or decide to stay and ride out the storm. ( we have done both.) When i lived in Japan and California, there was never any warning about earthquakes.
Dawn, I can't imagine someone wanting to kill all of the plants, especially in the desert. You would think they would want some green around in spots.
Dave, when you plan to order pots again, would you please let me know. i think i am going to try seeding everything in the sizes that I will sell them. It will cut out several steps for me.
I would love to say i have been outside doing all kinds of things, but after moving the daylily and hibiscus bed the other day, I haven't worked outside again. Maybe i can go out this afternoon when things cool off a bit.
Talk to you all later.
Sharon your little guys is a handsome little man. My house is a mobile home. It was completely built in a factory. It has tags, though it is on my land so I don't register them as I would if it were in a park, since I own the land. Insurance is harder to get if it is a mobile home, instead of a modular, though technically they are both considered not as good of quality as a stick built. Main difference is a flat bed truck brings the assembled parts of a modular in, since it has no wheels at all. My house has a place somewhere under there where wheels could be attached to each of the three sections of my home. Modular or mobile can all have skirts or be sunk in the ground at ground level, then some sort of metal barrier is underground to allow access for plumbing work to be done or duct work for the air conditioner. Mine has block around the bottom, instead of a metal skirt. Most do around here. It can be stone too, what ever you want, all that does is hide the under part of the house where the jack stands are or you would see what holds the house sections up. Mine are on cement pads and earthquake braced per California code.
Ok, gotcha. Thanks for the explanation and picture. How about pictures with a camera? Not that I don't like your drawing. lol
You know Linda, I think it is great that you made a decision like that. My daughter did the same. She stayed home and they have been in the same house now for 25 years. Nothing great, but she works part time and she likes that because she can almost pick her hours, days she wants to take off etc. 'She doesn't need their benefits 'cause her husband works for the county jail and he has all that for the family so it works real well for her. She works at Michaels now but worked at the last place for 10 years and now Michaels for some time too. Plus she is 5 minutes to get to work.
I didn't get much done today, a brug repotted and then spent the afternoon making a lasagna. I know that probably doesn't sound very good to you all, but when our temps are in the 60s it works good for us.
I agree with Linda. Can't imagine your neighbor killing off plants. He probably thinks they are all weeds. Too bad.
He is lazy and makes his wife go to work as an exterminator for the business with his name on it, he stays home and takes calls and kills all his plant life, it is odd. Thank God he is 5/8 of an acre away. We are going to fence him away.
I wish we had 70's temps again, so my plants would not suffer so much. I have some plants that are not doing well and I need to transplant asap or they will be gone in a few days.
I also have aphids I think on my two big beautiful bushes because the leaves are curling up, turning yellow and lime too. Maybe I need some lime as well as insecticide.
Thanks for the tip on the rain barrels at Ace. I will look for them. Our County Extension Agency has directions for making your own on their website- that is my other possibility. They suggest painting them either to match your house, or with flowers & such (don't know that I'm THAT creative, but I could probably manage to blend w/ the house :-)
awe I am sure you could do a great job painting
They do have some pretty good Krylon paint for plastic now, but not many colors. That is why I liked the ones at Ace. They are terra cotta color. I have seen some that are a bright blue. Very gawdy.
The expensive ones are made of all different materials tho. I t will be interesting to know what you get. I have 2 and am thinking of 2 more. You see because of the shape of my roof I will have 4 short gutters. Short meaning 16ft.or so.
Yes, you can make your own but just finding a barrel you like is a real pain. For the most part, they all look like 55 gallon oil drums. That was why I was so happy to find the ones at Ace. And for that price. Even if we did have to spring for a different spigot.
Have you looked at the forum on rainbarrels on here? Very interesting. Seeing the way people paint and decorate theirs. I will try to see if I can find it for you avianut.
Ok avianut, go to the forums and in the search field type in rain barrels. When it brings up all of the different threads, besides any of these you want to look at, go down quite a ways to one that says "rain barrels". That tells how to make them. A lot of good info there.
If you are going to make your own, just be sure you get a "food grade" barrel 'cause you don't know what you or anyone in the future will be using it for. You can probably find someone in your area who sells "barrels". We found an ad in the little freebie paper. Exchange.
But, besides making your own, just look at all the different threads to see what they do to make them attractive. Some people don't bother with that which is to their choosing.
Hope this helps.
Jeanette is correct. I just spotted an ad for 55 gallong plastic drums. its all he sells so I am sure you can get some food grade stuff from him.
Dave
I think the food grade barrels were only like $11 or so here.
Dave, you are visiting your in laws aren't you? Or something. What are you doing on here? You're suppose to be on vacation. What do you do in Texas when visiting?
I wish I had need for a rain barrel. She says with a whine.
So do I Dawn but we are entering our Monson season so pretty soon we will be having flash floods.
When we built our home, we had to install flood drains in the back landscape and the courtyard because of a slight slope toward the house in the back and the courtyard had nowhere to drin as fast as it would come into the courtyard. I had all the French doors open out. My idea but what an engineering nightmare. The inspector actually wanted to meet the woman that wanted her French Doors opening out. Well guess what, give me a lot more living space in those areas.
Dawn, I need to drive over there and teach you how to garden in our wonderful soil. We do not have wonderful soil. I have all planters either built up with giant boulders and then filled to make a very large bed or I had a big grader dig a very large cavern through the middle of the back landscape and that was filled with landscape soil, just a step above our native blow sand and and then I composted. I have and still am composting secret holes in my garden. You have a large area to compost and then get this wonderful soil from mother nature for free. You can add fresh manure from sheep, chickens, horses, rabbits. Rabbits and chickens manure is the best and you can usually get it free. You just need some green, grass clippings, throw away by the super markets. If you told the managers what you were doing, I think they would gladly fill your supplied bucket every week for you. Then there are coffee grounds.
See, you must realize that the majority of our wonderful friends have not seen our wonderful top soil "blow sand" environment. On a windy day, it reminds you of the dust bowl. If you dig the hole and put in the ingredients, the worms will find it. It just has to be buried so you do not get the flies. I have tons of worms and I could actually bring you some.
The majority of my landscape is in raised beds or pots. I search for pots on craigs list, garage sales and believe it or not I have a few that were put out by my neighbors for the garbage. I cleaned them up, spray painted them and they look like new. I never take them without asking. One neighbor said she was getting rid of it because it leaned. On her patio yes, in my ground no. I just built the soil on that side to level it.
When you have your plants in raised beds or pots, you can control their environment. With more mulch to keep them moist and in the end you use less water. I need to come a observe your water situation so I can come up with a solution for you. There are items you can place on a system like yours to get you more water pressure. I know that because of several home mortgages I did on community wells that had water pressure problems.
Is there an assessment to maintain the community well? Who collects that money and maintains the well and gets the state approval on the well every year? Does each land owner own shares in the community well according to the size of their land. According to all the water laws I know of, Home owners on the system CANNOT have low water pressure. You may be living with something you should not have to live with.
Sorry it is so long but I really want to help you and I know how hard it is to garden in our outrageous conditions but with water pressure problems it is impossible. You need rain barrels to collect rain/water from your system to later water your garden. You have to out think the idiots that think you are stupid., I always ask them, "Do I have Stupid Written on my Forehead. Or, "Please Do Not Blow Smoke Up My Skirt". But you must remember, I am as wonderful grandmother of 13, Mother of 4, wife and gardening friend. But my tag when I was working was Barracuda or Mother. Get the message. I know, I did it again.
Dawn I think I can help and I am free. Do you have any paperwork on the community well. Remember my son-in-law is an attorney. Corporate Attorney but he knows how to write very nasty letters. I think they are in the hard drive. Just pull up nasty letters. LOL. Free legal advice, up to a point.
Your Community Well, could be run totally illegally and no one knows but the person in charge. What got my attention was low water pressure and THAT IS NOT ALLOWED BY ANY AGENCY, EVEN CALIFORNIA. GOOD NIGHT. SORRY GUYS. Love you all. Dawn D-mail me and I will give you my e-mail to forward paperwork. I think several angels sent me to you.
I warned you about all those soap boxes I have in the garage.
Love you all. Mother Chase Manhattan
lol Thanks Sharon but the Well owners are 16, I knew when we were in escrow that it is a bad situation because it held up our escrow because some of the water testing and paperwork were not done on time. However the man who deals with all this crap is an old man, who volunteers to have this pain in the butt, because non of us wanted to or had time to deal with all of this. The city is trying to take over our well anyways, because we can not afford to do what we need to to take the arsenic levels down to a legal level. If I went after this guy, all it would do is make him give the job to me and tell the town to buy out the wells. I hate that we have this issue, because it probably is not legal. There are times that the water pressure is ok, but by and large it is very poor most of the time.
I really know you could probably lead me to the way to help, but I am afraid it would make enemies of my neighbors in the process. Our well was some sort of old agricultural watering well, my next door neighbor told me. He is the plant killer guy.
I agree with all you said about composting and I have a huge pile of saw dust, wood chips, horse manure that is decomposed. I put paper and coffee and rotting veggies in it, plus I have a rubber container that I mix other stuff like banana peels and seed start soil, so if I need to start seeds I have some ready accessible soil mix. I want to start doing worms in a container but have not. Most of my beds that I have were lasagna beds from straw bales, cardboard and paper, with some ammonium sulfate or nitrate mixed in. I actually think about collecting road kill to add to it, but I just have not been able to get myself to do it.
I would love to see what you have done and to be able to take my efforts further. The water is a big issue, but meanwhile I know there is more I could be doing. I have large Mullberry trees here and those horrid elms all over. Nightmare trees, I call them. I have a some pines that are about 10 feet tall, and one that is about 4 feet. I just bought two more and I have two olive trees, small, a couple of trees that broke in the wind or freeze each year but I just keep them, also a small globe willow in a giant tire at the moment since the soil was bad there and a couple of small ornamental trees, a Catalpa and a Chitalpa. All should give good shade eventually and many do now, but I still need some sun for roses and flowers to bloom. My pretty fall display goes into crappy dry survival mode for the summer. I don't want that. I need to have it lush and nice. My water is the issue for the most part though, I think you are right. I really don't know what to do though. I appreciate your care and concern though, very much.
