In article ,
enigma wrote:

Newbie wrote in
:

Bill wrote:

: I use drip hoses.

I am not familiar with them (an apartment person all life).
How do they work? Do you lay them above ground or do they
have to be buried underneath? If I visualize "drip", how do
they get water some distance from them? Sorry about my
ignorance but all help appreciated.

it's a hose, either with tiny holes or made of a permeable
type material, that drips or oozes water at low pressure. it
usually lays on the surface, but can sometimes be placed under
the mulch. you lay it in a wavy pattern through the garden &
turn it on for a couple hours once/week.
good soil has excellent capillary action, so the water will
spread throughout the garden area, but it won't be getting
your path or house wet, nor the leaves of your plants. it
doesn't waste water by spraying it up in the air (where it's
no good for the plants anyway)
if you have heavy clay soil, soaker or drip hoses don't work
so well, but then you'll be having lots of *other* problems
with your gardens anyway... very few plants do well in clay.
lee

If you have clay soil, you should amend it with sand (20% - 30%) and
compost (30% - 40% wouldn't be too much depending on how much clay there
is), 10% manure, plus rock phosphate, and some wood ashes. If you have
clay soil, that is;-)
--

Billy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KVTf...ef=patrick.net
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=7WBB0s...eature=related