A newbie gardener need to take care of an almost 60x40 lawn (with
somewhat crooked shape), and two 15x10 gardens in the front. At present
we cannot install an underground watering system etc, so a few basic
questions about hoses and sprinklers:

1. Sprinkler: Which type of sprinkler is best for each task? (The
garden one needs to clear 1'-3' high plants.)

2. Hoses: Most hoses I see are 5/8", but someone said 3/4" (which I can
mail-order) would be better. Is that true?

Which brands are best? (My local shops tend to carry Gilmour Flexogen
and Apex Never Kink. The Gilmour comes in green and "platinum" variety,
the latter a touch more expensive)

Does anyone make good affordable colorful hoses (yellow, orange etc)?
The only one I know of is Dramm but they are expensive and hard to
find.

3. Y-Adapter: I would like one with separate flow control for each
branch. Who makes the best one?

4. Quick connects: Metal or plastic/ And which brands? Last year I saw
quite a few of Gardena at my local shops, but this years the seem to be
gone. Instead one store has Claber(?), which look suspiciously similar,
although I am not sure if it means anything.

In article , AKT
wrote:

A newbie gardener need to take care of an almost 60x40 lawn (with
somewhat crooked shape), and two 15x10 gardens in the front. At present
we cannot install an underground watering system etc, so a few basic
questions about hoses and sprinklers:

1. Sprinkler: Which type of sprinkler is best for each task? (The
garden one needs to clear 1'-3' high plants.)

2. Hoses: Most hoses I see are 5/8", but someone said 3/4" (which I can
mail-order) would be better. Is that true?

Which brands are best? (My local shops tend to carry Gilmour Flexogen
and Apex Never Kink. The Gilmour comes in green and "platinum" variety,
the latter a touch more expensive)

Does anyone make good affordable colorful hoses (yellow, orange etc)?
The only one I know of is Dramm but they are expensive and hard to
find.

3. Y-Adapter: I would like one with separate flow control for each
branch. Who makes the best one?

4. Quick connects: Metal or plastic/ And which brands? Last year I saw
quite a few of Gardena at my local shops, but this years the seem to be
gone. Instead one store has Claber(?), which look suspiciously similar,
although I am not sure if it means anything.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw...rl=search-alia
s%3Daps&field-keywords=Gardena&x=12&y=22

Bill Have fun!

--
Garden in shade zone 5 S Jersey USA

AKT wrote:
A newbie gardener need to take care of an almost 60x40 lawn (with
somewhat crooked shape), and two 15x10 gardens in the front. At present
we cannot install an underground watering system etc, so a few basic
questions about hoses and sprinklers:

1. Sprinkler: Which type of sprinkler is best for each task? (The
garden one needs to clear 1'-3' high plants.)

2. Hoses: Most hoses I see are 5/8", but someone said 3/4" (which I can
mail-order) would be better. Is that true?

Depends on how much flow you need.


Which brands are best? (My local shops tend to carry Gilmour Flexogen
and Apex Never Kink. The Gilmour comes in green and "platinum" variety,
the latter a touch more expensive)

Don't know but I do know that when they are made to be kink free they
also are much less flexible and somewhat harder to deal with.


Does anyone make good affordable colorful hoses (yellow, orange etc)?
The only one I know of is Dramm but they are expensive and hard to
find.

I've seen ones in Gardeners Supply. Not sure how affordable they were.


3. Y-Adapter: I would like one with separate flow control for each
branch. Who makes the best one?

4. Quick connects: Metal or plastic/ And which brands? Last year I saw
quite a few of Gardena at my local shops, but this years the seem to be
gone. Instead one store has Claber(?), which look suspiciously similar,
although I am not sure if it means anything.

I would use metal.

In article , FDR
fdr@kjdfgkdfkl wrote:

: Don't know but I do know that when they are made to be kink free they
: also are much less flexible and somewhat harder to deal with.

With almost zero experience I have assumed that no-kink types are
better, they are certainly more expensive. Price considerations apart,
I am wondering if others here too feel that kinking type is better in
practice.

In article
,
Bill wrote:

In article , AKT
wrote:

A newbie gardener need to take care of an almost 60x40 lawn (with
somewhat crooked shape), and two 15x10 gardens in the front. At present
we cannot install an underground watering system etc, so a few basic
questions about hoses and sprinklers:

1. Sprinkler: Which type of sprinkler is best for each task? (The
garden one needs to clear 1'-3' high plants.)

2. Hoses: Most hoses I see are 5/8", but someone said 3/4" (which I can
mail-order) would be better. Is that true?

Which brands are best? (My local shops tend to carry Gilmour Flexogen
and Apex Never Kink. The Gilmour comes in green and "platinum" variety,
the latter a touch more expensive)

Does anyone make good affordable colorful hoses (yellow, orange etc)?
The only one I know of is Dramm but they are expensive and hard to
find.

3. Y-Adapter: I would like one with separate flow control for each
branch. Who makes the best one?

4. Quick connects: Metal or plastic/ And which brands? Last year I saw
quite a few of Gardena at my local shops, but this years the seem to be
gone. Instead one store has Claber(?), which look suspiciously similar,
although I am not sure if it means anything.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw...rl=search-alia
s%3Daps&field-keywords=Gardena&x=12&y=22

Bill Have fun!

That pretty much says it all, but I'll be redundant.
What is your objective? Do you want to strike a pose
or garden? A good craftsman doesn't blame his tool.
Get in and get dirty, then you'll know whether you want
a stiff or flexible hose (concentrate!). You have to do the
task before you know what's best for you. Stiff or flexible
.. . .

Gardening, with any luck, is a hobby where you can always
do better. Not only will you want to do better, you will
want to do better in the best way possible, and then . . . ,
voila, you are a gardener.

Have fun!
--

Billy
Bush and Pelosi Behind Bars
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KVTf...ef=patrick.net
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1009916.html

In article
,
Billy wrote:

: What is your objective?...A good craftsman doesn't blame
: his tool. Get in and get dirty, then you'll know whether you
: want a stiff or flexible hose (concentrate!). You have to do the
: task before you know what's best for you.

The idea is nice, but I don't have the luxury of first purchasing all
sort of tools and then choosing among them. Nor do I know someone to
borrow from. Anyway, we do learn from other people's experiences,
reviews, etc., and if someone has opinions to share that would be
appreciated.

In article , AKT
wrote:

In article
,
Billy wrote:

: What is your objective?...A good craftsman doesn't blame
: his tool. Get in and get dirty, then you'll know whether you
: want a stiff or flexible hose (concentrate!). You have to do the
: task before you know what's best for you.

The idea is nice, but I don't have the luxury of first purchasing all
sort of tools and then choosing among them. Nor do I know someone to
borrow from. Anyway, we do learn from other people's experiences,
reviews, etc., and if someone has opinions to share that would be
appreciated.

You need a trowel, plants, soil, I guess you need a hose, and
read
http://www.motherearthnews.com/Organ...1/Lasagna-Gard
ening.aspx. If you are going to plant big plants, you'll need a
shovel. If you keep this as a thought experiment, nothing will
happen. Additionally, you will screw-up. Trust me, you will
screw-up, everybody does, so now it won't come as a surprise, and
you can wait with anticipation to find out the what, where, and
how of the screw-up;O)
--

Billy
Bush and Pelosi Behind Bars
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KVTf...ef=patrick.net
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1009916.html

Others gave good enough replies regarding honey bees, but if the more
generalized bee population has vanished from an area -- mason bees,
solitary bees, a couple thousand types of native bees -- it's almost
always due to a neighborhood's overuse of pesticides.

Though outcomes for mixed gardens are ALWAYS better with organic gardening
principles, dopes just won't beleive it, so inept gardeners frequently
feel they need the short-cut of chemical assistance, then wonder why their
couple of fruit trees set poor fruit.

Even if only two or three people on the block are pouring the chemical
swill all over everything, it pretty much wipes out the beneficial insect
population and keeps them away a lot longer than it would harmful insects.
And the tragedy is, many a neighborhood has only one organic gardener for
every fifty ecological devastators.

Further, alas, if you live near wheat or corn growers or the like, far too
many agricultural practices means the eradication of bees of all sorts.
Orchard and vine-crop farmers usually know to protect pollinating insects
as well as the crop; grain farmers are less concerned; and just about ever
field crop or urban-lot vegatable garden has at one point or another has
contributed to the eradication of wild bees.

Honey bees hunt a great distance and alas will find the toxic gardens. But
many wild bees have a very small range of "search" for flowers and even if
you end up being an island in a chemicalized dead sea, organic practices
can re-establish a few bee species if you plant flowers they love best,
attracting those species that will settle down and not go into the
toxified yards around you unless you run out of nearby flowers for them.
Planting for bees and butterflies without toxins inevitably leads to way
better gardens than anyone gets by shopping the chemical aisle of Lowes
all summer long.

-paghat the ratgirl
--
visit my temperate gardening website:
http://www.paghat.com
visit my film reviews website:
http://www.weirdwildrealm.com