4 posts tagged “garden”
I spied a few water features in the garden shop next to our office a few days ago, this one grabbed my attention:
I almost decided where it should go, but wanted my wife's opinion first (yes, permission!) so she was good enough to drop by the garden shop this afternoon so I can show her what's available. She too - thankfully - thought that this is the one and left it to me to place it in our garden. I paid the guys and they agreed to deliver it within the hour!
Lucky me that today is Monday, that's the day my part time gardener drops in to do the odd jobs, so when they did deliver it, not only my regular gardener was around, but also my previous gardener and their manager! So I set them all to it and after selecting where it should go, we got the shovels and wheel-barrow and started working.
It works!
After the guys have left, I decided to just sit on the grass and listen to the sound of the waterfall...
I called the guy who installed the full irrigation system in my garden and told him specifically that the problem I'm experiencing in the garden is due to the water finishing far too quick, much quicker than before. I have a huge water tank especially installed together with two pumps exclusively for the garden. The water tank's capacity is 2,500 liters so it should be more than enough to water the garden, but it wasn't lasting for more than 5 or 6 minutes (I kid you not!) and it would stop.
That sent me 'round the bend, something really drastic was happening here, and after even cursory examination I found that the problem is most probably because whenever the timer switched on the pump to water any sprinkler zone in the garden, the drip system comes on as well! Apart from the fact that that was destroying the flower beds' plants as they are receiving much more water than they bargained for (my timing is set for watering each garden zone twice a day, each zone is split into two sectors, and each sector receives 10 minutes of watering; the drip system itself is on twice a day as well for 10 minutes each and my watering regime is only at night and very early in the morning (before the sun comes up)) 50 minutes! The ground was turning a sick shade of green with all the mould and algae...
Anyway, I call the guy and he opens up the inspection hatch and I hear an "aha!" I thought: brilliant! the bastard already found the problem! And he did, he said that the valve was stuck in the open position all the time. YES! He closed it and said that should fix the problem and was about to go on his merry way. Hold on a minute, I'm not done with you yet! What if it happens again? Why did it happen in the first place? How do I fix it if it does recurr? "Don't worry sir, it won't happen again."
Yeah sure... off he goes with my thanks.
The next day it got stuck once again and I called him back immediately. I make sure that I am right there to monitor what they're doing. This time, I told him to disassemble the valve and see exactly what the hell is going on. No questions. So he reluctantly did... and found a spring that was making the valve stuck open! That spring was exercised a bit and the internals cleaned, and finally it only came on when commanded at the proper time.
Now I can finally set the proper timing to water the lawn, and I did after much trial and error (this is actually where my phone, the Sony Ericsson K750i came into its own as it had a stopwatch for me to time the operation!) I got the water tank to pump enough water into two sectors before finishing, and allow enough time between waterings for the tank to refill from the measly pressure we get from the government line.
Maybe now I can really start correcting that drought period of a couple of weeks that wreaked havoc on my lawn, I've got great big brown patches to rectify now... it will take some work, but I'm up for it.
I think there is nothing really as nice as a good, well maintained, lush, lawn. I see this and I just want to sit on the grass for a while or lie down on it and just chill out.
Alternately, there is nothing worse than a patchy lawn. It is ugly and eyesore
This is unfortunately what has happened to my garden lately, and I think I solved it: that part of the lawn was starved of water! And I think it is a malfunctioning solenoid or a blockage in the main line or something of the sort. That zone receives the same pressure as all the other zones, but when the pump is on, the risers hardly break the surface and just lethargically dribble water rather than really spray it out and cover its circle. I just assumed that the pressure was as good as the other zones; in fact I reduced the pump's pressure last week as I thought the other zones' pressure was just too high.
This afternoon I thought I would really investigate so I donned my swimming trunks and switched the pump on. I was armed with a screwdriver and pliers just in case they are needed "in the field"; however, they weren't. The reason, as stated above, was plain to see. I went and increased the pump's pressure appreciably and will monitor all zones through the coming week to see if there is any difference. I'm sure there will be... I am determined to get my lovely lawn back.
The mealybug is pissing me off. I have been fighting with the bloody thing all summer now and it's still winning. I have done everything I can to get rid of it save for cutting down the infected hibiscus and other soft plants it chose to suck the life out of. I sprayed the thing with Neem tree oil, I jet washed the plants, I sprayed them with "special, definitely will kill them" pesticides, included repeated applications of Diazanon, but still the bastards are resident in my plants. And I hate it.
The life of one of my best hibiscus, (one that I incidently named "Laura" after my lovely neice who just celebrated her 5th birthday yesterday! Happy birthday twitto! :)) is all be expended. What was a big 7-foot bush with plenty of huge flowers, is now does to under 6 and is very scrawny.
The two hibiscus-doubles which I planted in big pots and are at either side of the front door has all but ceased flowering, of if they do, they don't go past the bud stage in most cases, then turn brown and listless.
My gardener tells me that all gardens in Bahrain suffer from this bug, especially during the hot and humid summers, and reassures me that come December I won't be seeing it and my plants will go back to their radiant beauty they were at before. I sure hope so, because this is making me rather sad and despondent.
And it's not just the mealy bug really.. the whole garden is suffering, the grass, which survived all the summer up to this point quite lush and green has given up in some patches, and those turn brown and dry with only a few clumps of green braving that patch. I made sure that my whole garden gets enough water, in fact I found out a few days ago that I was giving some parts of the flower beds far too much water! I've since reduced the drip system to 10 minutes instead of 15, and it looks like I have to reduce it a bit further, but unfortunately as the drip system comes from a single water line, and through one single pump, it s hard to control the levels the various beds need.
I can't wait for this summer to end. It is getting quite intollerable.
