Saturday, June 09, 2012

Water... wiser?

It's flowering tree time! A favorite time in the gardens..
 I hear them out there, talking amongst themselves, and I’m hoping what they’re discussing is how to have this mess of a good idea, all finished up... today.

Because this whole limbo thing? Well, it's making me batty.

I'm doing this for you, trees! I'm putting in a sprinkler system.
 Gardening is a passionate hobby, but it goes further than that. I work from home, in advertising, which requires a lot of creativity. I was never very good at this when they had me cooped up in a cubicle, in a great, big ad agency. Playing in the mud? Well, that seems to stimulate the cranial appendage like nobody's business!

Honeysuckles are celebrating.
 When I get stuck, can't come up with a good idea, I sit in those gardens, pull weeds in those gardens, zone out with the simplicity of happy blooming things... and, bam! The creative idea I've been searching for magically pops into my brain.

Not being able to play with my flowers, for 7 long days, has been killing me. I can't bear to go out there until this project is done.

Cutie Pie English Daisies
This summer, I made the [painful] decision to install an automatic in-ground sprinkler system. In the dryest half of the yard.

I've always been very proud of the fact that I have beautiful gardens, without wasting a drop of water, but my second passionate hobby, horses, is eating up all the free time I used to spend schlepping sprinklers to and fro.

So, I bit that proverbial bullet. Hired a sprinkler installation crew who showed up a week ago, dug massive (heartless) trenches through my garden beds and then..... disappeared.

I twiddled my thumbs for 48 hours. Tried hard to remain calm. Gave up on that idea and began leaving angry telephone messages.

(This is soooo common in Park City, Utah. Landscapers double book themselves to make as much money as they possibly can during our too-short summers. And, clearly, I fell victim to this dilemma.)

That was so yesterday dead Daffodils, orange Geum and purple Pincushion Flowers
Delphinium
 Yesterday I drove over to their building and scared the office manager half out of her wits.

Got the address of the 'prioritized sprinkler project' and paid my guys a visit. Talked to them, through clenched teeth, and, Hey! Whaddyaknow! They showed up, bright and early this morning, with renewed interest in finishing the job.

Oh, yeah. The bitch is back. In all honesty? She never left...

* What do you think about sprinkler systems? Are they worth it? Here, in Utah, we receive nearly all of our annual moisture in the form of snow during winter. But, we didn't get any snow this year. I'm still on the fence as to the bennies of a sprinkler system, though it is set up so I can still be a water miser. I will say I'm pretty excited about having more free time to ride horses.




11 comments:

Carly said...

I hope it works out for you. It did not work out for us.

When we redid our front yard (had to pull out a giant cottonless cotton wood that kept getting in the sewage pipe) My dad persuaded my mom to put in sprinklers to help take care of all of the flower beds we were putting in. He was trying to help, but it really didn't. He thought he had found a design that would water everything evenly! It didn't.

We don't use it anymore. Some things got to dry, other things were always to wet, and it ended up causing a lot of damage to the eaves of the house.

I've since decided that in ground sprinklers are an invention of the devil. But I hope yours workout! It would be nice to have more time with the horses ;)

Janie said...

I love having a sprinkler system. Unfortunately, ours misses quite a few spots, so I still have to lug the hose around once in a while. The system does save time, though, and keeps things alive if we're out of town for a week or two.

liz said...

I think a good sprinkled system can save water as well as time. It just males it a lot easier to set the clock and have no clue how much water is going on the garden too.

Rilly said...

I put a sprinkler system in my 1 acre lawn about 8 yrs. ago because I got tired of dragging hoses around, only to move them so I could mow. The only thing I regret is the company I chose to do it, otherwise I'm a happy gardener.

OmegaMom said...

What we've always done is to put in a homemade customized soaker hose system. Always seems to work, but when we had lawns, we still had to water those with sprinklers.

GirlSprout said...

I have a drip system. I have to put in a drip emitter every time I put in new plants, but it beats dragging the hose around. I just need to set up the timer now. :)

Angela said...

I utilize a soaker hose system created by my hubby.

Lona said...

Why do we always have to nudge (LOL) people anymore to get jobs finished? Oh well I am glad you got them going again.
It sounds like a wonderful plan to me. Not to have to water and drag hoses all summer when you have much more important things to do like riding.Enjoy Kate.

Melospiza said...

I know that I tend to use more water when I have a sprinkler system - but then, nothing ever shrivels up and dies due to the "but I SWEAR I just watered YESTERDAY" problem.

Garden centre in Derby said...

I have a drip system. I have to put in a drip emitter every time I put in new plants, but it beats dragging the hose around. I just need to set up the timer now. :)

Marguerite said...

Why is it so difficult to get people to do the job they were paid to do? argh! (sorry, this touched a nerve as we've had to deal with contractors over the last couple years on house renos). I can't say I've personally used a sprinkler system but it would seem to me that set up correctly it should actually save time and water. Hope this works well for you.