Having
fire-resistant plants as well as drought tolerant plants
is a win-win situation. Dozens are endorsed for use by
Southern California agencies. I used a lot of Salvias and
some French Lavender. The Firemen and the Humming Birds
like them. I remember the people in the back county who
had Cactus and Succulents around their houses. It saved
most of their houses. Also, dead landscape helps to fuel fire. The Sage (Salvia) sage-scented hillsides
the entire Sage species are endorsed by the Orange County
and Los Angeles County Fire Departments along
with the Sticky Monkey
Flower. Creating a fire resistant barrier around your home
is far more important then picking the right plants. It means
keeping them pruned and maintained. For
more information, please refer to
www.firewise.org
www.fire.ca.gov
You can perform a soil test by taking a handful of moist
soil and squeeze it. If it crumbles as you open you hand,
it is sand. If it holds its shape but crumbles when you
poke it, it is loam. When you open your hand, if a tight
firm lump forms it is clay. This is not an accurate way
to determine your type of soil
because most soils are a mixture of sand, loam
and clay.
For the people who like spray,
MP Rotator is a very good product.
The adjustable arc
and the adjustable radius
sprinkler generally uses about 1/3 the water of most
sprinklers that I have used. It works good on hillsides.
There is less run off because of the slower precipitation
rate, and they are easy to adjust. Sometimes an old
sprinkler system that is not working properly doesn’t get
enough water. It can be saved by just using MP Rotators.
They
will screw right into the sprinkler bodies, leaving the
system with more than enough water to operate well. By
installing the MP Rotators with the lower precipitation
rate, there will be
more than enough water for the system to work
properly. For more information, please
refer to
www.mprotator.com
Another product that was very good was
the EZ Flow fertilizing
system because we had 15 acres in
constant need of water and fertilization. We
use Chemigation to
fertilize our plants because our soil
is nothing but
decomposed granite
and rock. In using the EZ Flow system, I just fill the tank
every time we irrigate all the plants that
need fertilizing.
The plants seem to grow better with small doses of
fertilizer each time we water. It saves a lot of labor doing it this way.
Additionally, we also run a pre-emergent which won’t affect the
established plants, but will prevent the weeds from
germinating. Sometimes we run dissolved and strained gypsum
products to help leach the salt out of the soil. Chemigation can save a lot of money and time. If you need a faster response
on the saltburned leaves and better soil drainage, please
refer to
www.plantschoice.com
www.ezfloinjection.com
I own no interest in any of these companies I mentioned
nor do I work for them in any way. I only
used the products
because of the great success I have had with them. I
didn’t try all the new products, but the Irrigation
Industry has come out with lots of new products. Try some
of them and save water and money.
See you at the
Spring Garden Festival
at Cuyamaca College, El Cajon, California on May 20, 2006
from 9am-3pm.
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