Toxic Oil Spill Rains?

I haven't seen this yet in North Texas but I'll keep my eye out for it.  It is very alarming!

How to Automate Watering of Planters and Veggie Gardens

Rain is not something to be relied upon to keep your garden thriving in Texas during summer, unless it's full of drought tolerant plants.  I have a sprinkler system for my lawn and flower beds, but not for my Square Foot Garden or flower planters.  Regular watering can fall through the cracks when you're busy with other things.  So I decided to automate my irrigation and save my veggies and planters the stress.

For my Square Foot Garden, the solution was simple: one 50 foot soaker hose, some landscape anchor pins (to keep the hose in place), a hose timer and a y-connector with shut-off valves so I could still use my hose faucet for other things.   Problem solved and my veggie garden is very happy.

The problem was more complex for my flower planters.  I have two planters on my patio in the backyard like this...

... and two flanking my front stoop like this...

I had to find a way to automatically water them without marring their appearance or leaving hoses snaking through the lawn (this would be unattractive and would make mowing difficult).

I bought a $20 kit called Mister Landscaper that includes almost everything you need to hook a bunch of planters into your existing sprinkler system (or add a timer and attach it to your garden hose).

Taking the blue planter as an example, I located the nearest lawn sprinkler head (which was almost right beside the planter), unscrewed it and lifted it out of the ground.  This was the only way I could figure out what attachments I needed.  I took the sprinkler head with me to Lowes and asked the irrigation specialist what I needed to connect it to the irrigation hose in the Mister Landscaper kit. I had to dig a bit of soil from around the sprinkler head to get it back into the ground with the attachment, but it wasn't much trouble.

I extended the hose up the back of the planter and put a loop of drip hose through the flowers.  As you can see here, it's really unobtrusive:

Problem solved!  I did the same thing with my other three planters and still have hose and attachments left over in the kit.  Now my planters are watered at the same time that my lawn is.  Worry free.

Solar Roadways: The Prototype

This is fascinating.