Vacation Prep!

Finally, we will be off on a vacation, shortly.  We will be visiting our great state of Hawaii.  It will be a pleasure to get away from the freezing sleet and piled high snow here in Southern California.  Oh, wait.  Scratch that last bit.  What is sleet, anyway?

We found out the hard way a few year's back when we went to London that moving your potted plants onto the lawn, we did have one of those then, and allowing the lawn sprinklers to water them has disastrous results.  For our last vacation, and now this one, we purchased a pot watering system.

This particular kit we purchased from The Drip Store.  It comes with quarter inch tubing, stakes, connectors and various types of drippers.  It worked like a charm, as all of our plants survived in tact.  It wasn't until later we killed them.

Now, mind you, it is not the most attractive set up once in place.

You can make it permanent; however, we still do like hand watering, as different plants have different requirements, and we tend to move the pots with some frequency as certain victims are replaced with future ones.

The programmer can be set to go off multiple time per day for various lengths of time.  One drawback is that the time starts when you first turn it on.  There is no setting it to go at a specific time, say 5 am.  If you want it to go off at 5 am, you need to walk outside in your unmentionables at that hour and start it for the first time.  Needless to say, our watering will occur in the evening, as that is when I walked out in my unmentionables to start it.

The system has worked flawlessly.  It came with plenty of hose and connectors.  There are a couple of things, though, that could be changed.  First, as with any kit, the mix of items usually is not what you need.  The kit contains foggers and drippers that are 1 gallon per hour and 1/2 gallon per hour.  The 1/2 gallon per hour drippers are useless unless you encircle the plant with them as if you were laying siege to a castle.

Luckily, I had extra 1 gallon per hour drippers, so the day was saved.

Second, this is not the first time we have used this system and there are quite a few more plants now then we had before.  I didn't show the other batch as I couldn't figure out how to get the picture without capturing the lawn/dirt, which is not something anyone wishes to see.  We have about 13 plants on this system.  Reconfiguring the system is a little difficult as the connectors and drippers cannot be undone from the hose once set.  One must cut the hose and insert more connectors.  It looks a bit Frankensteinish after all is said and done.

Either way, it is a small nuisance, as coming home to mass plant extinction is a far bigger nuisance.  Also, we have finally planted some tomatoes and strawberries and it would be heartbreaking to lose our first go at vegetables.  That's for a future post.  Not the loss, but the vegetables.  Keep up.

P.S.  Very bad, bad morning today as it was too early for a pint due to my being on kid duty today and my beloved Tottenham Hotspur fell to Sunderland 3-1.  We were simply outclassed, although we had every opportunity at the end for at least a draw.  As of now, still in fourth.  I'm afraid, though, in an hour we won't be.  Bar maid, where's my cocktail???