Over-watering!

I was surprised to see the brick path still wet at 3 PM and moss growing near the little bridge -- it's right out in the sun! I thought I re-set the automatic sprinklers back in September to only turn-on on Mondays. Then I saw droplets caught in the nasturtium leaves. This year, autumn in the Bay Area has been unusually dry and warm, so maybe more water is OK.

Of course, I turn off the sprinklers every winter, but it's so seductive to go out there and hand water, just a little, just to be sure, just to reach those little corners, in case a sprinkler head was blocked...

I was surprised to read* that the Bush ranch in Crawford (Texas) diverted gray water, water from the kitchen drains, from showers, the laundry, to irrigate the lawn. They must clean that water to get the salts and detergents out. I wonder whether some tireless MBA majoring in accounting has done a rigourous calculation of the net savings, including the cost to clean the gray water? Maybe it's just for show, even if it costs more than to use 'new' water, the PR value of 'recycling' makes up for it, huh?

As for my house and garden, a luxurious hot bath (with bath salts, or bubble bath, or essential oil, all no-nos for plants) uses maybe 20 gallons? 40? More? My sprinkler system is set for an average of 10 minutes for each of 4 zones, 40 minutes total per session; at the rate of maybe 2 gallons an hour, three times a week at peak usage (Do I have my numbers right?) Actually, some zones are on for 30 minutes while others are only on for only 5 minutes once a week... carefully planned for soil types, plant types (herbs need less water, fruits need more), depth of soaking, time of day... When will home gardening suppliers come out with sprinkler controllers that sense the average temperature and allow Boolean programming?

I'd like to give my sprinkler controller an IP address (and the appropriate mechanics) so I can control it from Singapore. Last year, when I went to Australia for 10 days, a power failure caused the sprinkling system to default to sprinking every day. My garden almost floated away before I got home!

Maybe I 'can afford' to be more profligate with watering the garden, but taking only occasional hot baths? Then there is the cost/benefit analysis to upgrade to a $1,000 water-miser washing machine, and the infrastructure cost to divert and clean that grey water (high detergent concentration) into the garden; would it be enough water, would it need supplementing... How many laundry loads would it take to depreciate?

Being analytical can be a drag.

* Tommy Franks, "American Soldier" (now only $7.99 from Amazon)

Lime is blooming AGAIN!

Actually, everything is blooming again. I thought with colder temperatures, the plants will be going into dormancy. But I see from my Google instant weather that the humidity has been high, around 80%. This was a few days before that little rain shower. That's even higher and calmer than in Lahaina, Hawaii, my favorite dive spot.

The lime was doing just great this spring -- loaded with flowers, then they all fell off. I have exactly one lime on the whole tree. But there's a small flush of bloom now, about 20 blossoms. Maybe I'll get some limes afterall? The lemons are ready though, huge clusters of them. My lemon is on a grafted tree with a grapefruit. I used EB Stone Organics for citrus this year and that seemed to kick the grapefruit to finally growing taller than the day I put the tree in, 7 years ago. Don't see any grapefruit on it, though.

The Asian eggplants are still blooming like crazy, but not forming fruit like they were this summer. Do they 'winter over' or should I pull them out and plant new ones next year? The French lavender is a gonner, nary a green leaf on it, as is the tarragon. I'll yank them out and put the citronella and rosa pelargonium(s) (true scented geranium) and echenacea in the lavender's spot. Hope they don't drown.

Moved the plumeria and passionfruit into the greenhouse.

The camellia are doing GREAT! I'll post some pictures assuming tomorrow is bright. Even the Peace Rose that nearly gave up the ghost to black spot put out one really big beautiful bloom. So they should all be OK next year! Phew!