A new look at old irrigation ideas

<p>These days, society expects updating on everything with a technological bent, but in the gardening world we’re pretty content with carrying on in the same mode we’ve known for years. There’s a certain comfort in repetition, in forgoing change, but there’s also a certain foolishness in ignoring new and better methods.</p><p>I’ve recently come across a new book and Web site and am using a new technique, all interesting enough that I’m passing them along. The first is a book on drip irrigation that will help anyone who wants to conserve water outdoors.</p><p>Drip irrigation is far from new as a way to economize water in our gardens and landscapes, but for homeowners who are taking out lawns and installing low-water plants, it may be both a new and challenging concept.</p><p>The idea is easy to get our minds around. Drip irrigation provides precise amounts of moisture exactly where it is needed — in the root zone — and is a far more efficient way to water than with overhead sprinklers. Wind diverts fine droplets that sprinklers produce; excess moisture runs off and is wasted; and water on plant and soil surfaces evaporates before plants can use it.</p><p>For all of these reasons, Robert Kourik has just put out an expanded, up-to-date edition of his book, Drip Irrigation for Every Landscape and All Climates (Metamorphic Press, 2009). Anyone planning to install a new system or update an old one will find his book extremely useful.</p><p>Kourik, a long-time Occidental resident and respected horticulturist, is an expert in designing irrigation systems in the North Bay. It’s difficult to say which aspect of his book is more valuable, the text explaining how systems work or the diagrams that so precisely illustrate how to put parts together.</p><p>Besides routine layouts for setting up outdoor systems, gardeners will also find help for very specific tasks such as hiding distribution tubes in containers, irrigating fruit trees, incorporating rain barrels or gray water and irrigating raised beds.</p><p>You can purchase Kourik’s Drip Irrigation at local bookstores or from his Web site, www.Robert-Kourik.com, where he is featuring sale prices on other books that he’s written.</p><h3>The gardening tutor</h3> <p>Another update of an old idea — actually an old method — will appeal to anyone who gardens in containers: lifting a container above a deck or patio surface so it will drain properly. Terra cotta pot feet serve the purpose but are incompatible with and unattractive under glazed containers. Traditional feet also look awkward under all but very large terra cotta pots.</p><p>Here’s where Pot Pads enter the picture. These little round supports fit nearly invisibly under containers and lift them just enough for good drainage. You can find pot pads on a Santa Rosa Web site that I’ve just discovered, www.thegardeningtutor.net. Besides featuring a nice collection of quality gardening equipment, which included hard-to-find galvanized watering cans, the outstanding feature of the Garden Shoppe on this site is pick-up and hand delivery in the Santa Rosa area.</p><p>Another unusual but very handy gadget at the Shoppe is a thread snips, a little tool similar to scissors that makes quick work of deadheading soft-stemmed annuals and perennials, a sure way to extend blooms from one season to the next.</p><p>While at the Web site, be sure to note the services offered by the gardening tutor, Mary Frost. Gardeners who need a little nudge to better coordinate color and plant placement will want to consider her assistance.</p><h3>Summer pruning</h3> <p>If you’ve always thought that January is the optimal month for pruning fruit trees, you may want to reconsider. According to experts at UC Davis, pruning in summer rather than in winter can better control mature trees that grow vigorously and become unmanageable.</p><p>Pruning between May and August is recommended primarily to thin out excessive foliage high in a tree to let sunlight reach lower fruiting branches. A side benefit is that by slowing growth now less pruning is needed during winter dormancy. A pear and an apple tree in my own garden are so vigorous that I’m pruning them now, hoping to keep them at a more convenient size.</p><p>There are some disadvantages however. Because retarding growth occurs while fruit is on the tree, it’s possible that ripening will slow down along with the loss of foliage and that fruit could be sunburned.</p><p>The UC book, “The Home Orchard” (Publication #3485), whose techniques I’m following, is a good resource for all types of fruit tree pruning as well as other maintenance procedures. It can be purchased from the UC Cooperative Extension office at 133 Aviation Blvd, Suite 109, Santa Rosa, or online at http://anrcatalog.ucdavis.edu.</p><p>Gardeners looking for hands-on assistance will want to take in Master Gardener Al Derrick’s workshop on Care of the Home Orchard next Saturday, July 18, at 10:30 a.m. at the Harvest for the Hungry Garden, behind the parking lot at Christ Church United Methodist 1717 Yulupa, Santa Rosa.</p><p><i>Rosemary McCreary, a Sonoma County gardener, gardening teacher and author, writes the weekly Homegrown column for The Press Democrat. Write to her at P.O. Box 910, Santa Rosa, 95402; or send fax to 664-9476.</i></p>