Garden Reports and Rejoicing – September 17
My garden was on tour as a fundraiser today and about 400 people toured Poison Ivy Acres. Every hour on the hour I guided a group around the property, showing them particular plants and explaining how the gardens have evolved. One of the questions that came up several times was about how we water.
I explained that although a good portion of the property has automatic sprinklers, we never turn them on. First of all, the very term “automatic” means dumb. Such systems come on whether it rains or not, and usually they don’t have the ability to water deeply but less often. Their heads also don’t shoot the water high enough so that it goes over and around tall plants. Strike two.
By moving our back-and-forth sprinklers around the property we’re able to set them so that each section of the garden gets watered for two or two and a half hours every week to ten days. Less often, of course, in cooler weather. Is it more work? Absolutely. Is it a better way to water? Most definitely.
There are times when you have to ask yourself, “do I want it easy or do I want it done better?” I’ll admit that sometimes easier is preferable, but frequently it is just appealing because it takes less effort. Once again I ask: when did work become a four-letter word?
