Vacations and Drip Irrigation

Credit: jeremiah.andrick from Flickr via creative commons license

Summer is here and it's high time for vacations and weekend getaways! You're ready to throw on some sandals and head for the beach, or lace up your hiking boots for a trip to the great outdoors, either way summer is the perfect time to escape from our homes--and unfortunately from our gardens too! To help prepare for this moment, you bought a drip irrigation system to ensure your garden is well irrigated while away. You've spent precious time this spring setting up a garden and now, more than ever, it's vital to keep it healthy with the summer heat. To make sure your drip system is continuing to work hard while your away, we've put together some helpful tips to keep your system working flawlessly.

Growing and Harvesting Garlic in Dripworks' Garden

At Dripworks we grow a variety of flowers and veggies in order to show customers what can be grown with Drip Irrigation. One of our favorite veggies is the garlic we grow every year; Garlic is the perfect crop to display inside our garden, as it is planted in October and harvested each June (see picture above). Now in our third season, we find growing garlic with Drip Irrigation a snap, if given the right soil conditions and preparation.

Preparation

To prepare our garlic bed we utilize two of our wonderful products: Agribon and Emitter Tubing (or Soaker Dripline). In the Fall and Winter months we cover the garlic bed with Agribon (a fabric that raises the temperature by 4-6 degrees) in order to protect the plants from frost. The Agribon material is supported by bent wire fencing inside the wooden beds, which makes a "tunnel" shape to provide warmth and growth space for the garlic during colder months. Loop Hoops are another way to support Agribon. In addition to using Agribon, each year we irrigate the garlic with our Emitter Tubing, which delivers water directly to the roots of each plant. Soaker Dripline also works very well. Together, these products are key to a successful harvest.

Gardening and Baseball – Our National Pastimes

Driving to Dripworks today I was thinking of the work (dedication and sweat), thought (planning and strategy), and emotion (the thrill when the work pays off) that comes into play in both Gardening and Baseball. Touching the soul of an avid gardener and a real baseball fan are their gardens, landscapes, and the ball fields. Walking into a beautiful flower or vegetable garden is a breathtaking experience. A baseball stadium is similarly awesome. In baseball the venue is a "ballpark" and the grass is called the "outfield," and the "infield"...a natural setting, an area tended with care, a magnificent site, and a joy to the senses. Gardening and baseball…I contemplate the similarities.