Magical Piles!

Thorny Rose Bush Pile-THORNS!

It's right about this time -- during President's Day I guess -- when "piles" begin forming in the Bird Back 40. It starts with one pile. And pretty soon, there's two. Oh -- and where did that itty bitty third pile come from and how did it get so darn big so fast? And, before you know it, there's piles all over the Bird Back 40.

 

I call them "magical piles" because they appear to form overnight -- usually after a Saturday or Sunday. I suppose I could be the culprit behind these "piles." However, I usually like to place the blame on someone else. Why else would we keep a dog around? It's Bandi's fault! Of course!

 

Where Did That Big Pile Come From? DOG!!!

Mystery solved my friends.

 

These piles are forming now because Bill Bird spent a wee bit too much of his time during those Autumn Sundays to watch an NFL game or three. The 49ers are suddenly the rage of the NFL again. I blame these piles on the exciting and unorthodox play of a one Colin Kaepernick!

 

Cut back the rose bushes? Nah! Perish the thought! CK7 is on! Clean out the artichoke beds? Are you kidding? Did you see that play Eric Reid made?

 

Two More Piles? They're Multiplying!

The President's Day holiday is a gardener's holiday for those of us who practice this foolish craft on a part-time basis. There are beds to clean out (more piles!), onions and spring seeds to plant and the thought of heirloom tomatoes crosses the gardening-struck mind. That's right kids. Later today Bill and Venus Bird will start planting the 2014 Heirloom Tomato crop.

 

But, before we get too excited by this prospect, let us remember that warm afternoon weather brings on the opportunity to get busy in the backyard. Did we plant those pear trees last weekend? CHECK! Mission accomplished! Did you install drip irrigation sprinklers to water that new pear orchard? Uh, well....

 

Hey! We'd Like a Drink Please!

Not a problem, right? All we have to do is access the toolbox set aside for all things drip irrigation! If you're going to garden extensively like we do, wise use of water is an absolute necessity. This is the reason why we dedicate that big, orange plastic toolbox to all things drip irrigation. Of course, we haven't checked that box since Colin Kaep began chucking that pigskin last fall. And wouldn't you know it? It appears you ran out of every key piece of drip irrigation equipment you needed to accomplish the task at hand.

 

Since I can literally count on my local Home Depot to be out of stock of everything I need at any particular moment (it's uncanny how these things happen, people), it means a side trip to Emigh's ACE Hardware store. This is a little far from our North Natomas location. But if there's one thing I can count on, it's this. Emigh's doesn't run out of stuff. Ever. Bank on it. That little sprinkler head you needed is going to cost you a quarter more -- but at least it's in stock.

 

Yeah, it's Another Pile!

With drip irrigation parts acquired, it's time to accomplish that task at hand! What was that task? Oh yeah, irrigate the pear orchard. But wouldn't you know it? That pesky thing called "the sun" suddenly went dark. And while I just might be crazy enough to install irrigation in the dark, one simple thought crosses my mind.

 

What happens if I trip and fall into that thorny rose bush pile?

 

Yep -- I'll wait till tomorrow.

Color Me Spring

Granny Smith Apple Tree in Blossom

Backyard fruit trees and a whole lot more are literally "springing" to life in the Bird Back 40. The brightest color so far? That would have to be my neck and arms: now a deep shade of red and quite tender to the touch. You may have guessed by now that I'm Irish. People of Irish descent do not tan. We burn. It's enough to drive the wife that is Venus downright crazy.

Wife: "And did you put sunscreen on?"

Me: "Uh, no."

Wife: "Did you at least wear a hat for the last six hours?"

Hungry Ladybug at Work

Me: "I was too busy to wear a hat."

Wife: "You're a moron."

Spring means it's time to get ready for summer. The yard is mostly clear of mud, but now it's weeds that are the big problem. Time to get that fallen citrus away from the base of the many citrus trees that grace the Bird Back 40 -- and while you're at it -- clear away those pesky weeds as well.

Spring is also the time to fix and repair those nagging leaks that inevitably appear in the drip irrigation system. And that's when you come to discover, after plugging the first leak, that you failed to spot that second leak. And then there's going to be a third that will shoot up from nowhere and strike you right in the eye. And just about the time you're done? There's a major league blowout on the other side of the yard.

Repaired Drip Irrigation Line with Brick to Block Dog

Point is, when you keep this many garden areas, fruit trees and citrus trees in the yard? One needs to practice drip irrigation to not only conserve precious water supplies (which is important), but to make sure that every last plant and every last tree gets a nice drink in the morning. I always believed running drip lines against the fence line was a master stroke of genius. That is until the neighbor's dog discovered that he could easily dig them up from the other side of the fence and shred them into itty bitty pieces.

Stupid dog.

June Pride Peach Blossoms

But as I use my weekend time to move here and there about the Bird Back 40, the yard pays me back with one dazzling show after another. The Granny Smith apple tree, now in Year 3, in full bloom for the very first time. This tree bloomed in exactly two places last year and delivered a whopper harvest of exactly two apples. Worse yet? The Honey Crisp and Fuji apple trees planted in the same raised bed failed to even flower.

But that's not the case this year. The old Granny is a mass of pink buds and white flowers. The Honey Crisp is about to flower for the very first time. The Fuji is slowly springing back to life, but I'm quite confident it will flower as well. Though the three trees are still relatively small and don't grow quite as fast when planted together in a confined area like a raised bed, they have developed strong trunk and branch supports. This is a nice sign.

Royal Rainier Cherry Blossoms

The Royal Rainier Cherry tree is now in full blossom as is the Black Tartarian, putting on a dazzling display of  white and yellow bloom clusters that honeybees simply cannot ignore. Hornets also race from one side of the yard to the next, sharing space with the carpenter bees that have taken a liking to a wisteria bush that is now in full bloom for the very first time. Ladybugs, meanwhile, feast on the bad bugs of spring. The yard is alive and buzzing after a winter that was far too long, but could have yielded more rainfall.

First to flower on the Flavor Finale pluot tree were actually the branches that I successfully grafted to this tree last spring. The Flavor Finale is the last pluot variety offered by Dave Wilson Nursery to ripen, so it makes sense that the varieties I successfully grafted would fire up first with multiple blooms.

Pluot Graft

Why graft? Pluots, like many of the newer introductions from the mind of Floyd Zaiger require pollinator trees. I had always believed that the Santa Rosa plum planted nearby in the front yard would be that pollinator. But as the years went by, and with less than impressive harvest results from the Flavor Finale, it dawned upon me that the marriage that I'd hoped for just wasn't going to work.

The next step then? Graft. Find a donor tree that will pollinate the Flavor Finale and graft, graft, graft and graft one more time. Those grafts hold varieties (which I've lost track of) that ripen earlier than the Flavor Finale which is why some branches flowered earlier than others. As the tree buzzed with the hum of pollinators moving from one tasty blossom to another, I hoped and prayed that those grafted branches would provide the spark that the Flavor Finale needed.

Flavor Finale Pluot Tree in Full Bloom

No need for prayer. The tree is loaded -- for the very first time I might add. The pollinator branches -- or grafts -- also hold fruit. This means the pollinator branches will also produce a tasty treat or five. Hey! Why do one pluot when you have can three or five?

As I move from here and there, much like the pollinators who do the same, the story is always the same. The growth is green. The growth is lush. Winter is over. The bright colors of spring are here to stay.

Laying Pipe

PVC Project (Laying Pipe): Bird Back 40

Somewhere, in a galaxy far, far away, a young and excited young boy is royally cheesed off. He is visiting the blog that is Sacramento Vegetable Gardening for the very first time thanks to the rather suggestive label of "laying pipe" (plus a few others that I will think up later).

Relax kid. This isn't the kind of show you were hoping to find. We're not laying that kind of pipe -- nor would I ever write about such a thing. Who would read it? A tryst involving a middle-aged married couple? Blech! Hit the search button again quick and get me out of here before I see anything that might fry my eyeballs.

Installing New PVC Line

However, if you're never-ending curiosity has forced you to stay -- let me tell you exactly what kind of pipe we're laying in today's blog. Because you just might be laying some of the exact same stuff someday. In this case? It's PVC irrigation pipe, and yet another irrigation project in the Backyard that is Bird.

This adventure of landscaping a large backyard has taken many twists and turns. Sometimes I get it right. Many times I don't. When the wife that is Venus and I first gazed upon the backyard spaces that greeted us in our North Natomas backyard, we saw nothing but clay dirt. There were certainly lots of possibilities that went with the dirt, but the best you got five years ago was imagination and bare dirt. Lots and lots of bare dirt.

I'll admit -- I did have some prior landscaping experience. I had totally destroyed a yard in Madera County with landscaping efforts before I discovered there were two types and two sizes of drip irrigation fittings. The discovery would come after different fittings to different hoses began to literally explode into different pieces thanks to PVC manifolds that were installed sans "pressure regulators."

Bird Back 40: 2007-Bare Dirt

Pressure regulators? What are those and why do I need them? I would soon discover why. But to this day I still can't figure out why some brainiac decided there had to be two different drip irrigation sizes -- with both so close in size (.50 opposed to .57) that it's impossible to tell them apart with the naked eye unless you know exactly what you're doing.

I had a little better time of it when it came to landscaping our first North Natomas home. Ah -- but then I had acquired the valued assistance of a retired rocket scientist and engineer who not only knew his nuclear missile systems -- but also how to install drip irrigation. Talk about your dual majors.

But that first yard -- like most in the wilds of North Natomas -- was no bigger than your average postage stamp. If you were using more than one valve for irrigation drip purposes -- you had committed the sin of planting far too much seed. If you needed more than one valve for lawn sprinklers, you had committed the error of planting a lawn on your roof.

PVC Project: 2007

But with the Bird Back 40? There was room. There was room for everything that captured a gardener's fancy. One could plant, plant and plant again and still not come close to scratching the surface of a "fully landscaped Back 40." It was here where you could let your imagination "run wild" and Venus and I have been doing just that.

I knew -- very early on in this process -- that the one drip system and the one sprinkler system that serviced our old yard wasn't going to come close to satisfying the concerns of the new stretch of land. So I planned ahead. Rather than one drip system -- I would install two. Rather than one valve dedicated to sprinklers -- I would reserve at least two and perhaps three.

Boy was I ever off. Thus the need to "lay pipe" from time to time to address glaring and distressing drops in water pressure during key irrigation periods.

New PVC Project: 2012

It was the rocket scientist turned father-in-law who came up with the rather ingenious idea of using clamps to bolt drip line to the bottom of a fence. This meant you could line an entire backyard fence line with enough drip lines to irrigate any landscaping project.

Almost...

It would be a few years before I realized that drip lines can only handle so much pressure. And the further you extend a drip line? The less pressure you get. Instead of getting a flow of water at the end of a 200 foot drip-line extension -- you get a trickle. Trickles don't equal successful fruit trees or heirloom tomato production. Trickles equal trouble.

I learned that lesson all too well a few years ago when I split off this line into another (fun detailed here) -- plus tapped into the drip line feeding a very small section of the front yard. While this did serve to increase water pressure somewhat, it was clear that I had failed to install enough PVC pipe for the overtaxed line, and had placed far too much of a demand on the drip line bolted against the fence.

PVC T: New line joins existing line

Which leads to the latest project of -- you guessed it -- laying pipe. After hacking into the all important PVC irrigation line near the manifold -- I cut a new trench carefully between citrus and fruit tree plantings. This wasn't like the irrigation project all those years ago when Venus and I first gazed upon our all-dirt Back 40. There was nothing to run into then. We could and did cut straight lines because there were no trees or boxes to get in our path.

Not this time. There are tree roots here. Watch out for that box over there! Who in Hades put that rock in my path?

PVC Overkill!

After many fits and starts -- twists and turns -- plus the addition of a new trenching shovel -- the digging part was over. Hacking into and installing a PVC T connector on the existing line I'd buried all those years ago (never expecting to dig back up again) went far smoother than I ever could have imagined. From that point forward? The job was as easy as pie: Glue, hold for compression, tear glued hand away from pipe. Who needs skin anyway?

It may have been overkill (OK, so it WAS overkill), but I made sure to create dual exit points at the end of the PVC line. I'd just about had it with low water pressure in the garden and wanted to ensure that I wouldn't have to deal with this problem again. I won't. The new lines, and the new drip sprinklers attached to the new lines, provide me with all the coverage I'll ever need and more.

Test Bed: Bird Back 40

A well soaked in-ground test bed equals equal parts great corn, squash, pumpkin and tomato crops. The new line will also open up new areas and new possibilities for additional plantings. Because I've always had that super-secret desire for a lawn on my roof.

You're My Favorite Mistake...

With all due apologies to Cheryl Crow, I think she wrote "My Favorite Mistake" on my behalf. Why? Because no matter how much I learn when it comes to gardening and landscaping, I keep on making: My Favorite Mistake.

This weekend was a real doozy.

PVC Drip Line Anchored to Fence

My father-in-law, many years ago, taught me a rather unique and ingenious way of running drip irrigation line to meet my watering needs. Rather than bury the drip line, as many landscapers will do, he would run it around the back fence, using a series of clamps to hold it against the fence board.

That line, would then be covered with decorative rock or bark when the final landscaping finishes were added and Voilà!!! No more drip line. The decorative rock or bark covered it completely! Plus, if you ever needed to add to it, or run another line, you weren't required to dig through layers of mud to find it.

Ingenious! I've used variations of the father-in-law's invention (he's a retired rocket scientist doncha know), with all of my landscaping efforts since. And, for the most part, it's worked wonders.

But, with the larger yard, I ran into a bit of a problem that I wasn't expecting. I have a fenceline that runs some 450 feet. I knew that I would need at least two drip systems, and installed both during initial landscaping efforts two years ago. But little did I realize that stretching a drip line more than 450 feet would result in a drastic drop in pressure at the end of the line.

Two years later -- I learned the hard lesson. No matter how great the water pressure is at the source (beginning) of a drip line, it's going to drop as irrigation water traverses the length of a drip line. And, at 450 feet, what was coming out at the end wasn't nearly enough to provide for my watering needs.

New Valve for the Bird Back 40

But there was a solution! Yes indeed! If I were to locate and hack into the "PVC Hot Line" that I installed first years earlier, then I would be able to install a NEW valve, with NEW and IMPROVED water pressure right where I needed it! There's a picture of that new valve to your immediate right. I already had the parts on-hand from previous landscaping projects, so why not put those extra parts to good use?

Problem solved!

Or so I thought.

Hot Line and Manifold Done Right (not by me)

The "PVC Hot Line" is the first, initial line that I install to bring water into the backyard. Most "hot lines" end at a row of irrigation valves, which is also referred to as a Manifold. The individual valves that make up the manifold then run water to different parts of a common backyard and serve as either sprinklers for the lawn or drip systems for vegetable and flower gardening.

But, in my case, I extend the PVC Hot Line past the manifold and run it through the yard. Why? For one, you just might need to hack into it someday. Secondly, bringing the "hot line" into the yard allows you to install as many water faucets against the fence as you need. You can never have enough faucets or hose bibs in my opinion. In my case, I set up four of them -- one for each section of the yard.

So, installing a new drip valve on the existing Hot Line should be as easy as locating the line that I installed next to the fence and then buried two years ago, right?

Yeah, um.....

I knew I was going to face one eensy, teensy, little problem. I knew that I had buried more than one PVC line along with the Hot Line. In some cases, the lines were marked. In some cases, they weren't. And when I located and uncovered these buried, hidden lines, I'd dug into a section where the lines had NOT BEEN MARKED.

There were two lines. One was the Hot Line. Another line served a large, raised planter bed on the other side of the yard. But which was which? I needed to break into the Hot Line ONLY -- not the PVC line that served the large, raised bed on the other side of the bed.

Have you ever seen those movies where the "star" is confronted with the task of cutting a wire to a nuclear device that is about to explode? And it always seems like there are two or three wires to choose from? In every single movie I have seen this plot played out (think Ed Harris in "The Abyss"), our hero ALWAYS manages to cut the RIGHT wire -- saving the world from nuclear destruction.

ALWAYS!

BOOM! I Cut the WRONG Line!

Let's just say -- had the situation I faced this past weekend been a nuclear device -- anyone living within 150 miles of North Natomas would be nothing more than atom particles.

That's right. I cut the wrong line. And here it is for you to gawk and laugh at. A big hole in a line that had NOTHING to do with what I was trying to accomplish.

Well, at least I knew where the Hot Line was.

But, all thoughts of cutting into the Hot Line to install the new drip irrigation valve suddenly vanished. The "improvement project" you were working on suddenly became an immediate repair project. Fortunately, I

Time Out for Emergency PVC Repair Job

had the connector I needed on hand to repair this mistake in judgement.

But, I had one and ONLY one. Screw it up -- and it's off to Home Depot for another.

My luck suddenly changed. I didn't screw this one up. And I did move onto the "improvement project" once the "emergency repair project" was completed. I managed to cut into the right line (this time). I managed to install the PVC T connector I would need without cracking the Hot Line, which was another huge accomplishment.

Hacking Done the Right Way

From that point on -- the project went as smoothly as it could possibly go. Of course, it got a lot easier. You weren't dealing with buried lines anymore. The only requirement was to make the right cuts, apply primer and glue to the correct places, apply the correct pressure, and the project of installing a new drip irrigation line was finished.

But that's not the best part. There is a satisfaction to "correcting" mistakes and completing a project to be sure, but the real satisfaction comes from testing your work. You can't bury those lines without a pressure check first.

New Drip Line Partially Installed

There are two things that can happen during a pressure check. It can work as intended -- or your entire project can blow apart in a massive shower of water explosion titled "FAIL....."

"My Favorite Mistake" was not to repeat itself. I didn't "FAIL." Not only did the line hold up to the pressure, it also worked better than expected.

The areas of the yard that had been suffering from a lack of irrigation water are suffering no more.

Hopefully, this will result in softball sized O'Henry Peaches later this summer.

Time will tell.