I just bought a house and it has a soaker hose for maintaining soil moisture around and beneath the foundation. During a dry spell, how many times a day and/or how many hours per day should I turn it on?

Eric shows you his system for watering his garden with soaker hoses and water timers. Visit our community site for more info gardenfork.tv

I have been reading a lot about garden hoses emitting lead and who knows what else. If anyone has done any research on this I would appreciate help. I don’t intend to drink out of the hose. However, I would like to fill up kiddie pool and water vegetable garden.
I went to google and typed in “lead free garden hose”; I know consumer reports did a piece on it also.

Find lead-free garden hoses at Amazon.com. They have almost 50 to choose from in various diameters, lengths, colors, and manufacturers. You’ll be glad you checked it out!

I saw it on tv one time, they were showing you how to make hot water come out of the hose by doing somthing with the water heater, but I didn’t pay alot of attention. Does anyone know how to do this?

I’m in the process of patching a 8 sq.ft. bare spot on my lawn, and was advised to use a soaker hose for irrigation. Do I lay the soaker hose directly on top of the area? And how long should I let it run?

I dug a trench and lined the walls of the trench with a 75′ soaker hose. This is so that when I water, i don’t get water on the petals and so that only the roots get water. I’ve always been told that you shouldn’t water when the sun is out because when the sun heats up the water on the petals, it can and will burn them.

That being said, could I turn on the soaker hoses during the day and not burn my flowers? I mean, only the roots get the water so it makes sense right?. Would the water the eventually puddles around the flowers heat up and burn the roots or would that not happen? Thanks in advance for your answers.

Using wise gardening strategies is necessary for producing healthy vegetables which are better able to reduce the chances of diseases and live through light damage from pesky insects.  Certainly, different insect control methods are crucial.  If you are unwilling to utilize chemical insect sprays on your organic garden, consider these easy pointers for preventing well-known garden pests.

For slug control, insert a small container with beer or perhaps whole milk around slug-infested plants. Bury it so that the edge is flush with the surface of the soil. The slugs will be attracted to the contents and will climb in to the pan and die.

An additional slugs trick may be to place grapefruit rinds open-side down in the garden. Slugs will get in to the inside of the peels over night, and all you have to do is merely pick up the peels – recycle them, peels and all, including the pests.

To eliminate damage done by cutworms, build garden plant “collars” by using empty toilet paper rolls. Put the roll above the head of your small plants, then bury it 1 inch in the soil.

Try soap sprays to clear insect pests from the branches. Use a gentle mixture of water and soap, then softly spray infested vegetation. The soapy film will get rid of some insects, plus the smell may discourage other pests. Also it can be easily washed away from the produce.

A couple of effective organic sprays for insect pests are citrus spray created from steeped citrus rinds, and a spicy spray made from a strong mix of garlic and red cayenne pepper.

To manage powdery mildew, use a baking soda spray composed of a mix of baking powder, vegetable oil and water, or even a bottle of spray made out of strong chamomile tea leaf.

A row protection covering can be used to save your plants from pests – caterpillars, aphids and cabbage moths. This is essential in garden seeds, because bigger plants, less tender vegetation are less attractive to the pests. Be sure to take off the covering whenever pollinating vegetables start to bloom.

If you do not own these ingredients around the house,  the garden store provides the garden equipment you need.  Don’t forget the old phrase: “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”, since it pertains to insect pests as well as other issues in the yard.