Bruce talks about these high quality yet colorful hoses from Dramm. Rittenhouse carries six different colors! We also learn how to repair a damaged hose and how to reuse rather than throw away your old garden hose.

I have a drip system and couldn’t be bothered to set up loads of separate emitters for each tree so I just connected rings for soaker hosing around the trees and let them run for about an hour every week. Is that ok? Or should I be using emitters or deep watering sticks?

I have been digging a hole in my yard for a water garden that I am going to construct, but the soil is rock hard and in-organic and because of the hole’s location in between two huge trees there are thousands of roots from small grass roots to huge 6" thick or bigger roots from the trees. I’ve been using a hoe to loosen the dirt for shoveling and to cut the roots, but it’s becoming an extreme physically enduring project. Are there any other low-budget methods to get a hole dug? Remember, I need to dig a hole to match my measurements and designs for a water garden, not just a big hole.

Note: A water garden, in my case, is a small man-made pond with fish, aquatic plants, frogs, etc.