Happy Memorial Day

Please remember the veterans that have and do serve our country.

Landscape Vision offers them our thanks and prayers.

Create Some Buzz In Your Garden

Even if you think bird-watching is a little lame, there are upsides to having the winged creatures in your yard -- I can think of no better reason than the fact that they eat bugs. Although some birds can also be a nuisance since they can make a mess and they may even go after your veggies, hummingbirds are gorgeous, and just buzz around and provide a little outdoor entertainment. Adding a few of their favorite plants to your yard will ensure you have the little birds whizzing around all season.

Hummingbirds, like most birds, have little to no sense of smell. They rely purely on sight and instinct to find food. Brightly colored flowers are what catch their eye, which is why most hummingbird feeders are red. While homemade or store-bought food can provide a nice supplement, nectar from actual flowers is more nutritious. The good news is that once the hummingbirds find your yard and the sources of food, they will stick around.

Plants hummingbirds love

Bushes or trees

• Azalea
• Butterfly bush (Buddleia)
• Cape honeysuckle
• Flame acanthus
• Flowering quince
• Lantana
• Manzanita
• Mimosa

Vines

• Coral honeysuckle
• Cypress vine
• Morning glory
• Scarlet runner bean
• Trumpet creeper

Flowers

• Bee balm
• Columbine
• Coral bells
• Foxglove
• Hosta
• Hummingbird mint
• Yucca
• Impatiens
• Petunia
• Various salvia varieties

Hummingbird food recipe

Ingredients:

• 1 part white sugar
• 4 parts pure water

Directions:

1. Bring the water to a boil and add sugar. Stir until the sugar dissolves and remove from heat. Let cool completely before adding to a feeder.
2. Store leftover liquid in the refrigerator.

Hummingbird safety

First and foremost, avoid using pesticides, herbicides or any other chemicals on or near plants that hummingbirds feed on. Even small doses can be toxic to the tiny birds. When making your own food you should only use white sugar, and food should be changed every few days if it is exposed to hot sun (the food can ferment or thicken if left out too long). It’s best to add a small amount to your feeders and refill often.
Do not use food dye and avoid store-bought mixes that include additives or preservatives. The hummingbirds are attracted to the red or other bright colors on the feeders themselves -- no need to dye the liquid red. The dye provides no nutritional benefit and can cause health problems.
Hummingbird feeders should be cleaned frequently, as mold can develop rapidly. The best method is to soak them in a mixture ofhot water and vinegar. Avoid using soaps or strong cleaning chemicals, as residues can be fatal to the birds. Rinse feeders well after cleaning.

Apr 27, 2012 4:17 PM by Alicia French

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How to Install Drip Irrigation in a Raised Bed

From our Friends at KidsGardening.org via Woolly Pocket

How to Install Drip Irrigation in a Raised Bed / Woolly Pocket Meadow

Posted on April 30, 2012

Materials needed:

• 1/4″ Drip  tubing with built in emitters every 6″ (brown in photo above)
• 1/4″ Drip Supply line (no emitters) (black in photo above — you can also get in brown)
• End Plugs (Sometimes called Goof plugs)
• 1/4″ Drip Fittings (plastic parts that connect tubes) — you will need mainly “T’s”& “L’s”, but the straight ones and the cross shaped ones come in handy sometimes — they are cheap, buy extras
• Stakes to hold drip line in place
• 3/4″ Female Pipe Thread (FNPT) Adapter with Washer x 1/4″ Compression
• 3/4″ FHT Basic Pressure Regulator, 25 PSI
• Irrigation timer (optional)
• Heavy duty scissors

Cost estimate:$60-100. 
Note: This will leave you with extra supplies (drip tubing, supply line, etc) that you can use for other drip projects in your yard. So make sure to buy a bunch of fittings! I keep my extra fittings in a little plastic part box.

Time estimate:If this is your first time working with drip irrigation  allow 60-90 minutes to install a system of this size. As you get more used to working with drip supplies it will go quicker.

Steps:

1. Decide you the layout of your irrigation. If you have emitters every 6″ you will want to space the lines 6″ apart so there is even water coverage over all the soil. Set up your raised beds and fill with soil. In this case I used (4) Woolly Pocket Lil’ Meadows.

2. Insert stakes into soil every foot or so where you plan to run drip line. Starting at one end of bed snap drip line into stakes and continue across bed snapping the drip line into the  stakes. At end of line cut tube with scissors. Repeat for each row. Push End Plugs (Goof Plugs) into the end of the drip line furthest away from the water source.

3./4. Once all the drip lines are in place you will need to connect them with drip supply line (tube with no emitters). Use “T’s” & “L’s”.  The fittings will be somewhat difficult to push into the drip line as it needs to be very snug. I like to use the tip of a stake to stretch out the opening of the tube so that the fitting slides in easier. Another trick is to heat the end of the tube with a lighter to temporarily soften the plastic.

5. Run a longer section of drip supply line (no emitters) to your water source. For a simple connection to a spigot (that you will manually turn on) attach a 3/4″ Female Pipe Thread (FNPT) Adapter with Washer x 1/4″ Compression to the supply line and screw on to spigot. Super easy.  If you want to add an Irrigation Controller/Timer, mount it to the spigot. Add a pressure regulator (if it isn’t already built into the timer) and then connect the 3/4 Female Pipe thread. Also pretty easy.

6. Test the irrigation. Let it run for 20+ minutes and observe the moisture pattern. Confirm that all the fittings are snug and that water is being delivered where you need it. Adjust location of stakes as needed. Once everything is working properly you can get busy planting!

–

I installed these raised beds in August 2011 and planted them with fall starts from Sunset Nursery in Silverlake. In the photo below we have lettuce, onions, chives, parsley, cauliflower, rhubarb, carrots, cucumber and a couple of pepper plants.

10 days after planting:

6 weeks after planting –the fall garden really thrived with drip irrigation.

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