Friday, August 23, 2013

Removing the old olive tree

The old olive tree, in the South Bed, is just not thriving.  It seems not to like neither the cold nor the heat.   The other two olive trees are doing much better, growing bigger and faster.


So I took it out. We considered this possibility when we were excavating the south bed.


I dug down and took out the rock that was under it.


and then filled it back in with dirt and compost.  The drip irrigation system in this area needed to be repaired.


and then 5 bags of mulch on top of the area to cut down on the weeds and evaporation.



Saturday, August 10, 2013

Drip Irrigation for Zone 2

10 August 2012

Time to add the drip irrigation system for Zone 2.

The first problem is attaching to the water supply line.  We can dig up the Zone 2 valve, and then attach to it. We need first a filter, then a pressure reduction unit, and then we can start adding the drip irrigation.






There is a slope from one end of Zone 2 (by the gate) down to the rain barrel, so we design the drip irrigation system to run from the house to the path, rather than the long way.


We have a lot of parts and tubing left from our earlier projects, but we do need a bunch more of the Tee connectors, and eventually we needed another 100 feet of the drip irrigation tubing.  No one here in town seems to sell it in less than 500 feet, but Sprinkler Warehouse in Houston sold me 100 feet of XFS-06-12 with next day Fedex shipping for $40.71.



Once the irrigation system is put in place, we then needed 4 inches of dirt to cover it.  We bought 8 cubic yards, which should be more than enough.


 and the result is a nice clean Zone 2, ready for planting.