Book: Radical Landscapes

Radical Landscapes: Reinventing Outdoor Space is something akin to the glossy, high-fashion magazines and fashion shows, only directed at gardening. While the average gardener probably wouldn't want to implement these radical garden designs. they are great ways to spur your thinking and help you develop new ideas for your garden.

Additionally, public designers will find some great ideas that have already been implemented, along with some information on how the design works with public usage. The photography is excellent and many of the designs include drawings and in-depth discussions of the concepts and thinking behind each design.

Hmmm..not enough water

After the rains of the last 2 weeks, the roses in the front garden beds have come alive again. I honestly thought several of them had died, but luckily appears that they were just heavily dormant.

I am never quite sure how much water to apply to the roses in the dry season and it appears that I was under-watering by a fair degree, at least in this one particular bed. The soaker hose system was working, but the plants clearly weren't getting enough moisture. I have been watering by time in this bed, but I think I am going to have to invent a way to measure the outflow from the soaker hose in a more scientific fashion so I don't let things get so bad when Summer rolls around again.

I am thinking something along the lines of putting a pie pan under one section of the hose and measuring how much water is collected in a certain number of minutes. Does anyone out there have experience with this type of problem? Leave a comment below and let me know what you did?