Saturday, May 24, 2014

Beauty, Flags, and Functionality

Now I Think This Hibiscus From Our Garden Is Beautiful 

And I Think These Flags Are As Well


Today is the Saturday before Memorial Day and the Cypress  Creek Band has just put out the flags for the weekend.  You, too, can participate in this important fund raising program by clicking HERE to download and print the subscription form. For $36 per school year, you will have a flag placed in front of your home for a few days for each of 6 national holidays, beginning in September. The band members put them out and pick them up.

Now some things are not particularly beautiful but are quite functional for a Norchester gardener.  There is always a problem in having a supply of healthy milkweed plants for the caterpillars toward the end of the season.  By that time they have chewed most plants down to bare stems.  So our Master Gardner is trying this 6x4x4 "screen house" to protect some young plants so that they can fully mature before the little munchers can get to them.  Not beautiful, but functional. 







And keeping things watered over the summer is always a challenge.  Here are three very functional hose end timers that we have settled on as being reliable, easy to set, and a good value overall.  We use them on our dripper systems.  The first two can be set to come on as often as you like and for as long as you choose. They are powered by two AA batteries that will last all season. One of these was also addressed in our blog of Sep 20, 2013












And the last one is spring driven and for setting by hand for a period.

In this case "functional" means reliably performs a needed task.

Available at Lowes and Home Depot.