Amazing statement, that the system is near free. Here is what I see at my site: 1) house has a footprint of about 1300 sqft, but two of the six gutters are devoted to ostrich fern, a high water perennial. So is half the detached garage (to hardy kiwi), which has no gutters anyway. I have 1000 sqft to conserve into 2200 sqft of garden. None of this water runs off, it all percolates into the ground and supports trees and the water table. 2) Need to replace gutter covers, because they stop leaves, but let in elm seeds. It is also a Cape Cod, with nooks and crannies in the roof where stuff congregates, decays and washes off. Things are much better now, since the ash trees died (also purveyors of small seeds), and I cut five spruce. No way to filter all that junk while tons of water are washing into the barrels. That will be quite a penny. Just to give you an idea, where my driveway empties into the lawn, I have to shovel elm seeds with a snow shovel in season. 3) The facility (18 barrels) weighs a lot more than the garage, probably half the house. It needs its own concrete foundation, and good retainment. I am guessing it needs 150 ft of 4X4 and 300 ft of 2X4, plus bolts, etc. I cannot build it near the house or the city will get me. In the back of the garage, I need a nice 5 inches pipe (at least, it has to collect all the rain of 1000 ft during a rainstorm) running 60 ft through the lawn, at a slope of 1 inch per foot, with some nice posts in the middle of the lawn which I will bless every time I have to mow. The barrels may be free (I never found them, and I have two, each of which I paid $10), but I still have to take delivery, or make nine car trips (plus all the trips for the wood). That is no money? My barrels come from 27 miles out. 4) The braising of the plastic barrels. I have no tools, and no one I know has them. They cost, and probably a couple of barrels will be lost. Now, to get into the 21 beds, I need 1500 ft of PVC, and probably 100 connectors and 100 elbows. If the system is to be done right, the end caps must be removable at the end of the season to flush the lines. I need valves in many places, because in August the tomatoes need zero water, and the celery, 2 inches a week. 5) we are left with the simple matter of drilling holes. Perhaps as few as 2000 (but in beds with carrots or lettuce, you need many more), but because they are drilled, their overall area exceeds the area of the PVC, unlike, say, in drip irrigation. That means the system loses pressure quickly, and the far beds get a lot less water. And all this to save water that is insufficient, irregular in its supply, and ecologically clean but technically dirty. It has the appeal of being in liquid form, but there is a lot more of it being lost to evaporation (and mulch really is free). It is water I would never put in my drip system, and a drip system, also, is something that truly saves water, and can be put in in a couple of days of work, and it saves water whether it rains or not.

I incorrectly stated in my last post my olive trees were planted in Oct 2006. Actually it was Oct 2007. I need to see if I can get any more info from MSU who did the soil test about whether I apply all the ag lime at the same time or not. Gonebananas is right about the limestone gravel dissolving slowly (a large pile has been in my driveway for several years) and it sounds like the ag lime idea if done correctly should eventually get the surrounding soil to the correct PH. If I used the limestone gravel and spread it around the trees it would interfere with any mulch addition so its probably not a good idea. The idea for the azomite came from the website of Santa Cruz olive tree nursery where I bought the trees but I suppose that is less important than the soil PH. They soil here is more clay than sand and doesn't drain as well as it should, another potential problem. Thats why I added compost to an oversize hole when I planted the trees. I was going to add sand but several people told me that would make the soil harder, not softer. MSU and no one else I've found around here is familiar with olives, as they are not being grown by anyone else in Mississippi to my knowledge. Closest place near Austin, Texas. Most people told me that I shouldn't try them in zone 7 and a grower I talked to over the phone advised me to only plant the Mission variety due to the cold temperatures here. A professor at MSU told me that they would start an olive trial next year after I called and told them I have 21 growing here. I'll probably add another 20 next fall. Softmentor, what kind of mulching would you suggest. Right now I have applied pine needles around the trees to keep competition away. What about spreading more compost around each tree over a larger area (10'x10' per tree). I'm not as knowledgeable about gardening as many on this forum, as I've generally planted trees (pines,oaks,etc.) and just left them alone. Thanks for everyone's advice, as I've gotten most of the information on planting here rather than from the sellers or local sources.

Tiemco wrote: "I don't even consider it for use in a yard unless you just want green coverage, and don't care about color or texture. Most of the yards in my neighborhood are about 4,100 square feet, but there are some yards that are half an acre. Half an acre is a lot of turf to cover. I would guess some folks might want to seed inexpensive K-31 on much of that half acre, but leave 5,000 to 10,000 square feet close to the house for the higher quality fescues, whether tall or fine. Of course, you and I both mean "Pennington" when we said "Pendleton." Pennington also sells uncoated K-31. Would I plant K-31 in my small 4,100 square-foot yard? No. But I was happy to see a big box carry grass seed that wasn't either from Scotts or Pennington. The more competition, the better for the consumer. Walmart is selling all those bags of K-31 to somebody. And every year I see K-31 in other big box stores too. So I guess those bags are going to buyers in more rural areas with large pastures, and maybe to suburban buyers with half an acre or even a full acre to care for.

It's still too cool. I don't care what the bags say. The collected experience from reading years and years of Gardenwebbers writing in here shouts one thing about bermuda seed: it needs hot soil to germinate. On the good side, a low percentage of the bermuda seed will sprout despite what I said above. With any luck it will spread to the point where the homeowners will grant you a tentative approval. On the really good side, once this nightmare is over and you can finally laugh about it, you are really going to be happy that you prepared the soil properly. If you are not happy with your side yard, you might look into two varieties of zoysia that do very well in the shade. One is Shadow Turf and the other is Diamond. Shadow Turf is very expensive at $90 for about 80 plugs. I don't have a price on Diamond. The Shadow Turf will spread aggressively, just like bermuda. Both are fine bladed and look very much like bermuda at any height. If you are interested I will post a picture of Shadow Turf growing in pretty deep shade in Abernathy, Texas (in the Panhandle). In your area the zoysias would probably be green all year. It is in San Antonio.