well. . . like I said I didn't check it last summer after my buddy added them. Since the 4 shrubs that were being feed water by them were doing good I didn't think to check them. However I did do some above ground watering in the same bed. I haven't turned on my sprinkler system yet this year so I don't know if they will work or not. After doing some research and before I posted my question here I saw a similar setup and they used the same type thing as this (pictured above) but their application was to connect tubing together. . . so I figured I may have used the wrong thing. . . I guess I will find out when I start up the sprinklers. Maybe come May. . .LOL. . . I'm kinda leary this year, as we know ma nature can be somewhat stubborn. . . thanks for the input Silverdraggon. . .

Soldering is easy, but you should actually watch someone do it, because trying to dry out lines after the joint leaks is no fun. Take the fittings, sand them lightly on the mating surfaces and apply flux to the sanded surfaces. Remove the burrs on the inside diameter of the pipe with a pocket knife. Assemble the joints and secure them from moving, if necessary. Usa a propane or mapp torch and heat around the general area to be soldered. Don't overheat. You have already bent your solder into an L shape at the end. For a 3/4" fitting, it will be 3/4" long. When the area is uniformly warmed, hold the torch on one side of the fitting at the location of the end of the pipe and the L bent solder on the opposite side. When the joint is warm enough, the solder on the opposite side of the flame will start melting into the joint. Pull back a bit on the flame until the entire 3/4" of solder is melted. You will now see the solder around the entire joint. Any more solder and it will start running down the pipe as excess. On upward joints, the solder will be pulled upward to the end of the pipe. If you like a nice job, you can wipe the joint with a towel to remove drips, while it is still hot. This can also result in a joint that moves and has improper bonding. Try on a few test pieces first. The hardest joints are those with water on the other side of the valve because you'll need more heat. Valves are soldered in the open position and require much more heat, but not too much that it ruins the nylon inside. Another potential problem is when you are soldering the last joint and pressure starts to build in the closed system. The expansion of air will tend to push solder out of the joint while it's still in liquid form. If possible, open a vent somewhere. I believe with proper soldering techniques, anybody can lay out the piping and baseboards and make it a DIY project and let an experienced person hook up to the boiler. As far as putting pipe through the wall.....maybe if you drill holes in all the studs, including the end stud, you can do it. Otherwise, it's OK to use empty baseboard to hide pipe runs. It's called "enclosure only" baseboard. It hides pipes, but has no radiation. Good luck, I know you can do it.

It is perfectly up to you whether you wish to mulch them individually while they're small, or to prepare now for the future. I have only seen these growing but have never been lucky enough to own property large enough or in in a climate where I could grow them myself. So I can't well predict their progress. But I know they will become sizeable. A good strategy would be to mulch them individually this year and observe what they do when they emerge next spring. It would be somewhat an indicator of what to expect. Of course, one has to take into account the concept of "sleep ... creep ... leap!" Many plants do that and are suddenly upon you. Cannot stress the importance of never letting them go dry during their young life. This does not mean keep wet, but to keep on top of soil moisture so they do not dry out. A little extra water usually helps plants grow quickly. Normal fertilizer too. Not extra and not a shortage of.

I have an irrigation system that was designed to water only the lawn (which does not need much water IMO) and a lot of garden that needs watering. How much work is it to add a drip zone to an existing irrigation system? I have a control box with extra zones. My Control box is in my garage which is detached from my house, but close to the front of my house. Under my porch in the back of my house, I have a bunch of valve-like things that are part of my irrigation system. There are 5 or 6 of them, although I have 13 zones. They have pipes going out from them. Would I need to put a new wire from the garage to the valve-like things? Or would I just need to add piping and emitters from the valve-like things? Since the exiting wire/s from the garage is buried, and the garage is far from where the valve-like things are, a wire would be a LOT of work.