Your method might be ok for many vegetables, crabjoe, but there are crops like tomatoes that should never be allowed to wilt if possible. Alot has to do with the crop growth stage and most certainly your soil. I find that cucumbers can almost never get enough water from single daily waterings once they start pumping out fruits. Any crop producing heavily will need more water. Also crops with a larger vegetative canopy will transpire alot of water on a hot day. Surrounding weeds add to the mix; mulches can lessen the needs substancially. I agree with the good comments but there are so many variables that come into play with watering that it is almost an artform to do a good job at it. Fortunately most plants are forgiving if you are not too exacting at it.

Cutting them back only delays flowering. It doesn't stop it or harm the plants. In fact, cutting them back makes them fuller and invigorates them. Better to cut them back than not. If you've got brown growth with new shoots cut all the brown growth back to the lowest buds even though they are dormant. It will sprount out more vines. All Clematis, no matter what variety they are should be hard pruned the first few years.

I have five kids (eldest is almost 12, youngest is almost 2) -- they are fantastic, incredible, wonderful creatures :-) We have four sons and a daughter, and our home is filled with the sounds of giggling and arguing and jumping and running and chitter-chatter. My husband and I go to bed every night thanking one another for the family we have. The first two boys (26 months apart) each arrived 11 weeks preterm (29 weeks' gestation) and required months of hospitalization in the NICU, including multiple surgeries, ambulance rides and long nights of wondering if they'd survive until morning. They finally became healthy little toddlers and I had my tubes tied, thinking there was no way I could bear to bring another baby into a terrifying scenario like that again. Time passed, and the yearning got only stronger for more children...I discovered the source of my obstetric problems (a congential gynecological defect) and underwent a grueling seven-hour surgery to repair my tubes and correct my dysfunctional anatomy. Went on to have three more scrumptious kids and now I have five healthy, gorgeous children. It's exhausting, yes. It sometimes causes a bit of financial juggling (I'm a SAHM). The volume in my house is often very high with clamors for my attention or frustrations among the siblings, but it's nothing compared to the joy of hearing them laugh uncontrollably during an afternoon of goofing off as a family. I don't worry about the teenage years -- we've done our best to lay the groundwork to raise our kids with enormous self-respect and self-esteem. They'll make mistakes, I'm sure of it, but hopefully they'll return to their core values and continue to grow into fine adults. Until then, we have years of baking cookies, chasing the dog around the backyard, monitoring homework and tidying up mountains of Hot Wheels and multi-colored wooden blocks with these sweet, funny little kids we're so lucky to call our own. It's all good. Create the family you want, and then pour your heart and soul into enjoying your blessings. If you already feel sad about *no more babies, ever* and the vasectomy hasn't even happened yet, you're clearly not ready to move on -- you'll know in your heart which path is right for you and your family. Warm regards.

Ask for what you want and keep at it until you get it - assuming that is what you contracted for of course. Some of these things cannot be fixed later or will cost a fortune to fix. I had to "train" my GC. he has finally succumbed to the fact that I am "very involved in the details". He does not love it and I had to listen to some comments initially about "how involved" I was but he has come to accept this is how it is going to be. At times he sees the benefits too -I understand what is going on, I am prepared for the next step with required materials or decisions needed. I had to thicken my skin- I want to be liked and he does not love my involvement but hey, at the end of the day I am writing really large checks and will be stuck with the work they complete. My lesson learned - I need to stay ahead of the GC, do my research on upcoming activities, know what I want in terms of specs, don't assume anything and be there the day the work kicks off on any given new activity to ensure it happens to my specs (ex: when laying flooring, electrical, countertop etc). Then I need to continue to monitor as the work progresses to ensure nothing comes off the rails and the end results are what I want. There are times unforseen things come up but that should not be the norm. Sounds like a lot of work? It is and some days I wonder why I have a GC if i am doing all this but in the end I am getting what I want. I did a sanity check on my GC experience on this forum and based on the replies i got my experince is apparently the norm and considered average. Regarding cabinets and crooked ceiling, I had the same problem, i was off 1 3/4" over a span of 5 feet. After a couple of days of mocking up several alternatives we ended up with the molding level to cabs and a gap at ceiling. While it was not my prefered approach the ceiling was so far off in such a short run no amount of visual tricks masked it so "the shadow had to become my friend" as the best alternative. that issue was one i battled with my GC on for a 2 day period, was definately not what i wanted but in the end i learned there are some issues in construction that will not come out exactly as planned due to technial issues - that was one of them. Hope this helps.