SO happy to find this thread- I am lugging 150 feet of hose around my back yard and am so tired of it. I have to wrap it around my body and lean into it like I am a draft animal! To add insult to injury my husband has a mental block about winding it up properly so that it doesn't knot up when I am dragging it back out- I swear most of the cursing from my back yard is over his winding up the hose. I am currently using old Lifetime guaranteed hoses that the company has now replaced three times for me- I really got my money's worth, lol. Which leads me to ask about the DAP company and how reliable we think their lifetime guarantee on the Pro series is? I know no one can make my mind up for me, but a total of $90 (hose is $70 plus two 9.95 shipping charges) is a lot of money for me even if I am getting two 75 footers for that price. Plus I need a set for the front yard! Just want to be sure I am not making a mistake and I don't live near enough anywhere to go have a feel for myself.

Philosophy may not help here, but let me give it a try. In my experience, even prolonged bad weather usually doesn't kill a lot of plants, so they'll be there to bloom again. I lost a good part of my roses' spring flowering to drought, heat, and wind, but the plants all lived and will flower again. If one group of plants isn't doing well, I admire something else. Right now the lavender is very satisfactory. The bay laurel, box, and yew all look good, and the self-sown mullein is as handsome as can be. Much of the garden still needs weeding and mulching even after days of work, but there are patches of beauty here and there, and I let my eyes rest on them often. I think Henry Mitchell said something to the effect that the purpose of the garden was, not necessarily to be perfect, but absolutely to be wonderful. My garden for me is wonderful, even with all the weeds and the drought and the unfinished work. (I have a cold this morning and don't feel like going out and dealing with it, either.) It helps that it rained early this morning. It was just a light shower that won't do a thing to water the garden, but it'll settle the dust and cool the air and perhaps discourage the flies that have been driving me crazy, and I certainly hope cool the house down: yeah! And those clouds will keep the blazing sun away, for a while. All you victims of flood and drought, I hope your weather changes for the better soon. Rob, congratulations on your daughter's graduation! This struck a note with me, as my daughter just finished elementary school. Melissa

I'm in the York region as well. This is the first time I heard of the ban and so i guess I have to follow the advise. However, I always water minimally but my place still looks lush. Now that i know about this I shall try to find ways to keep watering a minimum. I too have large containers which can be filled with water. It only takes a few minutes of watering to keep the plants happy. My front yard requires far less watering. In fact, I've left it for a week and it still looks vibrant. It's filled with plants that do not require as much watering - like shasta daisies, lavenders, yarrow, day lilies, thyme, etc. I don't understand people who leave a sprinkler on their lawns for hours at a time. Watering lawns should only take a few minutes. Many times, when my neighbors ask me to check their dried up lawns, the problem is not in the watering, but in the soil - or lack of it. Almost always, there's no topsoil left to help retain moisture and sustain grass growth. Because of the occasional waterban, I've taken steps over the years to help my back garden survive and remain green despite minimal watering. In my area, it's quite clayish so I took care to top dress my lawn each spring with triple mixes and course sand. It helped in creating a thicker layer of top soil for the grass and the clay layer beneath helped with water retention. It helps grass grow and periodical holes made with a pitchfork provides much needed oxygen to the roots. I leave the grass clippings ungathered. That too helps with minimizing evaporation. A form of mulching if you will. I've also created enough shade conditions which helps a lot. As for containered plants - I have several and I group this close together creating a humid condition and watering less. Each planter has a catch plate to keep excess water. Small wall planters are filled with succulents like hens and chicks and under sedums. They hardly need any watering. I also filled the borders with plants that have large foliage. It creates shade and shade hinders rapid evaporation. One large leaf plant is enough to sustain the surrounding plants. For instance hosta, coral bells, heucheras.

I could draw up a diagram, but it's absurdly simple. Just take a "T" off your hot and cold supply tubing for the second valve. In my case, I ran the rain head tubing from the supply valve up the shower wall, and up in the shower ceiling (attic floor) joist bay. There is a finished attic space above, though this part of the attic floor is behind a kneewall. For that horizontal run through the attic joist bay, the pipe is pitched for drainage, so when the rainhead valve is turned off the horizontal pipe does hot hold water. The bay is also insulated above the pipe. You could have exposed tubing within the shower if you wanted. If you want to have a traditional shower arm, you can do it. But these heads can be rather unwieldy at the end of a horizontal shower arm that extends out of the wall. You could always fashion a bracket to secure it to the shower ceiling too, that would prevent drooping. The reason I usually install rain heads from the ceiling is that I like them to be in the middle of the shower, not near a wall. You are correct that a true rainhead, you want it horizontal, not at an angle. Do understand there are no hard and fast rules as to how it's plumbed. I simply have my preferences. If you want the rainhead close to the wall, no worries! If you want to keep the plumbing out of the ceiling but still get the head towards the middle of your shower, I did a search for "rain shower head ceiling bracket" and got these three hits, they might give you an idea on how to make up your own solution: