There are two other low cost ways to water using capillary action. One is to wick water from the top and the other way is subirrigation from the bottom. Materials: 1)A wick, a long segment of a nylon cord or a long strip made of super water absorbent fabric (even long strips of cotton t-shirt for short-term use). 2) Several bowls or jars to serve as individual bottom water reservoirs for each planter or one large container to serve as a community water reservoir large enough to hold water for the number of days you'll be gone. You'll need to experiment and do some trial runs obviously to find the right water reservoir size. The water container/bowl/jar/bucket size will depending on the days you'll be absent, types of plants, and the weather. A well fitted bottom water resevoir can be made of any recycled material and containers also. OPTION 1: Thread a wick through one drainage hole and out another drainage hole of the potte plant to be watered so the wick ends are dangling and long enough to be soaking in the water in the reservoir below. Place and rest your potted plant with the wick on top of a container of water (well-fitted is preferred to keep water clean and minimize water lost). This water reservoir can be made of a recycled egg salad plastic container with or w/o the cover, the bottom of a soda bottle, and a larger bowl and etc to cover the days you'll be absent. OPTION 2: Insert one end of wick into the soil surface (from the top) securely and the other end of the wick goes all the way into the bottom of a community water resevoir that is placed higher up (on a shelf or railing) than the pots being watered. For this system to wick water efficiently, the water surface on the reservoir has to be higher than the pots being watered. Search for "self-watering planter" on youtube.com or video.google.com and you'll get some good visuals. Good luck!

I didn’t know I needed a new thread. I can do that....plant hardiness 7b, and we probably got into the teens with windchill a night or two. Very wet winter and spring. Spring is also colder than usual. Just now hitting 80 for the first time this year. None of my plants have leaves now (maybe one or two leaves here or there on one plant) all have green stalks and some obviously damaged with brown stems.

Last year my daughter was driving a 2012 Nissan Pathfinder, transporting her 2 children ages 1 and 3. This was the only vehicle that she owned and drove it for almost 2 years before the incident happened. My daughter totally lost all control of her steering after taking a left from a stop sign on to a main Hwy. She was almost involved in a serious if not fatal collision. Her husband had it towed to the dealership where they could find nothing wrong. They tried re-enacting what happened but still said they found nothing. My daughter refused to set foot in the vehicle with her children and got rid of it. This brings me to this web site today. Last night My mother was driving her 2009 Dodge Caliber to my house to visit me. She had bought the car new off of the lot and had been driving it since. She was waiting at a red light when she noticed an emergency vehicle approaching. Her light turned green and she waited to let the emergency vehicle pass. She said that she tried to give the car gas but it wouldn't move at first. She said that when it finally moved it acted like it wanted to fishtail but yet she hadn't given it too much gas. She was turning left at a major intersection and said the car was uncontrollably steering all over the road. She said it didn't matter which way she turned the wheel it went where it wanted to go. She described it as driving on ice. My mom made it to the median, turned the car off, with hazards on, trying to catch her breath. She was almost at the turn to my neighborhood so she decided to go very slow. She said that it could have been really bad. I believe that something serious is being missed mechanically. The reason that I'm searching for answers now is because it happened to 2 of my family members at different times and in different vehicles. How many more has this happened to or will this happen to? If anyone out there has any information that would help me find out what's causing this please let me know. Thanks

i have had to really control myself when discussing issues with the builder because I know it can backfire. learned that from reading many posts on GW. the way i have approached it is that i bin things into 3 buckets a) gotta be addressed right now, b) needs to be addressed - but wait for the right time , and c) address at the end - cosmetic issue. Very few things make it into the A bucket. And when an items does pop up, I am very careful about how I approach the builder. I am always pleasant - even when I am fuming mad. I try to figure a way to let the builder save face "oh, the electricians kinda let us down here" even if I knew it was his direction that caused the issue. If I am steaming, i wait until I cool off before I call the builder. This is very hard for me - I got 1/2 italian and 1/2 german oil in me. Had to do the same with DW - when she get's frustrated about the house progress. So far - it has worked very well. I have only had to pull on the handle twice. The first time was at the beginiing - after a 4 week delay in the foundation being dug. I had to wait until there was no reason for excuse (we had all the permits, we had good weather, we had all the plans - everything was in place). I waited long enough - then I called. I explained to the builder that we were concerned that something was wrong. Was there anything we needed to do to help? Within 3 days after that call - digging started. The second time I pulled on the handle was when the siding started - then the guys disappeared for a week (my limit). This was after the electricians had been pulled away for 2 weeks - back again for 1.5 days - then off again - then back on again (drove me nuts!) and we were a month behind schedule for drywall. Again - I waited until there was no room for excuse. All of my work was done (I did some wiring), the electricians were done, we had all the inspections. Called to ask the builder if he knew that his subs were not on the job for a wekk (like he would not know why) and was he ware of that. "I love the work they are doing - great job - but the Tyvec is starting to rip away from the wall" Day later - siders were back on the job. I think timing for raising issues and the approach to interacting with the builder is key. If you pull on the handle to often, or yell and scream - you will go further down on the priority list. My builder always answers my calls or emails - because I never yell or scream at him. I am always very calm about working through issues. It's a very professional working relationship. But I have had to work very hard at it too. I have learned, and finally accepted the fact, that we are not the only project the builder has (even though we think ours is the most important of course) and that stuff happens. There are a lot of dependencies in the many tasks required to build a house - and if one thing slips on any job - it can have a big ripple affect on everyone. Builders like to use the same subs they have counted on for years - these subs have schedules to. There are life issues (builders mom passed away), weather issues, car accidents - crap happens. This has been very mentally and phyically draining. Learned a lot about diplomacy - which is not my strength. I know it will get done in time.