Watering four times a week is way too often for any shrub. The key to successful watering in the desert is deep and infrequent. One gallon of water will moisten about 1 cubic foot of soil. Assuming you have one-gallon-per-hour emitters you will dispense one gallon in one hour. That's fine for small plants, but for large shrubs like your pittosporum or bottlebrush, you'll need to water longer. A better strategy is to water longer but less often. With one-gallon emitters change your system to run for 3 or 4 hours, twice a week in the summer. By fall water once a week and in the winter once every 3 weeks. Yes, you can add more emitters for high-water using plants like hibiscus or more tropical plants, but your pittosporum probably won't need it. Deep watering will also help move any accumulated salts away from the roots. Salt burn is expressed by browning on the leaf edges. Chlorosis is the yellowing of leaves and is usually caused by iron deficiency. Salts can interfere with the absorption of iron, as can soggy soils. I hope this helps.

It is unfortunate that misinformation continues to be repeated about glyphosate. Denmark has not banned glyphosate, nor have "many European countries". Denmark at one point thought that some of the monitoring they were doing showed that glyphosate could move into agricultural field drainage water in autumn but once they looked at their data and related it to the methodology they used, they enacted no ban whatsoever. As the Danish Environmental Protection Agency specifically stated: http://www.egeis.org/home/main/Evaluation-GlyphosateDEPA.PDF "Against this background, the Danish Environmental Protection Agency believes that no unacceptable risk of pollution of the groundwater is associated with the currently approved agricultural use of glyphosate. The Agency thus does not consider that the updated state of our knowledge provides any technical grounds for the imposition of restrictions on the autumn application of glyphosate." Used properly, glyphosate will not pollute drinking water nor will it have adverse effects on humans. Once applied, it binds tightly to soil particles and is not herbicidally active. If it is applied to hard surfaces such as sidewalks it can move offsite of course. It can also move if there is active soil erosion carrying soil off site. It is of very low toxicity, and breaks down completely into natural constituents over time. It is of equal or lower toxicity than most household products such as detergent, soaps, shampoos, cleaners etc. and far less toxic than some of the "alternatives" often discussed such as bleach, kerosene, high strength vinegars and so on. There is so much misinformation being repeated on the web that it is difficult to get reliable information. This link provides an published overview of the available literature. Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology Volume 31, Issue 2, April 2000, Pages 117-165 Safety Evaluation and Risk Assessment of the Herbicide Roundup and Its Active Ingredient, Glyphosate, for Humans http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=1401479

Well I pulled out my village stuff and it's amazing how you forget what you bought from year to year!!LOL! I have three trees I bought last year. One I have used as part of the nativity display in the bedroom the other two are white with beads on them. Probably too big for the village pieces I have purchased because they are all smaller pieces. Soooo.. I will have to figure out how to display them. I have a few tea cups around......

There is something intriguing about those caps. I feel bad when ever I throw one out (bottles are recycled butnot the caps.) There was someone here who made amazing things out of plastic bottles, I'll loook for her stuff and post the link if I find it. She may have used caps as well. My thoughts: the caps could be used to raise plant pots above the ground or the porch floor. They could be used as molds to make concrete things with the same purpose (I use old tart cups as molds for concrete for these) Punch a hole in the bottom and its a seedling pot. Bring a few to the beach to use in molding the turrets on sand castles. Use in drawer to separate little things from eachother (too bad they are not square). Glue to old bike helmet and paint to make head of monster costume. Use as a footing with cement to hold small objects on posts in the garden (or upside down bottles with necks in the cement.) Hmmm I think I need some too. kathy