For as long as I can take it, and usually every day. Sometimes 15 minutes, sometimes 3-4 hours total, but that would be in several spurts with breaks, maybe a meal in between. That would include everything from pulling whatever weeds I see, to watering, to grooming/deadheading, fixing stray grass coming through a border, fertilizing. All of this stuff I really think of as puttering, not working, because I like doing it. Most of my perennials are shrubs or other plants that don't need much done to them. There are the occasional heavy chores that are actual work, but they're fairly rare and well spaced. I no longer have to do the mowing, so that's made a HUGE difference in time and effort spent elsewhere. I find this has me tackling more tougher tasks more often, trying things I wouldn't have felt like I had time for before. Awesome! But, I can't go at it like I used to in my younger years. I still get asked for my ID but if you look closely, you'll see the gray hairs, bifocals, arthritic thumbs. Don't think I'll ever acclimate to the oppressive heat down here although I prefer to live here. Thank God for A/C! Going outside in summer here is like going outside in winter up north. If you stay too long, it could kill ya.

I fought this for years and here is where it lead me. Using synthetics can and will produce more as well as more dependable results 100% of the time IF you know exactly what you are doing. That means if you don't hold a degree in the field,it will be hit and miss even asking questions of people who hold the degrees and know exactly what they are doing. Problem is the expert must see and touch the plant,know history of soil&run fingers through it and know precisly what has been done including but not limited to,daily weather,amts & timing of water and nutrents up to that point. Organic is the way to go for even for the most dedicated gardeners. Organic is more forgiving of neglect and mistakes eventhough the mistakes and neglect will reduce production,it's not intolerable amounts. Non-organic mistakes often result in drastic results up to and including 100% loss. An often incountered one is where fertilizer is applied then miscalculation of weather and/or moisture occurs. Another is where insectiside is used to rid a pest that is effecting a plant by eating leaves or sucking some juice but not killing it nor ruining all fruit. Benificials on neighboring plant is eradicated and a pest that was being kept in check or shows up suddenly mushrons and ruins one or more crops. Very few things you do organicly will result in such sweeping results,good or bad. The soil should always be in transition for the lack of a better term. This addresses fertilize applications. In any container or plot , I try to insure there are diverse types and stages of finished compost. That insures that as micros are consumed replacements are being produced. I believe far too much gravity is afforded N being tied up by deterioating matter. Dumping a lot of fresh material like saw dust with huge amounts of exposed surface will definitly starve plants until rate of decomposition slows. A case where there is negitive results but usualy recovers enough to produce a fair to poor crop. Turning under green cover like vetch can realy supply season long crop fuel. I just cannot stress enough how important it is to understand your plants and that will happen with experience and experience will come sooner by asking inteligent questions of those willing to help. In an effort of convincing sceptics that it is possiable to read plants,I offer some off topic evidence. Try this out if you know a rancher,not nessarly an old crusty one, a cowperson in their 20s is quite capiable. Drive him/her to a herd they have never been around and without leaving the seat of the vehicle they can tell you; very near the age,the sex,weight and breed/mixture of breed for each animal while average person is deciding what color they are. If alowed to walk near them (many cattle dislike and will run away from strangers) closly estimate stage of pregnancy while our novice wonders why the one giving birth within a week is not fat as the one who has 3 months to go. Think about human faces. Isn't it amazing that we can differinate all of them. Practice!

I do not drain my water heater, but once or twice a year, I do a bottom flush to remove any junk that has collected there. All gas water heaters that I have seen have a standard hose bib at the bottom of the tank. you can use a hose to direct the out flow or use a container under the hose bib. There is one precaution that I advise: Prepare to handle a dripping valve if it should leak afterward. Have a hose cap handy. This a a cap with a seal and has threads that fit standard hose threads. (The seal may be a standard hose washer.) If after flushing and the valve does not completely shut off, the dripping can be stopped by screwing on the cap. These caps are available in hardware stores that sell hose and plumbing repair parts. The main hazard is that the flush valve might not seal well after the flush. Contaminants can get caught on the seat and the elastomer valve seat might not be in good shape. Having a cap available will be handy if the valve leaks afterward. If you had to use a cap, inspect the valve some time later, say an hour or more. As the pressure builds up behind the cap, water may begin to seep out around the valve stem. Usually, tightening the packing nut around the stem will stop the weeping. Do not overdo the tightening. Merely snug the packing nut enough to stop the leak. Usually, a 1/8 to 1/4 turn is enough. Support the valve with another tool to counteract the tightening torque. You do not wish to break off a valve that is pressurized with hot water.

With any decent soil, inground plantings require very little in the way of supplemental fertilization - they get what they need from the soil. And this is even more the case if you mulch routinely with any sort of organic mulch. But with any plants growing in baskets, planters or containers of any sort, you will need to fertilize regularly. The reason for this is that potting soil is not 'real' soil and contains minimal nutrients. And the need for such frequent watering of these containers in summer will leach out any nutrients that may be present. Any sort of all-purpose liquid or water soluble fertilizer will work perfectly well for this purpose -your houseplant fertilizer should be fine. Typically for containers the recommendation is "weekly, weakly", meaning a half strength solution of fert every 7 days but many container gardeners water in fertilizer with every watering at a quarter strength or less. A controlled release fertilizer - like Osmocote - applied early in the season when the containers are planted up can also suffice and remove the need to fertilize so frequently with a water soluble product.