Hi twolips... The struggle for me is that we seem to be routinely getting pretty dry summers now. We tend to get forecasts for a lot of days of 'scattered showers' with a 50% or less chance of rain predicted and two of the last three years, 90% of the showers seem to be missing us. I have a medical condition that creates energy issues and heat intolerance, which limits the amount of time I can spend outdoors in the hot months. We have been renovating the whole property for the past four years and trying to add a good amount of low maintenance plants, but they are not quite established yet. We also have a lot of neighbor silver maples...six of them around our property line that requires a lot of shade plants that are not always drought tolerant. I am adding as many epimediums and hellebores as I can afford every year, because they really tolerate those conditions well, but I have a long way to go. Add to that the way the trees suck the moisture from the soil and when we really get into a deficit, watering barely is a drop in the bucket. This year, I am already seeing the effects of not enough water in the garden and it's not even July yet. We used six yards of mulch last year and half that already this year. So, I would like to figure out what the best approach to keeping everything watered is. I have often heard..soaker hoses, but our pressure is low and it will only reach the end of one length of soaker hose. It would take a lot of connect/disconnect/connect to take care of the whole yard with soakers with just one at a time. Too many trips to the yard. I am falling back on the sprinkler, which is okay I guess, but, takes me six changes of position to do the back beds, two more for the lawn and two small beds and four raised veggie beds that need hand watering. The front requires another four sprinkler changes. Plus containers that need hand watering. I was just hoping for some ideas of anything different I can do to cut back on the watering chores and dragging the hose all over the yard. Thanks pm2

There is also Garden Voices, but I am not sure who handles that GW section where can link to your blog and put in a feed to it. Use the "contact us" link that's at the bottom of every GW page and ask them how to go about getting your blog onto Garden Voices. Here is a link that might be useful: Garden Voices

Sounds like a good idea, glad to see city officals caring about wildlife.

It's only for the MS craft products - right? Whatever - there might be something there I need for a photo album or to decorate a gift.