LA Times Article - Too poor to retire and too young to die
petra_gw
8 years ago
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sleeperblues
8 years agoarkansas girl
8 years agolast modified: 8 years agoRelated Discussions
Help! Poor drainage in L.A. yard - to auger, till or other?
Comments (9)Thanks for the responses. To Kimmsr: I may have been unclear as to the drainage time. None of the holes that I dug were drained after 60 miinutes. The test involves filling the holes twice, and I guess the second time is more important (as the first filling of the soil eliminates to bias from the surrounding soil being dry and gives a "truer" indication of drainage). On the first filling, some of the holes were down to an inch of water after about 60 minutes, but that last inch wasn't really budging, so I just did a second fill at that time and waited another hour, at which point the holes all had MORE than an inch of water in them after 60 min. (but were less than half full). The County guide-book I'm using basically says if it's taking over 60 minutes to drain, you have a problem and need to look into augering or tilling, so I did not keep timing to see how long over 60 min. the holes took to drain. Since I'm taking this info from my LA County planting guide-book, I am reluctant to second-guess or ignore it. Hmmm...maybe the rate of perculation varies by area and is "naturally" supposed to be faster in my area, and that is needed for the Guide's recommended plant list, which is why they want 12" per hour or less for drainage? (I'm guessing.) I would also note that the water seemed to go down reasonably quickly at first, but then slowed considerably as the water got below the halfway point in the holes, which I gess means there's reasonable side-ways drainage from the 6" mark and up, and it is below that that the walls and floor of the hole were more like a bowl than a strainer (or more like a brick than sponge). Basically, for all I, it would take over 3 hours or over 6 hours, or who knows, to wait till the holes were totally empty, so I'm not really sure how bad my drainage problem is. To Ken_Adrian: You suggest getting my County Extension's "guide," but I'm pretty sure that's what I'm using, and what I linked to above. Did you look at that guide, and is it NOT the same thing? Note, with budget cuts and a big city and stuff, it's nearly impossible to get a County person on the phone in Los Angeles, at least when I've called to talk about other stuff, like permits and tree trimming and stuff, so I'm not real confident in my ability to find some one in the County to pick their brain my questions... to Toxcrusadr: Thanks for that reply, I learned some stuff. It sounds like I can till and then use lasagna method without fear of grass sprouting everywhere. If we did til, then add the lasagna layers, we'd then be walking over the soil to some extent to do our planting (cutting through all the layers and planting in the "real" soil that the grass is in, as I understand it), so I am a bit concerned this would cause compaction at least in some areas, and even if we till the soil when it's not wet, the lasagna method calls for wetting down the various layers as you add them, so I'm still not sure if this approach would lead to compaction problem. Maybe my biggest concern, though, is that the tiller I saw for rent at Home Depot looks like it'll only go maybe 6-8 inches deep, whereas the 1-man power auger they rent will go 16 inches deep, maybe more. If I've got a compaction problem below the 8 inch depth, I am wondering if tilling will help that issue at all? Lastly, there's a suggestion that the lasagna method, standing alone, should fix a drainage / compaction problem organically, as the right mixture of ingredients in the soil will lead to thriving organism or micro-organism or whatever, that naturally keep drainage good. (Sort of like imagining if you cultivate worms in your yard, and they will dig holes as they move through the earth creating a healthy amount of porousness and drainage for the soil, but on a bigger level since I'm sure the healthy soil has a lot of living stuff going on apart from worms.) If my image/analogy is correct, and the lasagna method -- done right -- will ultimately fix the drainage issue, do I really need to do anything? It would be nice if the answer is "no," EXCEPT for the fact that the County Guide I'm following SAYS to do augering or tilling before Lasagna if the drainage is slower than 60 min for a 12 inch hole. My main concern with doing the lasagna method without improving drainage is that, if water does not drain fast enough from the lasagna layers, will that sabotage the whole lasagna process? Ken...See MoreWhen roses are too easy to grow
Comments (45)In a similar vein, I went on a rant to my SO the other day about "low maintenance" or "no maintenance" yards and plants, to the extent that I swerved into no-maintenance houses, carefree jobs and "easy" children. There comes a point, with all this no-care philosophy, when one must ask oneself: what do I care about and into what am I willing to put my time, energy and love? If one buys a house touted for its low-maintenance, a yard for it's plant-it-and-forget-it ability, wishes for mild, temperate children, looks for stress-less jobs, and well-adjusted friends--what has one actually chosen? The absence of care, time and love. There is no struggle, no righteous fight against nature’s elements or discordant events. Ones daily interactions are meaningless because all the struggle and all the desire to support, love and aid those interactions has been lobotomized, split away from reality, cleaved apart with aloof precision. This is not to say everyone should wish for a garden requiring of sweeping measures of care, or that it is some terrible thing to wish for mild-mannered--or at the very least, not ragingly monstrous--children. Rather, there should be some line one must establish, some point breached that makes us think, “yes, I should care about this; I should put care into this”. So much indifference and impassivity disassociates us from reality--messy, frustrating, trying, tiring reality, but also rewarding, giving, bountiful, harmonious, joyous reality. I, for one, choose to place my love and energy into my garden, my plants, and my roses. I deadhead roses because I know I’ll have a lovely second showing sooner rather than later. I thoughtfully prune to give my roses the opportunity to show their best features. I fill planters with colorful annuals, propping them out front so passer-byers might catch a glimpse into my reality, the things I choose to care for and put my love into. I plant roses that require some degree of love and attention, because the fragrance of a single rose fills me with harmony and peace. Frivolous? Perhaps. Meaningless? I think not. Who is to say what might bring another meaning? So, yes, I understand the thought that sometimes that which requires no attention elicits little wonder. Similarly to children vying for their parent’s attention, I was under the mistaken idea that striving for perfection would win my parents’ approval or attention. Rather it was the rebellious, drug and sex fueled antics of my siblings that so ensnared their attention. For good or ill, sometimes a little fuss and muss is necessary to truly appreciate something. What is appreciation without perspective?...See Moreis there such thing as too much rain in my garden?
Comments (10)Robbie, The short answer, of course, is that yes, there is such a thing as "too much rain" but the sticky issue is just how much is too much, and it varies from plant to plant as well as the plant's stage of growth and how fast the soil drains, etc. Rarely will too much rain harm lawnturf unless the puddles are so large that the roots/stolons are underwater for a very prolonged period. Even in that case, you are likely to see yellowing and maybe fungal diseases on grass blades, but not actual death of the lawn grass. With ESTABLISHED trees and shrubs, if the soil is at all well-drained or even moderately slow-draining, long-term damage is unlikely. With perennials and annuals, too much rain can be a problem and plants that prefer well-drained soil and drier soil may indeed rot. Generally, though, if your rainy period is only a week or two, followed by a drier period, the plants won't suffer long-term harm. (Last year, with weeks and months of excess moisture, a lot of us DID lose plants,) With veggies, the effect of too-much moisture relates to the growth stage. As you correctly believe, unsprouted seeds are in the most damage, especially since they can wash away before they sprout. Carrot seeds, and other similar tiny seeds, are MOST prone to do this. Even sprouted seeds can get rot, especially if the rainfall is accompanied by cold temperatures AND if the seedlings don't have at least 3 or 4 true leaves and some well-developed roots to absorb that water. The corn should be fine. It is at the PERFECT stage for a lot of rain and will respond by growing like mad, which is terrific. The only trouble I ever have with excess moisture and corn is corn smut, and your corn is not at the stage to be affected by it, so that's a good thing, and corn smut is more likely in spring than in fall too. Well, sometimes the combination of hard wind/hard rain will cause cornstalks to lodge (fall over) but not with corn so young. If your corn were a couple of feet tall, lodging might be an issue, but it is too short at this point for rain or wind to knock it over, I think, You might check your corn roots and make sure soil hasn't washed away from that. It SHOULDN'T have, but might have if your rain fell very quickly and very hard. How many ears you get off of one corn stalk varies depending on the variety and insect pressure and how closely the stalks are planted to one another AND also depending on whether you have raccoons, deer, corn earworms or corn borers. In a perfect world, you should get two ears per stalk. With a very few varieties, you might get 3 ears, or even 4 (though rarely) although anything beyond the 2 ears usually will be very small and perhaps not large enough to bother harvesting. There are a very few old varieties (Six-Shooter is one that comes to mind) that consistently produce more than two ears per stalk. So, hope for two, expect one and be thrilled if you get three. Getting the ears to grow is not the hard part--getting the ears to survive the predators and ripen is the hard part. Pumpkins and squash, if they don't rot, love water, guzzle it like crazy and grow with wild and reckless abandon. If they are up and have true leaves, it is hard to give them to much water. These seeds also are not especially prone to rotting as long as the soil is relatively warm (above 70 or 75 degrees), which it is. Turnips and carrots like water and don't mind wet soil, so they ought to be fine, except for the issue of carrot seeds washing away, which could happen. Just watch your soil and make sure it doesn't "crust over" as it dries, because those tiny carrot seeds/sprouts have a hard time breaking through the crusty soil as they sprout. One way to prevent that (next time) is to interplant radish seeds every couple of inches in your beds of carrot seeds. The radish seeds will sprout first and will break through the soil surface, thereby paving the way for the carrot seeds. And, radishes mature fast, often in as little as three weeks, so you can harvest them and the carrots wil have plenty of space to grow. In the future, you can keep carrot seed from washing away in rain by covering the entire seedbed with cardboard, newspaper, plywood, or a thin layer of straw. If you use the cardboard, newspaper or plywood, lift it and look underneath it every morning and every evening to check for your first green sprouts. As soon as you see those first sprouts, remove the cardboard, newspaper or plywood. The covering keeps the seed in place if it rains and also prevents wind from blowing away the top soil/seed and keeps the soil from crusting over too. To me, the only hard thing about growing carrots is getting them to sprout before the seed washes away or blows away or rots (only an issue in cold soil). Turnips are easy. They'll sprout and grow and seldom wash away and seldom rot, so be patient and you should see leaves soon. The temperatures are in the perfect range for tomatoes to bloom right now. The only issue is the humidity and rain. With the larger fruited (NOT cherry, grape, currant or most plum) tomtoes, excess humidity and moisture, especially in combination with higher temperatures, can inhibit the pollen and cause it to be "sticky" or, sometimes, infertile. Just keep shaking the blooming plants, and you should see small tomatoes in 7 to 10 days. If the flowers drop and small fruits haven't formed, your plants aren't happy with either the temperatures or the humidity. In time, though, blooms will set fruit. Some of my summer tomatoes (those that survived the drought after I stopped watering) have new leaves already, and a few have blooms. We've had at least three days of 99-100% humidity, though, so I know that the blooms may not set fruit, but once the rain stops, it should happen. Dorothy can address your asparagus issues. I had it in Texas, but not here, although it (and a million other things) are on my "one of these days" list. I think the harvest window here is a little later, and perhaps a little longer, that what we had in Fort Worth. As long as you keep the GRASS out of your asparagus beds, all should be well. If grass ever infiltrates, especially bermuda grass, it is nearly impossible to reclaim the asparagus bed from the grass. I am assuming your soil drains well to moderately well. In those conditions, it would take a LOT of rain to hurt a veggie garden when the soil is warm. Excess moisture PLUS cold soil (below 55 to 60 degrees) is much more damaging than excess moisture plus warm soil. Even if you have very slow-draining clay, I don't think the recent rains are enough to hurt much of anything. The biggest issue in the next few days for many Oklahoma gardeners will be the possible appearance of moisture-loving fungal and bacterial diseases. These will mostly show themselves via leaf spots. Damping off of very new and young seedlings is a possibility too, and it is hard to prevent when rainfall is heavy. IF you have a prolonged rainy spell, like Scott, Dorothy, Ilene and a few others had in the spring, then you might see a few nutritional issues caused by the inability of root systems to take up nutrients because excess water clogs up their roots. It usually takes at least 4 straight weeks of extremely wet soil for that to even begin to be an issue though. Some of us experienced that last year, but only because the heavy rainfall occurred while the plants still had pretty small root systems. Finally, sometimes a VERY rainy period causes some physiological problems, such as cracking and splitting of tomatoes or melons. This occurs because the fruits'/veggies' flesh grows more quickly than the skin so the skin can't keep up and literally splits open. Also, with tomatoes, alternating wet-dry cycles can cause problems with calcium uptake that leads to blossom end rot of the tomatoes (and peppers and eggplants as well, though less often). So, after the rain ceases and your soil dries out, strive to keep it evenly moist, but NOT sopping wet, to reduce the incidence of BER. Did I cover everything you were wondering about? If not, let me know. And, feel free to pick our brains some more if you want. It may be too wet to be out in the garden right now (words I have NOT been able to say in months), but we can talk gardening! Dawn...See MoreIs it ever the right time to retire?
Comments (23)Don't forget the ravages that inflation wreaks on our assets. There are two rats that eat our cheese. There's an agency that comes to almost all of us with a question ... and a statement ... annually. The question: "How much did you make?" The statement (for all but *very* low income people), "We want part of it!"! Income tax affects our income. For the parts of our asset base that we choose to invest where we have a guarantee that at the end of the period, we'll get back every dollar of the money that we invested there, along with the rent on the money ... ... there's another problem. Another rat comes along and nibbles a little piece off of one corner of every five dollar bill that's included in that investment ... and off of the corner of every other bill in it, as well. That rat is called "inflation" - $10,000.00 won't buy now what it would ten years ago ... and certainly nothing like what it would have, 30 years ago. Income tax hits our income ... ... inflation hits our guaranteed-dollar investments ... ... (the other investments, as well, really ... but a number of them carry the possibility of a net long-term increase in numbers, to offset the ravages of inflation). ole joyful...See Moresleeperblues
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