I arrived at the ranch early afternoon. Mike completed the irrigation lines to all the plants on the border garden off the back porch, a true work of art. Mike also walked me through how he traced the water lines, and he has a schematic for this unique system.
We also traced the line of sprinkler posts along the front border garden. I believe those posts were used to irrigate the lawn along that strip. They were capped when the lawn was dug up for the garden plants and flagstones. Mystery valve number 4 – we were puzzled where it went. Sure enough, we uncapped one of the posts and water poured out from valve number 4. Currently one valve and one pipe line feeds the irrigation system for the entire front slope garden. The thought is to tap into the number 4 line towards its far end and use it to irrigate the western half of the front slope garden. Perhaps less surface area will translate into higher water pressure.
Mike is checking sprinkler heads in the front slope garden every week for silt. The lake water clogs sprinkler heads at a great rate. Curiously, the back and side yard sprinklers do not share this problem. Mike confirmed that lower rock rose was not receiving adequate water, and I will continue to supplement the irrigation drip while it recovers.
I found a new verbena at East Bay Nursery, white center with royal purple edges. It replaces the white verbena in the triangle garden that never thrived. At the end of the day I added Italian oregano to the herb garden.
A Year at the Snake 