Vegetable Garden Watering Tips

A vegetable garden is a beautiful thing to behold. Plump juicy tomatoes, green beans, corn on the cob, herbs and spices, peppers, onions, cucumbers, squash, zucchini, strawberries, and so on…. Nothing like seeing and tasting your hard work through spring and summer. In our garden we grow an abundance of tomatoes, peppers and onions to make and can our own salsa. This year we added cilantro to our garden for our salsa. We also can tomatoes, corn and green beans. We make our own pickles and put them up too. This year we are raising pumpkins for Sue’s wonderful pumpkin pies in the fall and at our Thanksgiving table. Last year was the first we canned… and we love it. Brings back memories of my mom canning when I was a kid. The smells of tomatoes simmering and corn boiling sent me back to my youth in a flash!! It was a big investment purchasing a water bath canner, a pressure cooker and all the jars. But, boy, opening a jar of tomatoes in January to liven up a pot of soup was worth all the expense and work. Adding a jar of corn to lima beans for succotash at Thanksgiving was warming. Sue had never experienced canning before and she fell in love with it. We spent a great deal of time together in the kitchen putting up the bounty harvested from our garden. In the cold of winter we remembered the hot Saturday in August when we husked dozens of ears of corn in the garage… listening to the Orioles and sipping a cold beer. Great stuff!!

However, all the good vegetables from our garden came at a price: hard work in tilling and weeding, soil supplements in fertilizer, fish emulsion (best stuff on earth!), compost, and water… lots of water. During dry periods your investment in time and money needs protection or your vegetables will not produce well. How much to water is always a guess. Some say ½” per week, others 1” per week. Some vegetables need to be kept consistently moist. Whatever amount you need, you need water. How and when you water can save or waste large amount of water. First, I put a mulch of straw down in my garden when I plant. This serves three purposes for me: It helps to keep weeds down, it helps keep the soil underneath moist, and it looks nice. In the fall I can either use the straw in my compost bin or till it in to decompose in the soil over the winter. One year though, I think I got hay instead of straw… I had some of the best looking grass in my corn rows!! Anyway, back to water. I save plastic gallon milk and water jugs during late winter and early spring. I poke some holes in the bottom and 1/3 up the sides. When I plant a tomato I plant a jug next to it. I bury the jug up to the opening. Once a week I fill the buried jugs and I get water to the roots of my tomatoes. I am putting in 24 tomato plants this year (like I said, we can salsa and tomatoes). They will take up and area of about 420 ft² in my garden. If I used a sprinkler to water each week and put down an inch of water weekly, I could use up to 4,400 gallons of water just for my tomatoes this summer. If I use my jugs I could use as little as 384 gallons. That is less than one tenth the amount of water used with sprinklers!!

Jugs are not very good for corn, beans, cucumbers, etc… You really are left with either drip irrigation or sprinkler. I have not made the investment in a drip irrigation system… one of these days. Until then, I am left with sprinkling. As I said, I use straw to hold the moisture. I also water in the evening so the moisture can get into the soil without the sun evaporating it first. I also keep a rectangular cake pan (one with straight sides) in the garden. I use this to measure how much water I put down (a ½” of water in the pan means I put a ½” in the garden) and how much rain falls during a shower (a ½” of rain in the pan is a ½” I DON’T have to water).

I try to place my sprinklers so I’m not watering the roof of the shed or the soybeans in the field behind my garden. Most of all, I try to not over-water. I just read that more plants die from too much water instead of too little. There you go, enjoy your veggies!

Pat Scheper

Outdoor Water-Saving Tips for Spring!

Well it’s taken a while, but it looks like the warm weather is finally on its way! Time to begin prepping our plants, flowers and shrubs for the coming heat. If you’re anything like most of us here in the office, you take great pride in your garden full of vegetables or walkways lined with blooming flowers. This spring and summer let’s also take pride in how much water we save! It’s easy to put out a sprinkler and forget it, or water the plants only to have them bone dry hours later from the sun. Check out some simple water-conservation tips we’ve compiled then get out there and start weeding the flower beds!  

-Use only the amount of water your plants need, when they need it. -Group your plants according to their water needs. This will prevent overwatering some while underwatering others. -For areas with only a few plants or trees, use a handheld hose or watering can. -DON’T drown your plants in water! More plants die from too much water rather than too little. -Before watering, check the soil 2-3 inches down. Only water the plants if soil is actually dry. -If you are using a sprinkler system, use one with an automatic timed shut off, or set an alarm in the house to remind you to go check on it. -Remember to periodically check a timed sprinkler, though, to ensure it is working properly and turning on and off when it should be. And don’t forget to turn off the timer in the event of an unexpected rainfall! -Check the position of your sprinklers- is the water reaching JUST your plants, or is there a lot of extra water being wasted on areas that don’t need it such as a driveway, street or side of the house? (Even if the drops aren’t reaching these areas, make sure to check for unnecessary runoff as well!). -Consider the time of day when watering your plants. More water gets wasted during the middle of the day as it evaporates much more quickly. Try watering in the morning or evening instead. -Find a sprinkler that sends out larger water droplets rather than a fine mist. This will ensure more water gets to your plants and less is evaporated immediately. -Check all of your outdoor faucets (hose bibs) for leaks. A seemingly slow drip can quickly add up to a large amount of wasted water! -Check to make sure your sprinkler head is firmly attached to the hose and that there is no water leaking out between the nozzle and sprinkler. -When possible, avoiding planting anything at the top of a slope or hill in the yard. When watering these plants, much of the water will run down and collect at the foot of the hill rather than staying with the plants.

Do you have any tips or tricks you use? Feel free to share them in the comments section below or on our Facebook page!

Shut Down Leaks with Leak-Guardian!

The Leak-Guardian® systems provide the best protection available for the prevention of uncontrolled flooding from pipes, hoses, etc. This system doesn’t allow loss of irreplaceable personal property, structure damage or thousands of dollars worth of remodeling efforts. The Leak-Guardian® system just shuts it all down!

The Leak-Guardian® system will prevent flooding from all of these common sources, and more:

• Water supply hose ruptures
• Water heater ruptures
• Ice maker water supply line failures
• Toilet overflows
• Frozen or broken pipes
• Washing machine and dishwasher overflows

The Leak-Guardian® system consists of a motor-operated valve, a controller/receiver and a battery-operated water sensor. The valve is installed on the water main directly at the main water valve. When the sensor detects water, it sends a signal to the receiver which in turn, closes the valve. The sensor is wireless and the controller has a radio receiver within it. An unlimited amount of additional sensors can be placed around the house at sites of potential leaks: water heater, kitchen sink cabinet, laundry room, toilets, etc.

The Leak-Guardian® offers two different systems available for purchase, both of which can be installed on either city water or a well water system: the basic system and the premium well tank system. The basic system includes the valve, receiver and one wireless sensor which can be placed anywhere in the house.

The premium well tank system includes one hard-wired sensor in addition to the valve, receiver and wireless sensor. The premium system also features a contact module within the standard receiver. This module allows for the installation of an electrical switch (contactor) which can then be wired to shut off power to the well pump when water is detected by one of the sensors. This option will detect the inevitable leaks that occur on features besides the main valve, including the well tank and other immediate piping and controls.

Call us for more details, 410.840.8118!

Pat Scheper Talks About Water – Part II

So only .75% of all the water on earth is usable by humans and that water is caught up somewhere in what we call The Water Cycle.

You can study the above diagram, taken from the USGS web site, and follow the path of water as it travels through the water cycle.  Most of the terms are common and self explanatory.

There are two terms above that I was not sure of when I first saw this diagram:

Evapotranspiration:

According to the Salinity Management Guide, "evapotranspiration is the sum of evaporation from the land surface plus transpiration from plants. Precipitation is the source of all water."

The other term that flummoxed me was

Sublimation:

The USGS defines sublimation as sublimation as "the conversion between the solid and the gaseous phases of matter, with no intermediate liquid stage. For those of us interested in the water cycle, sublimation is most often used to describe the process of snow and ice changing into water vapor in the air without first melting into water. The opposite of sublimation is ‘deposition’, where water vapor changes directly into ice—such a snowflakes and frost.”

So, ALL of the usable water is caught up somewhere in the water cycle. But, not all of it is actually available for use at any one moment. Some water is in snow and ice, some in clouds, some in soil moisture, some in ground ice and permafrost, and….well you get the idea.

Green Plumbers™ USA estimates that 0.25%-0.30% of USABLE water is actually available at any one moment for human use. Of course, this is an estimate.

Pat Scheper Talks About Water - Part 1

Water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink.  There may be more truth to that statement than we think.  About 70% of the Earth is covered by water.  So one would think there is plenty to go around.  And, it appears that more water just keeps on coming. It rains-more water. The rivers flow-more water.  Wells get drilled-more water. Why, water just keeps coming and coming…there is so much of it and nature seems to keep making more!

No so.

The amount of water on Earth has always been the same….more water has not been created. Water moves through the “water cycle” and is not destroyed.  So, how much water do we have on earth….and how much is available and usable?  Let’s see:

About 97.5% of the water on earth is saltwater stocks.  That is to say it’s either in oceans, saline/brackish groundwater or saltwater lakes.  That leaves about 2.5% as fresh water.  Now, 70% of that freshwater (1.75% of all water) is in glaciers, snow cover or otherwise frozen elsewhere.  That leaves approximately 0.75% of all the water on the earth as fresh groundwater.

That is, only 0.75% of all the water on the earth is usable  by humans.

Stay tuned, tomorrow I'll talk about The Water Cycle.

Apple Plumbing Installs a Radon Fan in Carroll County

Pat Scheper, VP and Master Plumber walks us through a radon fan installation in a Carroll County home.

Video Blog - Radon Remediation

Pat Scheper, VP and Master Plumber explains radon remediation techniques.

Video Blog - What is Radon?

Pat Scheper, VP and Master Plumber, talks about radon - what it is, how it gets into our homes and how to test for it.

Save Up to 75% by Switching from an Oil Burner to High Efficiency Gas

Master Plumber Pat Scheper explains why a a high efficiency gas burner will save money over an oil burner:

"The older a boiler, the less efficient it is.  This is due to the fact that technology has increased the fuel burning efficiency of heating equipment radically in the last 50 years. And that as equipment ages, it simply becomes less efficient.

So, let’s say your boiler uses #2 fuel oil and is 25 years old.  It is safe to say that it is operating at 75% efficiency.  Let’s also assume you used 600 gallons of oil at $3.80 per gallon last heating season.  That would have been $2,280.00 in heating cost.

Now, let’s look at a 92% efficient boiler that uses natural gas.  Natural gas currently runs about $0.88 per therm.  A therm is 100,000 btu’s.  I won’t bore you with the math (I will, though if you really want to see it).  If you indeed had a 92% gas boiler last year, your heating cost would have been $596.00 give or take a few dollars.  That is because with natural gas you are paying $0.88 per 100,000 btu’s.  With fuel oil you are paying $2.74 per 100,000 btu’s. 

Add to that a 22% increase in efficiency and it’s easy to see why a high efficient gas fired boiler is so much more economical than an old oil fired boiler.  Now, if your boiler is really old, you can expect its efficiency to be rally low…maybe as low as 50%.  You may have an old boiler that you have had serviced religiously every year.  And you see all the tags hanging on a pipe that say the efficiency is 80%, maybe even 82%. 

That is not the efficiency of the boiler. 

Nay, it is the COMBUSTION efficiency of the oil burner.  It is a measure of how well the oil is burning. 

The boiler efficiency is how much of the heat content of the oil is actually getting into your home as opposed to how much is going up the chimney. 

By replacing an old oil burning boiler with a high efficient gas boiler you can save up to 75% on your heating cost.  Pretty cool, huh?"

Pat Scheper, Vice President & Master Plumber Apple Plumbing & Heating