Won't Use Soaker Hoses Again This Season

Again you missed my first statement "The term "Hobby" could be used for some". For you it is a hobby, for me it is a way of life. Your thinking is narrow, this or that, right or wrong, them or us, if you do not make cold hard cash it is a hobby. Their is no middle ground in your world. I believe "this or that", "right or wrong" are two thin lines with a vast grey area. You want a hard line on your definitions. You are in the camp of "letter of the law" and I am in the camp of "spirit of the law".

Go ahead say I am wrong :)

Apparently not everyone :) For me it is the path that is interesting. But for some, the completive types, it is getting there that make them content and happy. The thing is, if they do not get there they will be the old miserable ones.

Your experience does not make it universally so. Unless you cost my time I am in front by many hundreds of dollars a year every year. I bottle and freeze quite a lot and once again it costs me almost nothing (people give me boxes of preserving jars, lids and seals) and my time. Why is this an article of faith with you? At some time in your history you totalled up what gardening was costing you and you had an Ah Hah moment and decided that you couldn't justify it financially. That's fine but it doesn't apply to everybody.

NO hobby saves money and a home veggie garden is

Well yes if you cost your time. But consider the alternatives such as going to the gym or pushing myself through some excercise routine. These take time, cost money, usually require equipment and to me are less pleasant. What do you want out of a hobby beyond engaging the mind and body and (if you allow ) social contacts?

I've been involved in several

Well colour me hallucinating! Last summer I sold about $50 worth of tomatoes at the local farmer's market and all it cost me was effort.

I recently spent over $300 on mole/vole

I don't have any watering bills. I spend a little on petrol to pump water. I buy very little in the way of inputs, a few chemicals that I can't do without and sometimes some seed, my seed is through a grower's club and very cheap, my equipment is mainly years old and long paid for. I use recycled wire as fences and recycled gates as trellises that were gifts. I collect horse manure off the pasture and other people give me chicken litter. And I don't have voles!

You keep going on about this. It seems to be a religious crusade that nobody could come out in front from growing things. OK you can't come out in front, I get that. Can't you see that other people in this world have other experiences and consequently see things differently?

David

I'm not a market gardener so yes, it could be called 'a hobby'. But then since I'm not motivated by money or saving or selling then to me there's no point in labelling it. It's something I'm very serious aobut and have been for about 35 years. I didnt' even spend that much time as a wage slave and that was supposed to be a 'profession'.

Sure home grown tomatoes taste

No, they don't all 'come in' at once. That is an importatn point of my growing stuff. I use succession planting and I also grow older varieties which tend to crop over a long period rather than do their stuff in a week and then die.

Unless one goes into crops on a large enough scale to

I don't use 'powered equipment'. I use human power. I have never broken a fork or a spade. I think I've broken one of maybe 2 handles in 40 years of gardening and they were easily replaced.

Yup :-))

It's about the journey and not the destination.

Thats's his take. It doesn't match mine at all. Sure I do it for fun and so I can know what is really in my foods, but the savings can be really obvious with a small 'garden'.

Take one part only of mine. 12$ for a container bought a decade or more ago. I got 2 bunches of chives (bulb on) and 2 of green onions (bulb on). Used the tops and planted the bulbs with a bit of the green. First year I had to crop carefully as they recovered. Since then, I get enough to even dehydrate enough for the winter use. Since I moved back stateside in Oct

I easily this past year cropped 30$ worth store-price chives and green onions with a 2$ or so outlay. Even in 2008, I broke even although if I had had to also get the container, first year would have been a loss.

I don't grow enough to be more than for 'fun' with most things but that's just a choice in how much time I want to spend at it. You may 'scoff' at container gardening, but with 26 years of apartment living, it's often the only option so I got pretty good at it.

"FarmI" wrote Brooklyn1 wrote

Same here. With mostly containers in use, I learned to do the tomatoes in several versions. Some early crop, some crop best mid-summer, others are more fall prone (but crop some in summer).

Reminds me of the story about a journalist assigned to the Jerusalem bureau takes an apartment overlooking the historic Wailing Wall. Everyday when she looks out, she sees an old bearded Jewish man praying vigorously. Certain he would be a good interview subject, the journalist goes down to the Wall and introduces herself to the old man. She asks, "You come every day to the Wall, sir, how long have you been doing that and what are you praying for?"

The old man replies, "I have come here to pray every day for 25 years. In the morning I pray for world peace and for the brotherhood of man. I go home, have a cup of tea, and I come back and pray for the eradication of illness and disease from the earth. And very, very important, I pray for peace and understanding between the Israelis and Palestinians."

The journalist is very impressed. "How does it make you feel to come here every day for 25 years and pray for these wonderful things?" she asks.

The old man replies calmly, "Like I'm talking to a wall."

-----

David, I'm glad to see you are keeping up the tradition.

A very good analogy here :)

Sort of got me thinking that actions speak louder than words perhaps prayers too.

Su Tung-po (1037 - 1101 / China)

Battle of Red Cliff

The Yangtze flows east Washing away A thousand ages of great men West of the ramparts -- People say -- Are the fabled Red Cliffs of young Chou of the Three Kingdoms Rebellious rocks pierce the sky Frightening waves rip the bank The backwash churns vast snowy swells -- River and mountains like a painting how many heroes passed them, once ...

Think back to those years, Chou Yu -- Just married to the younger Chiao -- Brave, brilliant With plumed fan, silk kerchief Laughed and talked While masts and oars vanished to flying ash and smoke! I roam through ancient realms Absurdly moved Turn gray too soon -- A man's life passes like a dream -- Pour out a cup then, to the river, and the moon

.........

Bill who has a 3 WEEK HEAD COLD

I'll drink to that ;O)

About 2 months ago, we had a regional cold going around. It would briefly set up in your head, and then go to your chest. After a day or 2 you'd feel better, only to come down with it again. The only consistent thing about it was a dry cough. It lasted about 3 - 4 weeks.

Snap! That mongrel seems to have spread around the globe.

Globe trotting, twice around the world before the virus can even incubate. I was told it was in Saint Lucia (West Indies, Caribbean). Where I work, everybody got it. Nasty little bugger. Yeah, it had been years since I had a cold (I think I subbed in a primary school.=:o() Well, if it got half-way around the world one way, it probably got half-way around the other as well.

So, this is the 21st Century.

Well, I like soaker hoses and I installed a system this year using an old Hoselock water meter I had, so I can regulate how much water I put on the long border of my garden. I've a supply that goes from this dedicated tap below our kitchen window under the patio and up behind my koi pool waterfall to where the soaker hose is connected.

[image:

Needless to say, I'm not on a water meter!

Excellent! Nice set up. Lovely garden... thanks for the pictures.

I'll add for those who don't know that there are several grades of soaker hose, better quality soaker hose lasts for many years and does not waste water. With soaker hose timers and sufficient volume at the correct pressure are important.

His ideal sound like the Hornet is a result of inbred Population decline, rather than as the source of the decline. All Inbred animals, if their number will decline too much as a mechanism Survival.