This included purchasing a sprinkler with a state-of-the-art timer system, or as state-of-the-art as $17.99 will get you. We had only a short time to test it before we left, but it appeared to be working pretty much the same as more expensive sprinklers, which is to say that it mostly watered the sidewalk and the car. We had visions of it forgetting to turn off at the appointed time and running constantly for days, causing a small flood AND a flood of angry calls from neighbors wanting our ouster from the neighborhood.
For the window boxes, we loaded up on those ingenious self-watering bottles with spikes that are designed to release the water into the soil slowly. At least, they would be ingenious if they really worked. "They're okay if you're gone for a short time," a clerk at the garden store said -- a "short time" about equivalent to a trip to the grocery store. Generally the bottles are emptied before we have even left the house. Occasionally they take "slow release" to mean one drop per day, and the bottle is still full when we return.
But upon our return this time, the flowers appeared to be flourishing, including those in the window boxes. There was no flood in the immediate vicinity. Everything must have worked, we said, and were hopeful that this meant we would not worry so much whenever we went away.
But when the Hero, bent on making sure the timer worked properly, looked outside at the appointed time the next day to see whether the sprinkler had started up, nothing happened.
The reason was traced to a little habit of the Hero's, in which he places used batteries back among the drawer of new batteries, where they can fraternize freely and we are none the wiser as to which are which.
"Dead battery," he said. "I don't think the sprinkler worked at all while we were gone."
"But the flowers have definitely gotten water," I protested. The reason for this turned out to be our neighbor, who, unaware of the state-of-the-art sprinkler with the dead timer battery, but aware that we were away, had thoughtfully watered our yard twice.
I didn't ask whether she also watered the window boxes. I would like to believe that SOME part of our multi-pronged plan worked.
5 comments:
In the interest of accuracy and full disclosure, I feel compelled to point out that the neighbor who did the watering is "A Nice Neighbor" as opposed to me, "A Nosy Neighbor."
But you ARE a nice neighbor, too!
Then why didn't I water your garden?
Uh, maybe because you were gone, too?
Oh, right, there WAS that... :)
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