Guest Post – Defending Your Flock from the HOA

Posted on January 31, 2012 · 3 Comments

With chickens becoming more and more popular some people are running into problems with their HOA bylaws. Most of the time the problems stem from lack of knowledge about chickens that is spread through misinformation. Chickens are not any noisier, stinkier, or more likely to spread disease than the family dog. I personally don’t live in HOA so today’s post is from Shannon who recently had to defend her hens from her HOA. She has some great advice that might help you if you are having a problem with your HOA.

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Recently, I had the unfortunate experience of having to defend my dear chickens at my neighborhood Homeowners Association (HOA) Board meeting. After numerous complaints from a single neighbor, my husband and I had to attend a hearing in which the fate of our chickens was in the hands of 3 unknown Board Members. Though I won’t go into about the actual specifics about my case (that’s a different post), I did realize I had a new wealth of information to share with other folks who may be up against a similar threat. Here are a few tips to help you navigate through the murky waters of HOA rules.

Tip # 1: Do your research
This may sound pretty obvious, but knowing the rules is the most important part of building a case for your chickens. Read your CCRs carefully. Don’t just pay attention to the rules about animals, think beyond the box. Have some knowledge in your back pocket.
What are the proper channels one should take when filing a complaint against a neighbor? In our case, the HOA encourages neighbors to resolve issues on their own. Our neighbor never contacted us with her concerns about the noise our chickens made. Knowing that the HOA encourages neighbors to deal with issues on their own shows that she a) doesn’t know the rules, and b)if she knew them, she didn’t act upon them.
Find out what the proper dispute resolution sequence is (for my HOA, it was having a hearing, then mediation, then arbitration). It’s good to know what steps you’ll need to take in case they deny your case.
Are there height/dimension limits to any coops built in your yard? Do they need to be a certain distance from your neighbors’ houses? This is important to know. For example, if our coop was another 2 feet taller, we would have had to get approval from the HOA to build it.
How much authority does the Board really have? In our case, the Board had the final say on issues – meaning one cannot get a measure put on a ballot for the neighborhood to vote on. Some HOA’s allow members to gather enough signatures to get something on the ballot (how democratic!) This is worth looking into just in case the Board decides against you – you could still get a petition going and leave the vote to the masses.
Get your city and/or county’s municipal code, and be sure to include it with your materials. Many CCR’s defer to the municipal code (be sure you don’t have more chickens than you are allowed!) Thankfully for us, our city doesn’t have a restriction on the number of hens you can keep for non-commercial purposes.
If your HOA is run by a management company, get to know the person that works with your Board. If they are friendly, use their knowledge of the CCRs to help build your case. This proved to be a great resource for me – I was told there was a 1987 CCR that prohibited poultry in our neighborhood (which changed in 2007). I never would have known that if I hadn’t *gently* prodded my contact.

Tip #2: Get the support of your neighbors
I can’t stress this one enough. Thankfully in our neighborhood, everyone loves our chickens. It was really easy to pass a document around for their signature, stating that they did not believe our chickens were loud or a nuisance to the neighborhood. If you do get people to sign a document, be sure to include specific language related to the CCR’s. I used “loud” and “nuisance” because there is a rule against loud animals that are a nuisance. This allowed the Board to compare the CCRs with the support signatures apples for apples. Once you get those signatures, create a graphic that shows your house in relation to all that signed your petition. This is a great way of visually showing those who support you in your neighborhood. Finally, if you’ve got great neighbors like mine, you’ll have them come as your posse to the Board meeting. I had 5 adult neighbors (and 1 child) attend the meeting and speak in support of our chickens. Hearing this from others really showed the good impact our flock was making in the neighborhood. (Note: a carton of eggs is a great way to show your thanks)

Tip #3: What have other Associations done?
Google “HOA and Chickens” or any combination of “chickens”, “HOA”, and “CCRs”. You’ll be amazed at what you find. Backyard chicken has a few great forums with information from other chicken owners and their experiences with HOAs. I found a few promising articles and presented this information to the Board. I think it’s important to highlight that people all over the country have chickens, and there are many different ways of accommodating them in a HOA (whether that means restricting the number of chickens, or how the decision to allow chickens is made).

Tip #4: Are you willing to compromise?
On a personal note, this was the hardest part for me to come to terms with. If the Board votes no more chickens – are you ready to go to the next level (i.e. court) to keep them? Are you willing to give up a few hens to keep the neighbor(s) happy? After taking everything into consideration, I decided to pair my flock down from 6 to 3. Sure, I miss the extra eggs and the sound of a happy coop. But, because I showed the Board that I was willing to compromise, they agreed to let me keep my remaining girls. In the end – totally worth it.

Go to the meeting with confidence and your head held high – after all, you are a steward of this uncharted urban chicken-raising territory!

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Filed Under: Chickens, Guest Posts, Livestock, Urban Farming & Homesteading Tagged With:

Getting a Head Start on Summer with Limoncello

Posted on January 29, 2012 · 2 Comments

There isn’t quite anything like sipping on ice cold limoncello after dinner with good friends on a hot summer night. It does take time to make so you’ll need to start now to have a good batch of it ready to go for those summer nights.

Limoncello used to be hard to find but is gaining in popularity, however the good stuff is never cheap. You can easily make it at home and it tastes so much better. It’s great to start now when you are probably drowning in extra lemons that you don’t know what to do with. I prefer to use Lisbon or Eureka lemons over Meyer lemons. The Meyer’s just don’t offer the real lemony taste that I feel this drink calls for. Plus you would need about double the amount of Meyer’s as they tend to be much smaller.

The longer you let the mixture sit, the flavor will intensify but the alcoholic “zing” will mellow. I like to go about 20 days on each rest period to allow it to mellow while also having some intensity.

Ingredients

  • 18 Lisbon or Eureka lemons, washed and dried
  • 2 750mL bottles of 100 proof vodka (I prefer Stolichnaya)
  • 5 cups of water
  • 4 1/2 cups raw sugar

 

Instructions

1. Avoiding the pith (white part of the peel) remove the lemon zest with a sharp knife or zester into a large glass or ceramic pitcher.

2. Pour one 750mL bottle of vodka over the zest, cover tightly and store in a cool dark place for 15-30 days.

3. In a saucepan combine water and sugar and heat until sugar is completely dissolved. Allow to cool.

4. Add syrup and remaining vodka to the lemon zest and vodka mixture. Cover and let sit again in a cool dark place for 14-30 days.

5. Strain mixture into glass bottles and store in a cool dark place or give away as gifts.

6. Refrigerate before serving or pour over ice. A little goes a long way so I recommend serving it in cordial glasses.

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Filed Under: Drinks, Recipes

Making Light of Life

Posted on January 26, 2012 · 10 Comments

As urban farming becomes more popular more and more people are beginning to raise livestock. First is the chickens for eggs and then, for some, it continues on to include other types of livestock including meat animals. A lot of us raise meat animals so that we no longer have to depend on Big Ag’s Industrialized Factory Feedlots for our meat. We want to know that our animals have been treated kindly, not just humanely, and we want to know what they’ve eaten and that their death was as fast and as painless as possible. I’ve written many times about my views on meat eating and slaughtering our animals.

But recently I’ve noticed a trend that I find disturbing. People talking about how exciting and “thrilling” it is to slaughter animals. About how much they loved the animal while it was alive but that they’ll love it more on the table. I’ve seen posts titled “The Joy of Chicken Slaughtering,” and seen slaughtering referred to as “better than skydiving.” I’m purposely not linking to these posts because I don’t want to give these people undeserved traffic.

Granted there are far more posts out there about people stating that it’s not an enjoyable task but those aren’t the ones that get seen by city officials or animal rights activists. They zero in on the posts of people saying how exciting it is and then we all get painted as violent people. But this is just a minor problem I see with this attitude towards animal slaughter (though it has the ability to affect all of us that produce our own meat).

My biggest issue is the lack of respect I see for these animals. Taking a life should never be easy and definitely not “better than skydiving.” Taking a life shouldn’t be taken lightly nor should it be viewed with this flippant attitude towards the animal. The animal that gave it’s life to feed us must be honored and thanked for it’s sacrifice.

I now step off my soapbox.

 

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Filed Under: Chickens, Current Events, Farm Diary, Livestock, Urban Farming & Homesteading

A Day in the Life

Posted on January 25, 2012 · Leave a Comment

Another question that came up when I asked our readers to give us their burning questions was what our daily life looked like. They wanted to know just how much work we put into running everything.

Of course our days vary greatly depending on the season, what we have going on, and even the day of the week. But I’ll do a typical weekday and weekend day schedule so you can see what we do. With all the animals we definitely stay on a specific schedule, which helps keep the amount of time needed to a minimum.

Weekday:

  • Get up at 5am
  • Feed dogs and cats
  • Shower (Rachel)
  • Eat breakfast (usually oatmeal) and drink some coffee
  • Get dressed
  • Fix lunch
  • Milk goats and weigh milk
  • Let turkeys and chickens out
  • Leave for work around 6:15am
  • Get home from work around 5pm
  • Check mail
  • Milk goats and weigh milk (when kids are weaned)
  • Check everyone’s feed and water
  • Collect eggs
  • Do some yard work (in the Summer)
  • Fix and eat dinner
  • Feed cats and dogs
  • Shower (Tom)
  • Relax (in the Winter)
  • Go to bed at 9pm

Weekend Day:

  • Sleep in as late as the dogs will allow which is usually 6am
  • Feed cats and dogs
  • Drink coffee
  • Relax until the sun comes up (Winter)
  • Milk goats and weigh milk
  • Check everyone’s feed and water
  • Go to the farmers’ market
  • Usually we either have a consultation, event to attend, friends or family to visit, or project to work on to about 4 or 5pm.
  • Nap time (for Tom if we can finish everything by 3pm)
  • Milk goats and weigh milk
  • Fix and eat dinner
  • Feed cats and dogs
  • Relax until bed time

It doesn’t really take that much time. Milking usually takes 15 minutes tops. We’re usually the most busy on the weekends, but we really enjoy doing this so it’s more of a hobby than a chore. We wouldn’t do it if it was a chore.

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Filed Under: Farm Diary, Reader Questions

Meet Your Farmer – Sunny Slope Orchard

Posted on January 24, 2012 · 4 Comments

Our meet your farmer posts feature a small family farm that we feel exemplifies the type of food system we all need to support. They show passion and dedication to raising and growing food sustainably.

The Apricot Orchard

This month we got the opportunity to check out this awesome 4 acre certified organic orchard in Vacaville, California called Sunny Slope Orchard owned by Bill Spurlock and Fern Henry. Unfortunately we didn’t get a chance to meet Fern as she had a prior engagement, but Bill was an incredibly gracious host.

I had first learned about Sunny Slope Orchard from one of the episodes on the Perennial Plate (I’m hoping to do a feature on River Dog Farm in the future and as you might know, Esperanza of Pluck and Feather is a dear friend of ours..

The Perennial Plate Episode 63: Three Farms, One Dinner from Daniel Klein on Vimeo.

The majority of Sunny Slope Orchard is made up Royal apricots, Spring Crest Peaches, and three varieties of plum (Santa Rosa, Beauty, and Formosa). They also grow a variety of citrus, Fuyu persimmons, Black Mission figs, walnuts, and one pear tree.

Bill showing us a grafted sucker on an older tree

They moved to the property 40 years ago in the Back-to-the-Land movement. There were some very old fruit trees there and then they planted additional trees. The most amazing part though was that other than the citrus trees and persimmon trees, they didn’t purchase any other tree. Instead they would take suckers from the wild plum rootstock and graft scions to it to create new trees. This way, when the very old trees began to die they were able to revive them or replace them with the same tree.

Bill showing us the feeder roots

The other amazing part is that they grow all this fruit without having much available water. They have a few low output wells so instead of using all of their water on them they dry farm, which involves taking really good care of the soil. They plant a cover crop around the trees and then mow it down leaving an even mulch. There are a few drip emitters laid out and then covered with compost, which brings feeder roots to help nourish the trees. I have to say that his land management is quite amazing. We came right after a big rainstorm and were expecting to be tromping around in the mud. To the contrary, the soil was damp but definitely not saturated. All of the organic matter that he adds (25 tons a year of compost) just soaked up the rain like a sponge while his neighbor’s property was a river of water. You can read more about his soil management here. What this dry farming does to the fruit though is nothing short of phenomenal. It concentrates the flavor and sweetness because there is less water in the fruit. Bill was kind enough to send us home with a few Navel oranges that were to die for.

Valencia Orange Tree and part of their vegetable garden

Bill helped us figure out why our little orange tree that we brought back from the brink was always so sour. We had assumed that it was a Navel orange but when looking at his Valencia orange compared to his Navel orange it became clear that our tree was also a Valencia. He recommended that we leave the fruit on until June to allow it to sweeten up.

Sunny Slope Orchard primarily sells their fruit to restaurants – Chez Panisse being their biggest customer. The reason for this is because they, unlike big industrial orchards, allow the fruit to ripen on the tree and when it’s ripe it has to be picked and sold immediately. The fruit can’t sit and wait for a farmers’ market or CSA pick up.

To be honest, I’m not that well versed in fruit trees, but Bill got me really excited about them and we learned so much from him even in the short time we were there. I’m looking forward to learning more about fruit trees and experimenting with ours.

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Filed Under: Gardening, Meet Your Farmer

Feeding the Critters

Posted on January 23, 2012 · 4 Comments

On our Facebook page I asked people what burning questions they had for us. One of the questions was what we feed our animals and what we spent per month on their feed. It’s a good question, especially for people looking to raise animals for food production. In addition they brought up the idea of dumpster diving to feed the animals. It’s definitely an interesting idea and could definitely work for some of the animals, but not all. Everything here will be estimates as I’m just starting to keep track of everyone’s feed separately (last year I just lumped all feed together).

First, what we feed our different critters. Nearly all of them right now get commercial feed. Except for the rabbit feed, all of the feed is certified organic. I’ve only been able to find one company that makes organic rabbit feed but I was really unhappy with the quality of the feed for the price so we went back to a conventional feed.

Our rabbits get a commercial rabbit feed from a local mill and orchard grass. They also get stuff from our garden and extra greens from the farmers’ market like cabbage leaves and carrot tops. Some of our rabbits will eat it up but not all. Our bucks in particular are uninterested in anything green. They go through one 80lb bag of feed a month which costs us about $24. The orchard grass is a lot less usually going through a flake every other week which can come to a bale maybe three times a year. Of course this can vary a lot though depending on how many rabbits we have.

The chickens also get commercial feed and garden waste, but they also get all of our kitchen scraps and oyster shell. Our twelve chickens go through a 50lb bag of feed every 3 weeks which also costs about $24. The oyster shell is $10 for 50lbs which will last us a year.

The turkeys also get chicken feed but no scraps or oystershell. They generally don’t want anything to do with kitchen scraps or yard waste. They are really good foragers though so they only go through a bag of feed every other month.

The goats have a much more specific diet because of milk production and their specific dietary requirements. While we have orchard grass we get fairly poor milk production when we feed it to them. Instead they get alfalfa, which has higher protein and calcium. When getting milked they get a dairy goat ration which provides them with additional protein and calcium along with trace minerals they need to stay healthy like copper, selenium, and vitamins. They go through one 50lb bag once a month which runs about $23. We also offer free fed loose minerals and baking soda for them to regulate their needs. The cost of this is negligible since it takes quite awhile for them to go through a 25lb bag. They do occasionally get garden treats as well. They go through one bale of alfalfa per month which can range between $16 and $25 per bale depending on the season and how the weather is acting. Most of this year the cost of alfalfa has been at the higher end because of our erratic weather.

In terms of dumpster diving I think the only animals that would truly benefit from it would be the chickens and the rabbits. I would want to keep the breeding rabbits on commercial feed but we could grow out the others on scraps. The chickens would still require oyster shell and supplemental commercial food, but it would reduce the cost greatly if we went dumpster diving for their feed.

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Filed Under: Chicken Health, Chickens, Goat Health, Goats, Livestock, Rabbit Health, Rabbits, Turkey Health, Turkeys Tagged With: , ,

Tom’s Spicy Tomato Sauce

Posted on January 23, 2012 · Leave a Comment

Tom and I’s first date he made me dinner at his apartment. It was a simple yet tasty dinner but I was most impressed that not only that he could cook but also that he enjoyed it. One of his best dishes was spaghetti sauce from scratch. Everyone who ever tries it raves about it.

Over time his recipe has improved. Fresh herbs and homemade sauce from our garden replaced the commercial sauce and dried herbs. The season really depends on all that we put in it. During the winter we don’t have peppers, zucchini, or eggplant available. So instead we just add more onions and mushrooms.

The secret ingredients in this sauce are the hot sauce and the sugar. Tom didn’t really want me to share, but then why would you make this recipe if it was just so-so?  The hot sauce adds some heat along with some extra acid. We generally like to use Tapatio. I think Tabasco would be too vinegary for this sauce though.

  • 4 c tomato sauce
  • 1 c tomato paste
  • 1/4 c red wine
  • 1 c water
  • 1lb sausage, removed from casings or ground meat
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 zucchini, cut in half and sliced
  • 8 oz mushrooms, sliced
  • 1 small eggplant roughly chopped
  • 1 bell pepper chopped
  • 2 Tbs Olive Oil
  • 2 Tbs Hot Sauce
  • 2 Tbs chopped fresh basil
  • 1 Tbs chopped fresh rosemary
  • 1 Tbs chopped fresh Thyme
  • 1 Tbs chopped fresh Oregano
  • 1 Tbs sugar
  • Salt and Pepper to taste


1. In a hot dutch oven over medium high heat add oil and then sausage. Break up sausage while it cooks. Add garlic, herbs and hot sauce and continue cooking until sausage is browned.
2. Deglaze with the red wine.
3. Add the remaining ingredients and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook until vegetable are tender and the sauce has thickened.
4. Serve over fresh pasta or add to a lasagna (I’ve been known to eat it on it’s own).

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Filed Under: Condiments, Main Courses, Meat, Preserving, Recipes Tagged With: ,

The $82 Chicken Coop (with yard)

Posted on January 17, 2012 · 11 Comments

There was an article not too long ago on Chow about what you should DIY and what you should buy. One, or I guess two, of the things she said you should buy are chickens and eggs. Why? Because it cost the author of Make the Bread, Buy the Butter: What You Should and Shouldn’t Cook from Scratch, Jennifer Reese, $3000 just to build the fence around her coop she stated that having chickens just wasn’t worth the cost. Well of course that would be the case! I left some rather choice words in that article just because I knew it didn’t cost that much to make a well built chicken coop. After all we have built several of them. This is our 5th coop building. We’ve learned over time what works and what doesn’t.

Last week I posted about how we needed to move our chickens to a new coop. Well, they are all tucked in now enjoying fresh ground to scratch around on. The area is smaller but the no longer have to share the space with the goats. Things are are easier for them to get to like the feeder which used to have to be hung next to a roost so the goats couldn’t get to it. That always proved to be difficult for the new young birds to find and get to.

Except for the chicken wire that we used to finish enclosing the coop, everything we used to build the coop with is reclaimed material. Because we do have a lot of building projects going on and we also pick up stuff for free when we come across it, we generally have a pile of building materials (most people would call it a junk pile) that we can pull from. From that pile we pulled:

  • 4′ high chainlink fencing to finish enclosing the bottom half of the coop
  • Redwood fence boards for siding
  • Plywood for nest boxes, door and roof
  • Wire fencing material for upper half of coop
  • Galvanized metal conduit for framing the yard portion and for roosts
  • 2x4s for some of the framing and for roosts
  • 4×4 posts that were still in the ground from our last coop
  • Corrugated metal sheeting for roof
We didn’t have enough wood to frame the coop section so we did have to buy some. However, we hit up Sonoma Compost and were able to get all that we needed for less than $32 and most of it was redwood. All of their wood is reclaimed and would have otherwise ended up in the landfill. We did have to go through quite a bit of it to find what we needed, but the savings was worth it.
The only things we bought new were chicken wire, screws and pipe straps, but I have a little secret about the chicken wire. At the hardware store they have two types of chicken wire. There’s the stuff out in the garden center that goes for $33 for 50 feet. Then there’s the stuff in the building department that is for stucco and is $49 for 150feet. The stuff we found in building is stronger than the stuff out in the garden center because it has to be able to hold stucco to a wall without coming apart. For $16 more you get 3 times as much of a better material just because it has a different name and a different use.
We put the nest boxes up high with the roosts serving as a ladder to them which makes it easier for us to collect eggs. Also, our coop is only three sided because it doesn’t get very cold where we’re at. The open side is facing north so that it will provide plenty of shade for the girls in the summer. The south and west facing walls block drafts. We also have burlap that we hang on those extra chilly nights, but as I mentioned, we don’t get very cold around here.

The coop isn’t 100% done yet as we still need to put on the metal roof (we have the sheeting already) and I want to put some trim on it and then paint it sage green with white trim. So it will probably run us about $100 overall.

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Filed Under: Chickens, Livestock Tagged With:

Lemon Souffle Revisited – with Limes

Posted on January 16, 2012 · Leave a Comment

Awhile ago I posted a Lemon Souffle recipe that I thought at the time was pretty good. But everything around here is constantly evolving, even my go-to recipes.

When I was a kid my mom used to make lemon souffle as a very special treat. We didn’t get it very often, but I always remember it being one of my favorite dishes. It was sweet and extra tangy. She used to make it in one big casserole dish rather than in ramekins, but that was OK with me! This recipe can work for either but you’ll have to adjust the time for large dishes.

I’m famous in my family for my lemon meringue pie. I’m pretty secretive about my recipe (even my recipe card just has the ingredients on it and none of the instructions) but I’ll tell you that some of my secrets to it are super fresh, backyard eggs and Lisbon or Eureka lemons. Meyer lemons just don’t work because they are too sweet. I started with my lemon meringue pie recipe and adapted it to become a lemon souffle since I never did get my mom’s recipe for her souffle.

For this recipe you can use either lemons or limes. Since I don’t have any lemons on hand yet this year, I made it with limes instead. Of course, you can also do oranges or other citrus, you’ll just need to adjust the water and sugar to your taste.

Lemon/Lime Souffle
4 eggs, separated
1 cup sugar plus extra
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup lemon and/or lime juice
2 Tbs corn starch
1 Tbs whole milk (we use goat’s milk)
1/8 tsp cream of tartar
Butter

1. Preheat oven to 400 deg F.
2. Using the butter, grease 4 ramekins and then coat with sugar.
3. Begin beating egg whites and add cream of tartar. Beat until stiff.
4. Mix remaining ingredients together, beating until smooth.
5. Fold in egg whites and pour into ramekins.
6. Bake for 15 min. or until the tops are puffy and golden brown.
7. Serve immediately.

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Filed Under: Baking, Desserts, Recipes Tagged With:

How to Install Irrigation

Posted on January 15, 2012 · 1 Comment

Here comes the real fun part about putting in irrigation. The calculations! Doing these calculations is key in determining zones, how many times you water per week and for how long.

The first thing you want to do is create zones for each basic type of plant. For us we have a zone for fruit trees, a zone for our drought tolerant landscape, and 2 zones for our vegetable garden. We are using Rainbird Xerigation Control Zone Kit ASVF-LF-075 for each of our zones. We are also using 3/4″ SCH40 pipe. I generally don’t recommend using smaller pipe because you get better pressure with larger pipe and it’s not that much more expensive. Generally with drip you won’t need to go above 3/4″ pipe.

Now what you want to do is determine your gallons per minute (GPM) from your water lines. The easiest “low tech” way to do this is with a timer and a 5 gallon bucket. Turn your water spigot on full blast and then right when you put the bucket under it start your timer. Stop the timer when the bucket is filled. Divide the 5 gallons by the time in minutes to find the flow rate. If it takes 30 seconds to fill the bucket then your water is running at 10 GPM. Or 5 gallons/.5 minutes. If it takes 45 seconds then your water is 5 gallons/.75 minutes = 6.7 GPM. However, if you are using a drip system valve and pressure regulator, it will bring your flow rate down to 5 GPM. You just want to make sure that your household flow exceeds the top flow allowed by the valve.

Next you want to figure out which type of irrigation system you want to use. We are going to assume that you will be running a drip system at 5 GPM. Manufacturers will have this information with their products as it can be slightly different than what I list. The information I’m giving is just a general guideline. If you use drip emitters each emitter will have specified rate, such as 1/2 gallon per hour (GPH). So 120 emitters would equal 1 GPM. (60 min/.5 gallons per hour = 120 emitters) You can run 600 – 1/2 GPH emitters per valve. T-tape runs at 40 GPH per 100′ or .67 GPM. However, runs of T-tape should not exceed 350′, which is why we have to have two control zones. 1/2″ soaker hose runs at 54 GPH or .9 GPM per 100′ so you cannot exceed 450 feet of run per zone. Bubblers, which we use on our trees run at 13 GPH or .22 GPM. We can run 22 bubblers on that zone.

Scheduling (how often for how long to apply water) is more difficult to determine because it is dependent on so many factors such as heat, precipitation, humidity and evapotranspiration. And each of those factors are different depending on where you live. The easiest way around this is to get a Smart Controller that has a subscription to weather data and will turn on as needed. If you don’t want to spend the extra on a Smart Controller you can refer to the chart on this site for basic scheduling: http://www.dripdepot.com/article/determining-drip-irrigation-watering-schedule

Hopefully I didn’t lose you. If you have any questions or need help doing zones just let me know and I’ll be happy to help you out. For non-drip areas the zoning gets much more complicated and would be too much to discuss on this blog.

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Filed Under: Garden Planning, Gardening, Irrigation
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