- Author: Christine Macgenn
Watching my husband and me gardening is a little like watching an episode of “The Honeymooners.” It's where the Ralph and Alice Kramden in us really comes out. I swear, sometimes it seems like we should just cordon the whole yard off into sections marked His and Hers, like a fancy set of towels.
Husband likes neatness in the garden. I, on the other hand, like a bit of chaos. Husband does not like dilapidated looking plants. I am on a mission to create a bird-, bee-, and butterfly-friendly garden. A plant living out its life cycle and going to seed is right up my alley.
Husband likes BIG — big trees, big bushes, big flowers — six-foot dahlias, twenty-foot sunflowers, TALL fruit trees. I like to be able to actually reach the fruit and flowers to pick them, and to put the flowers in vases with other flowers.
When it comes to the vegetable garden, Husband thinks he is Johnny Appleseed: “Just toss those seeds out there and they'll grow.” And dang it, with his little green thumb, they do. I like little rows, evenly spaced according to package directions, so each little vegetable has plenty of room to grow. And all these differences don't even address the watering, weeding, and mowing aspects of our gardening challenges. One of the biggest issues we've had has been around watering, especially during this drought. We have always had to debate about what needs water and when. Well, not anymore.
Just this last Christmas, Husband saw what I thought was a garden gadget at Lowe's. It's called The Sky Drop. It is a smart watering system that knows when to water and when not to water, and will work with you to insure efficient, conservative garden watering, all year long. In Sky Drop's marketing pitch they claim it is smartphone smart. I guess that is supposed to be pretty smart. It all sounded like hocus pocus to old-school, hands-on me. I really didn't want the system, because wasn't that why I became a Master Gardener in the first place? So I would be the one with all the wisdom, not some smart gadget. My husband's logic? “Sure, that's great but how does that work when we are away or the weather changes suddenly and unexpectedly?” Good point. I reluctantly conceded and Santa put it under the tree for him.
Thank goodness for Santa. The Sky Drop is a great garden tool. I'm still not sure exactly how a gadget can be intuitive, but it is. It was very easy to install. It hooked right up to our existing irrigation system. Once it's installed, you input lots of information for each station — type of soil, slope or level, shade or sun, type of plants. The Sky Drop computes it all and makes suggestions about how much watering each station might need. You make the final decision and then enter that too. Then Sky Drop goes to work monitoring the local weather, usually from a remote weather station very near you, and adjusts the watering schedule accordingly. So far we have watched our water use go down and the health of our garden remain stable during this very trying drought.
Since we got our smart system we have noticed that there are lots of watering systems out there now. They have names like Rain Drop and Blossom. I don't know about those but I would imagine they are all very similar. During this time of crazy, unpredictable, unreliable weather our garden and our pocket book are both enjoying the benefits of smart watering assistance.
If you are traveling, there is no longer a need for those panicked calls to someone to turn the water on or off. Watching it work has been fascinating. Just this morning Mike (AKA Husband), with great pride, called my attention to how the Sky Drop watered the slope on the east side of our house. It watered for a few minutes, turned itself off for a few minutes, and then went back on for the remainder of the water cycle to insure there was no run off. A few weeks ago, after the heavy rains we had, Sky Drop knew no watering was necessary and stopped for many days. It was great to know that we were not watering soaking-wet plants. Of course, now I think Sky Drop is brilliant. And maybe, just maybe, Husband is too!