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Post by desertwoman on Feb 6, 2015 11:57:28 GMT -5
Here is the last house I lived in for 8 years. (still own it as our offices and a rental) and I still tend these gardens too. But the beauty of xeriscape is that it needs so little The front yard is all xerisape. In the hottest part of summer, I only water some of it every 10 days. Some of it never gets watered. The stock tank collects about 125 gallons of water and the clay pot in the corner near the white wall collects about 80 gallon. I have 5 more stock tanks around the side and in the back for a total of about 800 gallons collected with a half way decent rain. It is amazing how much water can be collected from a short rain.
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Post by lilolpeapicker on Feb 6, 2015 22:03:48 GMT -5
Wow, that's great! What are your collection containers made of and how is the watering accomplished?
What kind of tree you got going there? will it get large? I am trying to decide what to do my front lawn with....I don't want anything that is real tall. I was thinking maybe a dogwood or crabapple.
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Post by desertwoman on Feb 6, 2015 22:20:16 GMT -5
The stock tanks are galvanized steel- the ones you get from feed stores. The pot is a decorative ceramic clay pot.
The tree is Chinese Pistache. The get to 25-30 feet- so medium sized. They are extremely drought tolerant once established. They turn a beautiful red in the fall.
We have a crab apple here at the house. It's beautiful- great shape, probably 20-25 feet. You do get a ton of crabapples which some people consider "messy". I don't mind. The birds love them. And what doesn't get eaten (which are a lot) are easy to rake up.
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Post by lilolpeapicker on Feb 6, 2015 22:29:09 GMT -5
I was thinking that about the crabapples. I didn't want to go as large as 20...maybe a sand cherry, from what I have read they get about 15'. I wonder if the flower... and if the birds would like that. I'll haver to go look that up.
Nighty night all.
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Post by Latitude33 on Feb 7, 2015 0:44:05 GMT -5
Love the combination of gray and purple!
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Post by gakaren on Feb 7, 2015 11:49:06 GMT -5
DW, crab apples make a GREAT jelly! I wash them really good and then put them in a big pot with just enough water to cover and cook until soft. Then I mash them with my tater masher and run the juice through a cheese cloth lined, cone shaped colander....I usually let it drain over-night....make jelly the next day. If you don't get enough juice the first time for a batch, you can freeze what you do get to combine with more later.
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Post by desertwoman on Feb 7, 2015 15:44:50 GMT -5
That sounds easy. Thanks! I also use some of them, as the pectin, with grapes from my neighbor, to make grape jelly.
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Post by gakaren on Feb 7, 2015 17:29:22 GMT -5
How big are your crab apples....bigger than a dime, bigger than a nickel, about the size of a quarter?
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Post by desertwoman on Feb 7, 2015 17:39:02 GMT -5
They're small- about a dime+ Why?
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Post by gakaren on Feb 7, 2015 20:36:38 GMT -5
Cause if they were the ones about the size of a quarter I was going to ask for some seeds! But if we go to Ill. at the right time, I know where to get some in an old park there! It's high on a bluff over-looking the Sangamon River and at one time there was a one room log house/cabin where Lincoln had stayed for a period of time. But the old building finally fell down so now there is only a plaque imbedded in a rock there. Who knows, as old as that crab apple tree is, he may have planted it or it's parent! Those crab apples are about the size of a quarter and SWEET!
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Post by binnylou on Feb 7, 2015 21:15:01 GMT -5
Karen,
Sounds like that crab apple deserves to be rescued. Do you want to be the Johnny Appleseed of that crab apple?
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Post by desertwoman on Feb 7, 2015 21:40:07 GMT -5
I don't know if it's true about crabapples, but seed from regular apples will not produce true to type. You need to propagate with a graft to get true to type. Maybe a crab apple graft would be more successful?
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Post by gakaren on Feb 8, 2015 16:08:16 GMT -5
I have no idea. I'm just one of those that starts things from seeds I collect every where I go. In fact, we carry a box of zip bags in every vehicle so I have a container to put seeds in. Most of the ones I've collected didn't do much, but I have grown some redbud trees from seeds I took off a tree at a Ky. rest stop! I tried a rattlesnake plant from another rest stop, but nothing germinated from those. I have some hickory trees from nuts I collected the last time we were in Ill. and some smaller type crab apple trees from the tree in my brother's front yard. And I have one burr oak from a seed from Ill.
We also carry a small shovel, a box, newspaper and some gal. zip bags....if I see a plant along a road that I can dig up. That's how I got my spider plants and my wild glads. And I'm talking about the old country roads where things still grow wild.
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Post by desertwoman on Feb 9, 2015 12:20:46 GMT -5
Pea- just saw your question on how the watering gets accomplished (from the rain water collectors)
We installed a faucet at the bottom of the tank, so a hose can be hooked up to it. That's the reason the stock tank is on a platform above ground level- to get a gravity feed.
I also use a 2 gallon watering can and scoop out water. Talk about weight training! Who needs a gym?
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Post by lilolpeapicker on Feb 9, 2015 14:08:08 GMT -5
How would one go about putting in a faucet one those?
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