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Waterwise Gardening - a book review

Waterwise Gardening: Everything You Need To Know About Efficient Watering to Grow a Healthy Yard by Richard Restuccia Published by Rizzoli, 2025 I would guess that watering is the major issue that most gardeners grapple with, especially novice gardeners. I know from working at the nursery that the majority of questions and issues we get stem from either watering too much or not watering enough.  Many people in our area have sprinkler systems and I'm sure that can be a good thing if used properly but I feel that they primarily keep the lawns green but fall short for landscape plants. Especially when it comes to trees and larger plants, the timing and amounts are not satisfactory for many plants. I often hear people say that their sprinklers are set to come on every day - yikes! And there are those who did not water because it "rained" when it actually drizzled.  The best thing to do in this situation is to have a xeric garden but that would mean sacrificing favorite plant...
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Staining the Fence

 


We finally got the fence stained. We were waiting for warmer temperatures to do the job. We started to do it two weeks ago but then decided against it after reading the staining instructions which called for night and daytime temperatures to be at least in the 50s. It is still getting down in the 40s at night although things are slowly warming up.  

We worked all day yesterday with only one panel left to do. Michael kindly volunteered to finish it this morning while I finished getting some containers potted. 

Here is the view from inside the back garden. It looks better without those nasty power lines mucking up the view -

The stain we use is Cabot Australian Timber Oil 'Mahogany Flame'. We've used it for all the other structures in the garden. How I wish that it would retain this luster. Alas, it will eventually fade and probably be soiled with bird poop.

Text and photos by Phillip Oliver, Dirt Therapy

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Comments

  1. Hoover BooMay 12, 2021 at 2:06 AM

    The Cabot products are really good. Your fence looks great!

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  2. Kris PetersonMay 12, 2021 at 2:39 PM

    It looks fantastic. Sadly, bird poop can't be avoided.

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  3. ksMay 12, 2021 at 6:11 PM

    That's just splendid-the hard work paid off. I had two small redwood pergolas built last year and briefly toyed with the idea of staining them - clearly I would hate doing it so much I would be paying to have it done every couple of years. Your beautiful result seems well worth the effort !

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  4. Loria CurrMay 13, 2021 at 3:26 AM

    amazing, it looks like great

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  5. MelanieMay 13, 2021 at 3:42 AM

    I love your garden. You've done so much in such a short time.

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  6. Lisa at GreenbowMay 14, 2021 at 12:45 PM

    Good job men. It looks great.

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  7. LaraMay 15, 2021 at 12:39 AM

    wow, it looks fantastic.

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