"Well there's your problem!"

[Anole]

preventative maintenance ?

It may be naive to ask, but since it is the drying that causes the problem...
...would it be possible to lightly water the dish farm once a week in these conditions to prevent it happening?
...or use one of those soaker-hoses, or even a drip watering system?

I suppose next you're gonna say there is water rationing, so you'd be arrested for watering your yard.
... not to mention the inconvenience of having to mow under the dishes.

edit:
Okay, what about a big sheet of plastic under the dishes to hold in the moisture?

 

[Dee_Ann]

It may be naive to ask, but since it is the drying that causes the problem...
...would it be possible to lightly water the dish farm once a week in these conditions to prevent it happening?
...or use one of those soaker-hoses, or even a drip watering system?

I suppose next you're gonna say there is water rationing, so you'd be arrested for watering your yard.
... not to mention the inconvenience of having to mow under the dishes.

edit:
Okay, what about a big sheet of plastic under the dishes to hold in the moisture?

I have been thinking about watering the area, to be honest. So far, my town isn't under rationing, yet. All the surrounding towns are though so we will probably be as well before long.

One advantage for me, I keep very strange hours and my neighbors are used to me being outside in my back yard at ALL hours of the night. So I could drag a hose out there and no one would take notice.

I have considered burying a garden hose out to the dishes and putting a weeper hose around the poles then set a timer to run in the early hours.

Another thing I have considered and will probably end up doing is to build a flower bed around the area, fill it with top soil and potting soil then a thick layer of mulch and plant a lot of wild flowers in it. Combined with the weeper hoses it would probably keep the ground moist enough to keep the dishes tight.

But doing that would be a huge undertaking and if I did it it would have to wait until spring.

I guess for now I'll just sneak out at 3am and water it manually. It shouldn't be too much longer before we start getting damper weather.


We have a little cool front coming in tonight so I guess I'll get back out there soon and see if I can figure out what the heck is up with this alignment issue.

Cool weather is a huge motivator to me. I plan to get a lot of things done the next few months...

 

[AcWxRadar]

It may be naive to ask, but since it is the drying that causes the problem...
...would it be possible to lightly water the dish farm once a week in these conditions to prevent it happening?
...or use one of those soaker-hoses, or even a drip watering system?

I suppose next you're gonna say there is water rationing, so you'd be arrested for watering your yard.
... not to mention the inconvenience of having to mow under the dishes.

edit:
Okay, what about a big sheet of plastic under the dishes to hold in the moisture?

Ha Ha Ha! Oh my... this has me giggling with a really fun smile!!!

Anole, I LOVE your comment! And don't take this the wrong way, but just step back and ponder the humor in your advice for a moment. We have all sorts of advice about how to care for our DISH FARMS, now we have to "WATER" them, too? Ha Ha! Oh, this is so classic!

Yeah, I knew what you were stating right off and it made sense, then I thought about it a little more and it struck me that there was some fun humor in there, too! Whether you intended to or not, thanks for the SMILE!

RADAR

 

[Tron]

Cool weather is a huge motivator to me. I plan to get a lot of things done the next few months...

Dee, believe me, I know EXACTLY how you feel. There's another, stronger cool front coming down for the middle of next week!

 

[Dee_Ann]

Dee, believe me, I know EXACTLY how you feel. There's another, stronger cool front coming down for the middle of next week!

Being in the NOLA area you experience pretty much exactly the same weather we do here, around the clock heat and humidity that's almost unbearable...
And a "winter" that's a joke. Winter here consists of a two week period in February where the temperature dips into the low 30's and MAY touch freezing one or two nights. The rest of the so called winter is T-shirt and shorts weather. I like it when it's in the mid to high 40's. Almost the entire winter I don't run the heater and will have the house wide open from sunrise to sunset. Patio doors opened so the dog can wander freely in and out and the house gets a good airing out. And my electric bill gets a huge break.

Once it starts to drop down into the low 70's during the day time I get it in high gear and get a lot of things done. This fall/winter I have big plans, lots of house cleaning.. I do my "spring cleaning" opposite of tradition.. I also start all my major gardening projects as well. I'm very seriously considering a flower bed around my dishes. But first of course, I need to get them all working properly. And replant a few of those poles. I think what I should do is dig a few of them up and spread them apart because several of them are touching one another or overlapping one another, dig new holes deeper and put new poles in with more cement THEN put the flower bed down to help keep the area from drying out as badly as it does now.

Yep..... I have big plans, big goals and big ambitions for this upcoming season of coolness...