Rain, Rain, Go Away!
~ Keith Barker

Rain, rain, go away,
Come again some other day!
We want to go outside and play,
Come again some other day!

Have you found yourself singing that old kids song lately? We are experiencing one of the wettest spring/summer periods in recent history. This should equate to savings in irrigation water bills, which has been a rarity in recent drought years. Is your landscape contractor helping with this? The next time you look out your window and see irrigation running after rainy periods, you should call on your highest level of people management skills, call your contractor and threaten him/her with RAMBO tactics! Seriously, your contractor should be managing the irrigation at a high intelligence level at this time - DON'T RUN IT unless absolutely necessary.

As a Property Manager there are things you can do that can help the landscape contractor manage water more effectively. Do you still have the old wheel clocks? Digital clocks are inexpensive and provide the contractor with more flexibility managing irrigation. Have your contractor explain the features of the digital clock and provide pricing. Also, there are improved rain sensor products. The rain sensor is not 100% reliable, but it provides a great added feature to keep your irrigation from running during the rain. Wireless rain sensors are now available that give better results because you can install the sensor device in the most optimum areas. Before, the sensor had to be installed on or near the irrigation clock where building and/or landscape obstruction could cause the sensor to give false readings.

As we all know, the rain will finally come to end and we will be singing another song, but we should be thankful that the rain has replenished our landscape. Keep an eye out for irrigation running on your property when it should not be. OLM is paying close attention to irrigation management during our inspections and will encourage the landscape contractors to provide information to Property Managers on new irrigation products that will help the Owners save money when drier conditions return. Right now your contractor should know these three words: DON'T RUN IT!!!

Pigs Gathering Leaves and Straw? ~ Ed Jensen

Have you ever wondered why landscapers don't take advantage of folklore to predict weather? Clearly this knowledge would give them an advantage over their competition when choosing what and when to plant.

Just For Fun
Before cable, satellite pictures, The Weather Channel, and your local hippy dippy weatherman, theirs was the wisdom of the ages. For fun, complete the following phrases (the answers are at the end of the newsletter):

a. Red sky at morning _________________________.
b. Cows lying down _________________________.
c. Flowers smell best _________________________.
d. When windows won't open and salt clogs the shaker, the weather will favor _________________________.
e. Bees do not swarm _________________________.
f. When leaves show their back _________________________.
g. Rain before seven _________________________.
h. When the ass begins to bray _________________________.
(Please note that we are talking about farm animals, not loved ones or landscapers.)

Dance Naked?
To appease Indra, the god of rain, one village in India conducted a marriage ceremony between frogs. Because frogs are amphibians and like water, the thought was that they had a direct pipeline to Indra. Another village's women danced naked in the drought-stricken fields, appealing to the gods to bring rain. Rumor has it that the men stayed at home praying for continued drought! So before you men go calling your travel agent trying to get away from the monsoons we have been experiencing on the eastern seaboard, realize that this a part of nature's cycle and our reservoirs and aquifers are being replenished.

The point of all of this is that if your irrigation bill is not a third or less compared to 2002, you are wasting water and money! The plants don't need it and will probably have more disease issues when compared to those plants that are not being excessively watered. By the way, the method preferred by most landscapers? The suspended stone method, which you can experiment with yourself:

Accurately Predicting The Weather
Go to your storage closet, find your pet rock and suspend it with a string outside.

If the stone is swinging, it is windy.
If the stone is still, it is calm.
If the stone is hot, it is sunny.
If the stone is cold, it is winter
If the stone is dry, it is fine weather.
If the stone is wet, it is rainy.

Folks, the rock has been moist and wet all summer! Call your landscaper and make sure your clocks are appropriately set to the "off" position.