Hardware Cloth Guides

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. If you purchase through these links, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. When a shovel hits a white, rock-hard layer a foot down in a desert yard, that's usually caliche, and a shrub planted on top of it sits in a bathtub. A tamping bar's chisel point can fracture a narrow drainage chimney through the layer beside the root ball. Then check that the hole drops at least 4 inches of water in 4 hours before you plant. How do you get water to drain through caliche in a planting hole? Break a hole completely through the caliche layer so water can reach the soil below. If the whole planting hole can't go through, make a smaller drainage hole beside the root ball, never directly under it. Then fill with water and confirm it drops at least 4 inches in 4 hours. The University of Arizona Cooperative Extension bulletin Managing Caliche in the Home Yard (AZ1281) recommends a hole no deeper than the root ball an...

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. If you purchase through these links, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. A voltmeter tells you the fence is weak, but not where the leak is. A fault finder that reads both voltage and current, with an arrow showing which way the current flows, turns a quarter-mile walk into a short search. Check the current every 165 feet , follow the arrow, and stop where the reading falls off. How does a current-reading fault finder locate a short on an electric fence? It measures how much current flows along the wire and shows the direction with an arrow. Walk the fence in that direction taking readings at checkpoints, and when the current drops sharply between two checkpoints, the short is between them. Then narrow the gap with closer readings. Gallagher's Fence Current Meter and Fault Finder user manual lays out the method. Take readings about every 50 to 100 m or at junction points and follow the wire with the highest...

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. If you purchase through these links, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. A stake-and-weave tomato row ends the season as a tangle of twine, dead vines, wood stakes, and two steel end posts that frost has locked into the soil. Cut the twine, clear the vines, lift the T-post ends straight up with a T-post puller , and sort the wood stakes before soaking the keepers for 20 minutes in a bleach solution. How do you take down a stake-and-weave tomato row at the end of the season? Cut and remove the twine and vines first, then pull the wood stakes and lift the metal end posts straight up with a T-post puller. Sort the stakes, keep the sound treated ones, and soak them 20 minutes in diluted bleach before storing them for next year. The Iowa State University Extension page How to Train Tomatoes in the Home Garden describes the row you're taking apart. Plants sit 18 to 24 inches apart, 6- to 7-foot wooden stakes go 1...

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. If you purchase through these links, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. A backyard rain gauge reads true only when its rim is level, and that starts with a plumb post. Set a 4x4 about 24 inches deep, hold a post level on two faces while you pack the soil, and mount the gauge on the side so its rim sits 2 to 5 feet off the ground and a few inches above a slanted post top. How high should a backyard rain gauge be mounted on a post? Between 2 and 5 feet above the ground, mounted on the side of a single post. The gauge top should rise several inches above the post, the post top should be rounded, pointed, or slanted to stop splash, and the gauge rim must be level. The CoCoRaHS network page on mounting your rain gauge gives the 2- to 5-foot height, the side-of-post mount, and the shaped post top. It also says to keep the gauge away from sprinklers and to place it at least 80 feet downwind of a 40-foot tree. T...

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. If you purchase through these links, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. After a summer-bearing red raspberry row finishes fruiting, every cane that bore fruit dies. Cut those spent floricanes at the crown with a 32-inch bypass lopper , trim the row back to a 6- to 12-inch strip, and haul the cuttings away. In spring, thin what's left to the thickest canes about 6 inches apart. When should spent raspberry floricanes be cut out of a summer-bearing row? Cut them any time after harvest ends, through late winter. Each floricane dies after it fruits, so removing it at the crown loses nothing and opens the row to air and light. Oregon State suggests doing it right after harvest when disease is present, and Iowa State lists fall after the first frost. The Oregon State University Extension guide Growing Raspberries in Your Home Garden calls this "caning out." It removes floricanes that fruited at the crown...

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. If you purchase through these links, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Dig a 10-inch hole no deeper than 24 inches , stand a treated 4x4 in it, and backfill the native soil in 4-inch lifts , packing each lift with the flat head of a 72-inch tamping bar before adding the next. Set the post so the mailbox floor lands about 43 inches above the road surface and the door sits 6 to 8 inches behind the curb face. How deep should a 4x4 mailbox post be buried without concrete? No deeper than 24 inches, the burial limit the U.S. Postal Service lists for mailbox supports. A treated 4x4 set 24 inches down in a 10-inch hole, with native soil packed in six 4-inch lifts, stays upright against daily use and plow spray while remaining the yielding support USPS recommends. The USPS mailbox installation page places the box 41 to 45 inches from the road surface to the bottom of the box or point of mail entry, and 6 to 8 inch...