What do you do when there is a veggie garden up against the house?

1

what do you guys do when there is a veggie garden against the house . sure you prevent the SH from burning but all the run off into the soil ???

2

Pre wet pants real good, before and after.

Also, try to get away with using as little SH as possible in that area

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3

Offer to cook their veggies for an extra $20. That way you can always throw it in for free later.

4

That reminds me. I need to pick up some potatoes after work tomorrow. Wifeā€™s been nagging me 2 solid days.

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5

tell the client what might happen, so they are informed and know what to expect.

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6

Iā€™m helpful, here are 3 suggestions

Donā€™t DS that area

Tarps

painterā€™s plastic

I garden, I wouldnā€™t want my plants killed midway through the growing season, too much time, money, and work wasted. I eat that stuff all year long.

7

yes that, and donā€™t completely cover the plants or you could potentially trap the chlorine gasses in with them. plus it may make them to hot.

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8

Covering anything with plastic during this heat is like cooking it in an oven.

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9

yet customers want to do it/expect us to all the timeā€¦but itā€™s too much trouble to run the sprinkler on it several times in the day or two before we show up like we suggestā€¦

10

Ask them to water extra long the day before, and when you get there use the garden hose to saturate the crap out of the roots anyway. You can either pre-mist the vegetation with just water or pre-treat it with a neutralizer like post rinse. Then rinse off with that again every time they get sh on them. On my ar45 with the red gun I can barely squeeze the trigger and apply a fine mist to the surface with no run off. Let it dwell until just before drying and rinse off well. Most people ds so that last step may not be an option for you. Honestly tho a 0.5% mix with just the basic watering, pre and post rinsing water only on the foliage would work just fine. My method is more for stucco homes or softwashing hardscapes with sensitive foliage around it.

11

I donā€™t know if anyone as any experience using Tyvek? Iā€™ve been doing some reading on it since I saw this post. A quick read says that it allows water vapor and gases to pass through and is considered ā€œbreathableā€

ā€œ TyvekĀ® is breathable, which means water vapor and gases can go through TyvekĀ®. The moisture vapor permeability of TyvekĀ® is much higher than that of plastic ļ¬lms. Compared to most textile fabrics, the air permeability of TyvekĀ® is low. Customers should evaluate TyvekĀ® in their speciļ¬c application.ā€

https://www.dupont.com/tyvekdesign/design-with-tyvek/dupont-tyvek-faq.html

^^^
Thatā€™s the link from the Q/A page. It also covers use with chemicals and some other ā€œfunā€ facts about it.

^^^
Above link is from the forum that talks about the same topic of discussion here. May be useful

12

Yes we use Tyvek all the time. No issues. We also use Drip Shield now for flowers and soft plants etc.

13

Donā€™t use it, but Tyvek is pretty widely used for that application I believe. Still, I wouldnā€™t necessarily cover completely to the ground on all sides, just lay over the top and get any runoff away from the plants, while still letting them breath as much as possible.

14

I donā€™t know anything about 100 degree days, but you can pre wet the plants, apply plastic tarp, wet the top of the tarp/plastic down (helps to hold it in place too and cools the plastic). When you take it off you will be fine. If you leave it on there for 8 hours, yeah you will have some issues. One side of a housewash, nah, youā€™ll be fine. Just leave a tiny bit of ventilation and donā€™t weigh the plants down to break them. Ever been in a greenhouse in summer? It will dam near kill you if you arenā€™t ready.

Iā€™ve been gardening for about 40 years, but if you take my experience and about $2.19 to the nearest gas station you can get a cup of crappy coffee.

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15

or 1/4 gallon of gasā€¦

16

truth, it was $5.09 the other day at the closest gas station. I donā€™t know if that is high, probably low for cali.

17

itā€™s almost that here in Central VAā€¦I would have thought $19.99 in Cali :crazy_face:

18

Dilution is the solution. I spent my first year tarping and covering stuff. Now I just soak stuff down and roll on.

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Whatā€™s annoying is when I pull up and the customer has plastic already spread all over their plants/bushes.

20

I have never had that happen but Iā€™m probably not washing the house that day just in case they kill their own plants and want to play the blame game.