I know it doesn't look like much, but when I went to replace this sprinkler stand because the hose end fitting lost it's threads I found that they don't make these any more. The new ones are plastic and they tip over. The only place I can find a metal one like this is on eBay - $135.

So I restored it. The hose end fitting was seized firmly in place and it took some doing to get it out:



I may have destroyed it's "value" by painting over the "patina" (rust) but I think it looks pretty spiffy. I'm going to enjoy using it again.



Any rare and valuable antiques around your place?

What an incredibly simple and elegant design.

Could be made so easily if you have a welder.

Damn. I have one of those with an old style sbappa sbappa sbappa sprinkler head on it. Not sure where it is at the moment, but I know I have one.

That is a great save. Too many plastics substitutes are carp.
Still questioning why grass needs to be watered when that creates a greater need to mow.
What is the K1 thing screwed to the stand?

quote:

Originally posted by CHAS:
That is a great save. Too many plastics substitutes are carp.
Still questioning why grass needs to be watered when that creates a greater need to mow.
What is the K1 thing screwed to the stand?

I think you have to live here for a while to understand how important grass is. It’s an obsession - like a cult or something. You’re judged by your turf. I’m cool with it. I know how it works, water is not an issue, and I can do it.

The sprinkler stand probably came with an all brass Rainbird sprinkler head on it. Rainbird was king of the hill until stream rotors - like my K-1 - came along.

Rainbirds throw water over long distances but the pattern isn’t real even, the wind caches the stream and the backsplash is mostly wasted. Stream rotors don’t have backsplash and are infinitely adjustable.

I pay a crew to cut my grass every week whether it’s long or short. May as we’ll be long - the neighbors are judging me.

quote:

Originally posted by markj:
What an incredibly simple and elegant design.

I’m so glad you said that because I thought the same thing. It’s one of the reasons I wanted to save it

There’s a trend to rip out your lawn and plant native plants. You obviously aren’t au courant.

Or you don’t read The NY Times Real Estate Section.

All natural lawn here. Hell, I only mow once a month or less. Saves on gas, wear and tear on the tractor. Much healthier ecosystem. All around better for the environment as well. Perfectly manicured lawns look hideous to me.

I'm with you, Mark. I don't use fertilizers or weedkillers. I like clover and dandelions and wild violets and Spring Beauty. The bunnies love my yard.

It simply cannot be a good idea to dump petrochemicals on the ground en masse. As a famous local gardener said, "If it's green from teh street, let it be".

Great save! We have a sprinkler system. I’ve considered tearing out the lawn and watering less, but but I don’t want to lose the trees. (None of them would be alive without regular water) I do have an battery powered mower, which is awesome. And I don’t spray, I just dig up most of the dandelions as they are blooming (they still grow back). I much prefer a yard without a sprinkler system (because things always break), but the two houses in Montana and the one in Oregon came with them.

Jodi, when you say your sprinkler systems always break, what goes wrong with them?

Nice green manicured lawns repel me. I have better things to do.

If I have a lawn it’s going to be nice. It’s art.

If I’m not willing to maintain it I shouldn’t own it or subject the neighbors to it. I’ll either tear it out, get a condo or move to assisted living.

Your definition of "nice" lawn differs wildly from mine. Natural looks much nicer to me then chemically treated "Plastic surgery" lawns with perfectly edged borders, etc.

We had an acre and a half of cedar forest in Door County on the lake. We left it as is except for building a house and driveway. We had no lawn despite the fact that a lot of our neighbors did. Keeping up with lawn maintenance would have been silly and/or expensive in a vacation home. We did put down landscape fabric and mulch around the entire house so that we had reasonable access to move around the outside of the house without looking like the Addams family lived there.

Lawns are part of a formal garden style that came to us from England. There really aren't a lot of places in the US where lawns will thrive without some effort. It is possible to have a very nice lawn without chemicals, but the lawn care products industry and landscapers have sold us an unnecessarily complex, expensive, and labor-intensive approach to maintenance.

In my yard here, I find the contrast between a minimal and reasonably well-maintained lawn and large areas of naturalized plantings is a look that I like. I use no chemicals and I'm the weedkiller. A sprinkling of my homemade compost and mulching the clippings is all the fertilizer the lawn needs. I've also been overseeding with grass seed that is more drought-tolerant than what was originally planted. Jonathan Green's Black Beauty Ultra. Great stuff.

Battery-powered tools are nice because they don't leave you smelling like the exhaust that comes out of lawn mowers and blowers.