Hi, we live on Long Island NY, zone 7. we have an awesome little area with very little plants. My husband and I are not good at up keeping plants so we wan to make this look nice and make sure it's easy to maintain. We're looking for perennial plants. Mixture of tall & short. Perennial flowers too if they stay in bloom long enough. I'm open to putting in a small tree if it's easy to care for. We have decent sun and inground mister sprinklers in that area. I'd like to post a picture but the site won't let me. I'd reallllly appreciate any help you have to offer. Please help us! We were at the nursery for hours yesterday and were so overwhelmed, we just left.

Well put about the overcrowding and lack of growth regulation. And anything we can do to offset the depletion of our aquifers is a good thing. Education is key. I wish they'd teach kids in school about how our state functions - ecologically. Sometimes I really think Florida's a lost cause, and it just makes me sad. Government and individuals have screwed it up in so many ways - not just with irresponsible growth, but with draining sections of the everglades, straightening the Kissimmee river, then trying to correct the mistake once they realize what a mess it made. Allowing developments to crowd out panthers and black bear even more, allowing industry and homeowners to pollute the lakes and rivers. Lake Apopka used to be a huge game fishing lake - now the fish are dead. It's like that everywhere. The majority of new residents are here to retire, so they may not necessarily care about the future of our state - since they're not leaving it to anyone. So more golf courses go in, more developments are built, more lawn chemicals are used and more water is wasted and polluted. My little spot here is very small, and in the scheme of things, it's probably not going to make a bit of difference if I don't waste water or coat my property in chemicals. But maybe if enough of us try, maybe there will be something left that's worth having when my niece and nephew reach adulthood. I choose to heavily mulch and if we're not getting rain, I water twice a week on the allowed days for one inch each watering (since we're still on water restrictions here). The plants that need more water die. The ones that don't, I get more of. Two of my gorgeous brugmansias that had grown to the size of lovely small trees almost completely died this year because I refuse to give them more water. Now that the rains are back, they're starting to leaf out and one is loaded with buds. My garden is far from sparse - it's quite lush on very minimal water. I have to tell you, every day in this heat, my plants wilt. They wilt by 11am, and they look like they need water really badly. But by the time evening rolls around, they've perked up again. If we get rain, they really perk up. It's heat stress more than it's lack of water. I wilt by 11am, too... In my opinion they can wait until the day comes that I'm allowed to water them, or they can wait until the next rain. Inbetween, they're probably not going to die. You're right when you say with everything there is balance and responsible use. That's why I choose to not over water, or grow plants that require more water than I'm willing to waste on them. Your garden sounds really pretty, by the way, Dave. And it's really great you stop the extra watering when the rains become regular - we've all seen sprinklers going in the rain, and it's craziness. I do feel for you having a neighbor who doesn't (or isn't able to) care for his property. I have a neighbor who sometimes lets her dogs' poo accumulate so much that it reaks. Especially in the heat. And she also excessively waters. She'll hook her overhead sprinkler up to her hose and leave that thing going all day long. Then she'll do it again the next day. Funny thing is, her plants don't look any better for it than mine do.

The MN requirement for sprinklers in residences comes from the 2012 International Residential Code (IRC). Since this code is the basis for most state building codes in the US, each of those states will eventually be forced to accept the sprinkler requirement or pass legislation to amend the code if it hasn't already done so (the requirement was also in the 2009 IRC) Currently I believe only California, Maryland and DC have allowed the sprinkler requirement to become law unmodified. MN adopts the IRC after review and amendment and it has recently amended the 2012 IRC to exempt houses smaller than 4,500 s.f. Since the average size of a single family home in the US is 2,700 s.f. the rule appears to allow most single family homes in MN to be built without sprinklers. However, the building area includes all "conditioned space" so it can include conditioned lower levels and bonus rooms even if those spaces are unfinished. Even so, it seems easy enough to avoid the requirement if you really don't want sprinklers. The ICC has strongly advocated home sprinklers since 2006 when the requirement was included as an option to be adopted locally. The fight over including the requirement in the IRC has always been between home building associations (and the NHAB) and fire fighter associations (and the NFPA). A very small percentage of homeowners die in fires each year so the home buying public understandably cares more about price than sprinklers but about 45% of firefighter deaths occur in those home fires so the sprinkler code fight is basically between homebuilders and firefighters.

GFCIs do not generate voltage, they just turn off the circuit when a current imbalance is detected. If they can harm your timer, a switch or even the turning off (manual or triping) of the circuit breaker would do the same thing.