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Mel's porous soil, and irrigation, and whitefly revisited

Cal wrote,

>Hey there... I'm new to sqft gardening this year and nearly thought I blew it
>after setting up my raised bed (4' X 4') to learn on.  Because the soil here
>in Atlanta can be very poor, lot of red clay, I went with the 'perfect soil
>recipe' from the book.  It was easy, looked nice, and was wonderful to
>handle.  But after about 5 weeks my plants were looking horridly sick.  I
>discovered that the porousness of the soil meant I had to water more to keep
>it wet, and also I began a twice a week light feeding with a water soluble
>food.  In just *7 DAYS* all the plants turned dark green and began growing
>beautifully.
>
>Everything went from sickly-yellow stunted plants to lush green and sturdy.
> So moniter the soil moisture, and feed regularly to get excellent results.
>
This is exactly what happened to me, but my attempts at fertilizing didn't
help.  I just couldn't keep up with the watering!!  What kind of fertilizer
did you use, if I may ask?  I could use the help!

This year my dear, dear husband is setting up sprinklers in my garden, which
is basically six 4x4 squares in one rectangle.  I know we talked about drip
irrigation and the joys of so. CAlif. gardening a while back, but I am
dreadfully behind on my digests.  What is the best way to set these up?  We
tried 1/4 inch soaker hoses in one square, in two big loops.  But the things
that are more closely spaced didn't get enough water.  Anyone have ideas on
how best to install a system that has flexibility enough to do different
things/spacings in each square?  Little mini-sprayers?  Didn't want to get
water on the foliage every day, particularly when we have heavy am fog in
the summer that doesn't burn off until mid-day.

On another note, thanks to all those who posted about how to get rid of
whitefly on my squashes. They're in my tomatoes too!   I finally looked at
the latest issue of  Sunset mag. that had been buried under things and there
was the same info!  It said spray with 6 Tablespoons of Dr. Bronner's
peppermint castile soap in  one gallon water, then follow with a spray of
fine grade horticultural oil.  I found the oil at the local nursery.  It is
a petroleum product, I guess I didn't realize that, but I tried it and we'll
see...

Joyce in Lompoc, California

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