Brandegee's Sage

Anchor Bay Manzanita

The California Native Plant Society had a plant sale at Balboa Park on Saturday and I came home with some Anchor Bay Manzanita and Brandegee’s Sage for our slope, which we keep fairly dry. I’ve noticed that when I look at drought-tolerant offerings at the local nurseries, they always seem to be well-watered, and the soil in the containers always quite moist. The same appeared to be true for the plants at the sale. This probably is not an original idea, but my plan is to keep the plants in the containers for a month or six weeks at the spot where I’ll plant them and keep water to a bare minimum. I’m guessing that should reduce the shock when they go into the soil for good, and they’ll appreciate whatever rain we get this winter that much more!

Chance of Rain

Lost in the Landscape

Plus, today’s LA Times has an interesting story.

And here’s a blurb for a forthcoming book on turning lawns into dry meadows:

First, that native plants have the good sense to become dormant from August through October, when heat is high and water is scarce. Second, we’d be well advised to plant gardens that follow suit … Tan is good; yellow is good; orange, maroon, gray, aquamarine are all good too, for those are the colors of the buckwheats, sages, manzanitas and deer and canyon grasses of our native chaparral

Here’s her entire opinion.

After about a year, we transferred it to the empty slope in our back yard, along with a couple of potted pines (Christmas trees). For about a year we had it on a drip watering tube to get it established but we don’t need to irrigate it at all any more, even though it gets full sun all day (although the pines are getting taller and beginning to give it a little shade). I guess it’s over 25 feet tall now. I’m really glad we planted it well away from the patio because it has grown an impressive root system.

The funny thing is that for the first time in all these years, last July (2008) it began to produce hundreds, if not thousands, of little red berry-like fruit (inedible fig, I surmise) and dropping them like crazy producing a mess (or mulch heaven?) on the ground. This year it’s producing them again:

What puzzles me is why the tree would wait all these years before doing this, since nothing in its environment has changed. Any ideas?

Indoors, we replaced all toilets with 1.6 gallon models, put in low-flow adjustable 1.5-2.5 GPM showerheads, and use a front-loading washing machine. We reduced showers to every-other-day (unless, well you know), flushed according to the ditty (“if it’s yellow let it mellow, if it’s brown flush it down”), caught warm-up water in buckets for our potted plants. Early this year when the city proposed mandatory cutbacks based on historical use, I was definitely worried because I didn’t see how we could conserve any more. So I was a bit relieved when they decided against that and instead went to a 3-day 10-minute watering schedule. I’d rather see a water budget based on needs, but that was better than the historical use approach which I think benefits those who have wasted up until now and hurts those who have conserved all along. Still, I wondered if I was doing enough, so I decided to make an appointment with the San Diego Water Department for a home survey. There was a three-month backlog, so I signed up and waited.

Today we had our survey done. The surveyor had our previous water use records with him and checked the current reading on the meter. He looked over all the landscaping and discussed my irrigation methods and timing with me. He checked for any leaks in the plumbing system, and examined all the toilets, faucets, dishwasher and washer. His conclusion: when compared with other properties with a similar lot size, he said we’re doing better than anybody he has seen so far. Well that was nice to hear. I had to resist an impulse to go out immediately and do some watering, though, because he said he would water a little bit more in a few areas. I admit I had been testing the limits to see how little my plants can stand without dying. I probably will increase a bit, but not much. At least I’ve relieved that nagging feeling that we’re still using too much. Considering the fact that we can walk over to Mission Trails Regional Park and see a large variety of native plants doing just fine without any artificial irrigation at all, though, we probably are still net water wasters since we need to regularly water our plants. I just don’t want to give up our small row of roses!

Just for illustration. I water at night.

Especially during these hot summer days, I can’t see any sense in firing up the sprinklers at 8 or 9am, only to see huge quantities of mist evaporate in mid-air right away and in short order the sun dries up the soil too. Instead, I usually choose 10 or 11pm. The next morning, the ground is still moist and I’m comfortable knowing that most of the water was absorbed into the ground and the plants had several hours to take advantage of the moisture. As for lawns, I’ve read that it’s best to water in the early morning so that the grass doesn’t stay wet for an extended period and become infected with something or other. On the other hand, I’ve read that morning watering extends the period of time that a lawn is wet because during the night it gets wet from dew.  For San Diego’s dry climate, I think night watering is the way to go.

Information resources for Oleander Leaf Scorch

• Home & Garden: Oleander Leaf Scorch a Threat
• Master Gardener San Diego: FAQ
• San Diego Reader: Oleanders are Dying in San Diego
• UC Integrated Pest Management Program: Oleander Leaf Scorch

Water savings well underway

This began several years ago

It's becoming a trend around here

Why the green ribbon? - underground leak in water service line?

Perhaps brown lawns will become like a badge of honor. More likely, when this drought is over people will want their green lawns back and return to frequent watering. I’m hoping we’ll see an increase in low-water-use projects like the ones pictured in the June 26 post.

We took a walk around our area yesterday to see what neighbors are doing in the way of landscaping that looks nice but appears to be relatively low on water requirements. Below are a few that I like.

As full disclosure, I’ll show my house first.  It was nothing but gravel when we bought it, we added three trees, a  Melaleuca, Crape Myrtle, and a Rhus Lancea which you can’t see in this shot.  There are some ugly patches that we need to work on.

Our place is pretty plain compared to the others

I watched them plant this years ago. Very nice.

Nice slope but still a bit of thirsty lawn

These owners made a beautiful composition.

Very pleasant arrangement.

Any idea what the foreground plant with white flowers is?

This looks like a recent makeover; probably was a lawn.

Nice plant choices; I'd skip the birdbath