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!

Yesterday the LA Times printed a motivating opinion by Emily Green that encourages us to rethink our overgreen landscapes with an eye towards native plants. Ms. Green neatly points out:

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.

When we purchased our home in 1987, we still remembered the severe drought in the 70s when San Diego was under mandatory restrictions. Since the house was in need of landscaping, right off the bat the decision was to stick to plants and trees that require a minimum of water. We decided against using automatic sprinklers, and do all watering by hand with a hose. A large slope in the back yard was the only exception, where we installed four sprinklers with water-conserving rotator nozzles…again, under manual control so that we chose when water was needed. The slope was nothing but freeway iceplant which we ripped out and replaced with a variety of things like rosemary, pyracantha, india hawthorne, honeysuckle, and red apple iceplant. We did splurge on a small patch of lawn, Marathon sod, which we were told was a low-moderate water user. Not really. We’ve since decided to give it up and replace it with something else. If you’re interested, here’s a catalog of what we have at the house.

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I have a fairly large slope in my back yard with a variety of ground cover plants and some trees. Sprinklers are the only practical way for me to water the whole thing. I do use the low-water rotator nozzles that the water department recommends, and judge for myself when to water (subject to current rules, of course) instead of using automatics.

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.