Saving Water

 

The plant in the photo above - Verbena bonariensis - is a tough work horse in the flower garden - beautiful, colorful and very drought tolerant. This is exactly what we need here in Northern California if we want to have beautiful gardens while saving water at the same time.

This year saving water is more important and urgent than ever. We are in an exceptional drought - "exceptional" being the most severe level of drought. Our last drought ended a couple years back with record rain falls, one "atmospheric river" chasing another. That drought "only" was labled as "severe".  But now we are in the "exceptional" stage and I'm wondering why our county supervisors and city council members aren't demanding mandatory restrictions. It's not like this situation is going to change to the better anytime soon since there won't be any significant rainfall before November (if even then).

We get most of our rainfall in the winter. Our 30-year annual average is 34 inches; this year, however, we only received 12.86 inches which is 39% of the average. Our main reservoir, Lake Sonoma, is at 56.5% of capacity. 

For now, residents are asked to restrict their water use voluntarily by 20%. I'm pretty sure with summer not even having started, those restrictios will eventually become mandatory.

Our household uses 2000 gallons of water on average in a month. In the summer it can reach 3000 gallons and very seldom even 4000. With these numbers we are far below the average of a "normal" household and it's getting harder and harder to save additional water since we are already pretty water savvy.

These guys are my best friends when it comes to saving water:

We use flexitubs everywhere in the garden, but their main purpose is catching the water in the shower while it heats up (of course we have low water fixtures).

Outside I have a water barrel where I store any water that I can catch.

Whenever my watering cans are empty I refill them from the barrel. And here you can see how serious I am about saving water (I guess that's the German in me!) - the barrel is leaking at the tube when I open the valve, so I put a bowl beneath it where I catch that water. Not a drop gets unused!

In the kitchen sink I have another bowl where I catch any water - when I wash veggies or the water after I have boiled eggs. Sometimes I even drain the pasta water in here and water a few plants with that - and those plants seem to like the starchy water.

So what about the garden? you might ask. First, I hand water my garden. I have a couple long hoses that I put to work about once a week, twice if it is very hot. Only the vegetables are watered more often than that - but I only have one raised bed with tomatoes, zucchini and some basils. I cut back a lot this year.

With a very few exceptions my garden is filled with drought tolerant plants. I use California natives a lot, but also plants that are native to Australia and the Cape region of South Africa. I eventually will introduce more succulents to the garden. 

A drought tolerant garden does not have to be boring, but can be very colorful.

It really depends on having the right plants in your garden. An English cottage garden certainly is not the right choice.

Clockwise from top left: Lavandula stoechas (Spanish lavender), Salvia nemorosa (Woodland sage), Salvia sclarea (clary sage), Echinacea purpurea (Purple coneflower) and Calamintha nepeta (Lesser calamint)

From left to right: Romneya coulteri (Matilija poppy), Sphaeralcea incana (Soft globemallow) and Achillea 'Moonshine' (Yarrow)

We don't have a graywater system (even though that probably would be a great idea). If you have any more ideas how to save water, please let us know in the comments. 

Rain Jewels

Starting last Thursday and ending on Monday we got a good amount of rain - something we needed, but it's still not clear whether this has broken our four-year drought or not. Somehow I think it takes a lot more than just one wet winter to end a severe drought.

Anyway, it was lovely to go to bed to the sound of rain and to wake up to the tapping of rain. It's not something we hear too often in this corner of the world (this is not Scotland after all). When it happens it's music in my ears.

When there was a break in the rain I ventured outside in the garden with my phone - I didn't even grab my DLSR because I thought the break might only be a short one (it was).

I love raindrops on flowers. It's nature's way of displaying its very own jewels - and boy, is it stunningly beautiful jewelry. Best of all, it's free!

On a grey day the colors just pop so much more than on a bright sunny day. The contrast between the colors and the dark background is higher and very clear.

Don't you just love how the drops cling to the petals? I wish I had a really good macro lens to capture just the drops - I'm sure there would be so much more to see.

The rain stopped on Monday, and today I was able to work in the garden again. After all the rain the plants are exploding which means a lot of work for me. Fortunately I love gardening, and seeing how well everything is doing right now is all I need!

This Squirrel is Ready to Kill

They look so innocent, don't they? So cute, with their big eyes and those sweet little faces. They are so funny and entertaining to watch when they chase each other up and down the trees.

So so cute...

They are smart - too smart sometimes. Especially when they are looking for food. The bird feeders are no problem for them - they eat upside down if it has to be, no matter how uncomfortable that might be. And if they fall down, they simply get up again.

And when the bird feeders are empty? The squirrel is still hungry. So what does the smart squirrel do? S/he looks for other food sources.

They love sunflower seeds.

There are sunflowers in my garden. Let me rephrase that - there WERE sunflowers in my garden. Not as many as last year since the birds (and probably the squirrels as well) picked the seeds after I had put them in the ground. There weren't that many that they overlooked. But the few that actually made it into flowers were gorgeous.

I loved them.

So did the squirrels.

There wasn't a single sunflower that wasn't "killed" by the squirrels. When I saw the first "victimized" sunflower - or what was left of it - lying on the ground, I had no idea what had happened and I actually thought it was the skunks or the raccoons that frequent our garden almost every night. But then I saw a squirrel sitting at the base of a huge sunflower, looking up at the flower head and quickly racing up the stem, putting the plant to the ground - and taking off with the flower head. This happened within seconds.

I was speechless. Those flower heads were huge! Squirrels - not so much.

It was a quick and daring kill. As mad as I was, I also admired those little fearless beasts for their courage. I suspect that in this drought they are probably desperate for food.

The next thing I did was taking my camera and taking pictures of the remaining sunflowers before they became victims of my "sweet little innocent looking" friends.

None of the sunflowers has survived. And if there were a few left because the squirrels were going for the biggest flower heads, I took them inside and put them in a vase.

A very different sunflower year.

Be Careful What You Wish For

While we were heading into the fourth straight year of drought - and the worst of them - many of us wished for rain. People were talking about the lack of rain, there were prayers for rain and even rain dances.

The wish for rain.

It finally came this past week. Slowly first - a nice steady but not heavy rain that made the ground wet. After another day of sunshine and rather cool temperatures the rain returned on Friday and came into full force on Saturday.

It was pouring. Big time.

And our dry land was reacting like a desert - with flash floods.

As you can see in this picture, despite the drought there were people who still watered their lawns... I guess some people just pretend there's no problem at all.

Our street was flooded in no time at all. The top picture was taken from our front door, the second one from our garage. Both were results to completely clogged drains. The flash flood came from a tiny creek that is supposed to go underground here, but since the drain was so much clogged the water found other ways to pour into the street. Since all the drains were clogged here as well, the chain reaction was foreseeable.

Can you see all the debris that was coming with the water?

After a couple hours, the city maintenance staff  fortunately came out and cleaned out the drains. Now the streets aren't under water anymore, but the amount of debris is appalling.

It is still raining, and that is good. Even though we've got so much rain, the danger of drought is far from over. We need much much more rain to get back to a "normal" year. There are two more rain storms later in the week on the horizon.

This is a very bad picture of Kaefer standing in the flooded street - but it gives you an idea what it looked like here for a few hours. The water, of course, got into her boots... Wonderful to see that teenagers still can be like little kids. I was ready to put on my rain boots as well and go puddle jumping with her like we used to do when she was little.

What does your weekend weather look like?