It's official now... 25% mandatory rationing.
http://www.latimes.com/local/l...
If the Sierras are this brown and dry
now, I hate to see what it is going to look like up there, come fall. I go hiking in the East Sierra each fall, and last trip (early October) things were looking pretty dry up there - and this was a year after that huge wildfire just on the northern border of (and inside of) Yosemite. (I drove through the burn area last fall; it was pretty extensive.) I hope we aren't in for another terrible fire up there - or elsewhere in the state.
Yesterday, I stopped at the local post office, and noticed that two redwoods on the property are brown and either dying or dead. I have to wonder if they cut back (or cut off) the water... which got me wondering about trees elsewhere in this part of the state.
We have a row of redwoods on the north border of our property - actually, they are on our neighbor's property. We have been watering them since we moved here thirteen years ago, otherwise they would have all died (as they were in serious decline and the neighbors weren't watering them). There is not much else green between the neighbor's house and our property. Those trees look stressed as it is, and I'm afraid to cut back water to their root zone areas... if we lose that line of trees (there are several) it's going to be ugly...
Aside from that particular concern, I'm trying to figure out where I can cut back on watering without killing things off... Of big concern, or course, are the other trees and shrubs, which are everywhere here (so cutting back water in any bed inevitably affects some trees and/or shrubs).
Apart from an across-the-board water cut, I won't grow as many veggies as last year (I will do some cukes and basil though, as well as preserving a Japanese strain of bunching onions). That will let me turn some heads off. I'll try to find a suitable in-ground spot for some of the potted plants, which should also help (less frequent watering needed than in the pots).
Apart from that...
I think that I may start saving "left-over" water (from water bottles, said water which would otherwise be tossed) in a one gallon container, and use that for watering pots. (We can't stand the tap water here; it tastes somewhat metallic, and occasionally smells strongly of chlorine. While we use it for cooking, and making ice cubes, if we want to actually
drink water, we buy Aquafina.) I guess I could recycle the dog's water dish, too...
So let's hear
your ideas for water saving...
