Johnny wrote:
Georgia is in the forth year of a severe drought and as a result
watering restrictions have been put into place. There is one aspect of
the rules that few people are aware of. According to the Atlanta
Constitution, under the statewide rules, new landscaping installed by
a professional may be watered daily for 30 days after installation,
and food gardens can be watered any time. It is possible that other
states may have similar rules.:

www-raised-garden-bed.com/

Johnny


The last time drought resulted in restrictions where I live, retail
water providers were given an allocation by the area-wide wholesale
agency equal to 90% of their past four-year average usage.

The wholesale agency gave extra allocations to those retail providers in
agricultural areas, but only enough to irrigate orchards and vineyards
that were between 1 and 3 years old. The theory was that older
plantings should have deep enough roots to survive reduced irrigation
while the investment in newer plantings was small enough to be lost. No
extra allocations were given for produce plantings (e.g., commercial
tomato and strawberry farmers) or for ornamental landscaping.
Definitely, no extra allocations were given for home vegetable gardens.

Our local retail provider gave all households an equal allocation,
dividing up the retailer's allocation among all households. If you used
more, you paid double for the excess.

My soil is expansive, shrinking as it dries and swelling as it becomes
moist. I cut back on my garden watering during that drought. The
drought ended with a very significant rain storm. Read my
http://www.rossde.com/garden/garden_back.html#hill to see what
happened because of reduced watering; skip the box regarding the storm
of 2005 and go to what happened in 1992 (third paragraph below the box).

--
David E. Ross
Climate: California Mediterranean
Sunset Zone: 21 -- interior Santa Monica Mountains with some ocean
influence (USDA 10a, very close to Sunset Zone 19)
Gardening pages at http://www.rossde.com/garden/