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California Drought
David E. Ross wrote:
songbird wrote: I previously wrote [also in part]: By the way, see my "Gardening During a Drought" at http://www.rossde.com/garden/drought.html. i did. while most of it i agree with you don't say much about rainwater capture/storage, landscaping to retain water (slow, spread, soak) and wind breaks aren't really mentioned either. When we do get rain, more then 2/3 falls in December, January, and February; often, that is more than 3/4. A cistern large enough to supply water from March through November is quite out of the question. i wasn't meaning about your site in particular, but when speaking of arid climates there should be mentions that those sorts of things can help a great deal. many people have roofs and the downspouts go right into the drains, they have no features in their lawns to capture, slow, spread and soak rains, they have no mulch layers, they don't consider the wind and how it can dry out areas when it isn't blocked, etc. as for roof capture of rain and getting through an entire season, that is good, but even if that is too big a consideration, even a few hundred gallons every time it rains would make a dent in the water bill for a few months and take some of the damand off the central water supply. an entire city setup with a few hundred gallons for each household would take a lot of storm water that they used to have to treat and use it instead to irrigate and help recharge the groundwater (which many cities are now drawing on via wells to supplement their other water supplies). My landscape does indeed retain rain. Last week, we had 0.34 inches, which is a lot for the entire month of May. I have not run my sprinklers since last Wednesday and will not run them tomorrow. (The Monday and Thursday only schedule does not go into effect until 1 June.) that's good and of course it all helps. where you mention mulch it is to say enough to cover the soil which is better than nothing, but beyond that a deeper mulch can be much better, especially if you have drip irrigation below it. I try to maintain several inches of leaf mulch where there is no ground cover. Although I place twigs and small branches on top, the wind often reduces the thickness of the mulch. My valley white oak cannot survive without a thick mulch of leaves; I applied the mulch and then anchored chicken wire on top. This will require quite some effort to renew the mulch as it becomes compost. one of the nice things about an arid climate is that mulch lasts much longer. around here wood chips are good for a few years - well rotted wood chips turn clay into pretty good garden soil. songbird |
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