You're right, we shouldn't pray or wish for weather calamities to increase
our fresh water supply as others may get hurt or killed. We should continue
to live as usual, and kill our future.

We live in Spring, about 80 miles from the coast, and that's too close for
me. My husband would like to live on the coast, I say no. I don't want to be
swept out in the next tsunami.
I agree that it's stupid to live on a coast or a floodplain. I don't
understand the 'watch it be leveled, then rebuild on the same spot' mentality.
While they work so hard at not paying claims, insurance companies should force
relocation.
However, I don't wish death and destruction on other people because my water
supply is low. Perhaps it would make sense to get politically active and work
for legislation for water conservation. Xeriscaping, no private swimming pools,
no irrigation out of aquifers, etc.
That would be entertaining! If people were forced to live sustainably
instead of robbing groundwater and stealing water from other states, half the
population of California and a few others would probably pack up and move out of
the desert. Just think of all those retirees in Phoenix without their green
lawns...*snicker*
I knew a woman who moved there from Montana--their well in MT had soda
water, so they couldn't drink it or irrigate with it; they lived on a hill, and
she couldn't keep a nice lawn. So BY GOD when she moved to AZ, she was
determined to HAVE one, even if it was in the desert. Man, if I lived there, I
would have the coolest cactus garden....

Cindy

In article ,
Cindy wrote:

Just think of all those retirees in Phoenix without their green
lawns...*snicker*
I knew a woman who moved there from Montana--their well in MT had soda
water, so they couldn't drink it or irrigate with it; they lived on a hill,
and
she couldn't keep a nice lawn. So BY GOD when she moved to AZ, she was
determined to HAVE one, even if it was in the desert. Man, if I lived there,
I
would have the coolest cactus garden....

Cindy

Ditto here... ;-)
The smart ones in Arizona have awesome cactus gardens, surrounded and
bedded with rock. They are gorgeous!

If it did not freeze here so badly, I could have more cactus for
landscaping. I did plant muscadine grapes and Lantana, and am studying
more about local xeriscaping. Salvia varieties are good too, as is
Mountain Laurel and Crepe Myrtle.

I can no longer afford to pay for the water for a greener yard.

Xeriscaping makes economic sense as well as ecological sense.
--
Peace!
Om

"My mother never saw the irony in calling me a Son of a bitch"
-- Jack Nicholson

Cindy wrote:
..... If people were forced to live
sustainably instead of robbing groundwater and stealing water from other
states, half the population of California and a few others would
probably pack up and move out of the desert. Just think of all those
retirees in Phoenix without their green lawns...*snicker*...
Cindy

While on the subject of water and deserts, I'd like to plug a book that
I've read titled "Cadillac Desert" by Marc Reisner. It's a study of the
American West and the water projects that made settlement possible.
Mainly because it deals with subjects that I'm interested in, I consider
it the best non-fiction book I've ever read. It's in the librady if
anyone's interested.

--
Gary Brady
Austin, TX

Jonny wrote:

Hurricance Katrina hurt alot of people. These people chose, knowingly or
unknowingly. to live in an area that is sinking or just below sea level as
that's where their parents or whatever lived. If you've received the
knowledge, and continue to live in the area, and expect others to help you,
not smart. I can't believe that the majority who choose to stay there don't
know this.

There's another problem looming for that area that most people don't
know about and the locals completely ignore. Sooner or later, the
Mississippi River will change course by jumping its banks and flowing
into the Atchafalya River, taking a new course directly south to the
Gulf. THe point where this will happen is about 60 miles north (by
river) of Baton Rouge. The river bed in Baton Rouge and New Orleans
will become an estuary, that is, salt water will back up from the Gulf.
New Oleans gets it's drinking water from the river. This almost
happened during the floods of 1973. There hasn't been sufficient
flooding since to bring attention back to this subject, but it's very
likely to happen. One noted hydrologist at LSU predicted that this
would be "the greatest peacetime economic disaster in the history of our
country". He also predicted (back in '84) that it would happen by the
year 2000. Ask anyone in New Oleans about this, though, and they'll
tell you to have another beer and let the good times roll.

--
Gary Brady
Austin, TX

Gary Brady wrote:
|| It's in the librady if anyone's interested.
||

'li-brady' intentional or a slip :-)

--
--
"Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if
there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than
that of blind-folded fear." -- Thomas Jefferson

http://www.obsessionthemovie.com
http://www.americanpatrol.com/REFERENCE/isacrime.html
http://home.swbell.net/bjtexas/SS/

"OmManiPadmeOmelet" wrote:
I can no longer afford to pay for the water for a greener yard.

Xeriscaping makes economic sense as well as ecological sense.

Om,

Have you gotten the free booklet from Travis County? Also, the City of
Austin has some information at
www.growgreen.org .

On Sat, 29 Jul 2006, jjhnsn wrote:
I think a good way to Xeriscape is to replace difficult
or problem areas in an otherwise healthy lawn with Xeriscape landscaping.
The Travis County Extension Service will send you a Native and Adapted
Landscape Plants guide for free (supposedly $1 for non-Travis County
residents, but they never charge. Don't tell anyone else :-). Call
512-854-9600.

j jhnsn

I'm not a Texas Master Gardener, but I sleep with one.

In article ,
"James Lee Johnson" wrote:

I can no longer afford to pay for the water for a greener yard.

Xeriscaping makes economic sense as well as ecological sense.

Om,

Have you gotten the free booklet from Travis County? Also, the City of
Austin has some information at
www.growgreen.org .

Many thanks... :-)
I will miss my Cannas but they did badly this year with less water.
Mulch helps some and I have some leaf mulch black bag composting I'll
add to them this winter. The poor things never did bloom! Perhaps with
more composted mulch, they will do better next year. At least they are
still alive.

I will check that resource for sure. Xeriscaping is really the way to go
when we are facing yet another drought. sigh

I found a drowned female toad in the dog's water bucket this morning,
and a drowned grackle a few days ago in Pauli's water bucket. :-(

Poor things.......

Even the wildlife is suffering from lack of rain! I have water trays
under some pots so that should help them a bit! I'll just have to make
an effort to fill them more often.
--
Peace!
Om

"My mother never saw the irony in calling me a Son of a bitch"
-- Jack Nicholson

"OmManiPadmeOmelet" wrote:
Many thanks... :-)

De nada.

I will miss my Cannas but they did badly this year with less water.
Mulch helps some and I have some leaf mulch black bag composting I'll
add to them this winter. The poor things never did bloom! Perhaps with
more composted mulch, they will do better next year. At least they are
still alive.

Cannas are pretty hardy in parts of Texas. We tried to remove some from a
garden in Grand Prairie, TX, and we never did get rid of them. 'Course we
didn't try an extended drought :-)

Xeriscape isn't an all-or-nothing proposition. It is perfectly acceptable to
have some plants that need a little more water than others. The idea is to
group those plants together as much as possible, use efficient watering
systems like drip irrigation, and limit the areas that need the most
supplemental water. Of course, in any kind of landscaping scheme it makes
sense to group plants by their need for sun, water, soil type, and drainage.
I belonged to the Xeriscape Garden Club of Austin when there was one.

Xeriscape proponents like to disuade people from the notion that a Xeriscape
garden is a rock and cactus garden. But since you find cactus gardens
attractive, I'd like to point out that there are many cactii and cactus-like
plants which will over-winter in central Texas. In addition to native and
adapted Cactii, there are Agaves, Yuccas, Sotol, Beargrass, and related
members of the Lily family. I happen to think some bushes like Texas Sage
don't look out of place in a cactus garden. It is probably too difficult to
grow a Joshua Tree or a Seguaro in central Texas, but the "skeletons" of
some of the plants in Arizona and New Mexico can be very attractive.

Oh, the irony ... it is flooding in Phoenix!

j jhnsn

In article ,
"James Lee Johnson" wrote:

"OmManiPadmeOmelet" wrote:
Many thanks... :-)

De nada.

I will miss my Cannas but they did badly this year with less water.
Mulch helps some and I have some leaf mulch black bag composting I'll
add to them this winter. The poor things never did bloom! Perhaps with
more composted mulch, they will do better next year. At least they are
still alive.

Cannas are pretty hardy in parts of Texas. We tried to remove some from a
garden in Grand Prairie, TX, and we never did get rid of them. 'Course we
didn't try an extended drought :-)

lol True... I normally have to thin them back every year and give
rhizomes away. This is the first year they have done badly.

Even the Lantana is looking unhappy, but it's still alive.


Xeriscape isn't an all-or-nothing proposition. It is perfectly acceptable to
have some plants that need a little more water than others. The idea is to
group those plants together as much as possible, use efficient watering
systems like drip irrigation, and limit the areas that need the most
supplemental water. Of course, in any kind of landscaping scheme it makes
sense to group plants by their need for sun, water, soil type, and drainage.
I belonged to the Xeriscape Garden Club of Austin when there was one.

Oh yes, I understand that! I mostly use soaker hoses and we have a timer
setup on the hose.


Xeriscape proponents like to disuade people from the notion that a Xeriscape
garden is a rock and cactus garden. But since you find cactus gardens
attractive, I'd like to point out that there are many cactii and cactus-like
plants which will over-winter in central Texas. In addition to native and
adapted Cactii, there are Agaves, Yuccas, Sotol, Beargrass, and related
members of the Lily family.

I do need to get more Agave. I only have a couple of them and both are
still in pots. The big one is one I dug up from where my dad used to
live. It's sprouted two pups so far being confined that way.

I'd not considered yucca, thanks for the idea! I had purchase a
spineless prickly pear a last year but it got badly frozen over the
winter. It's sprouted new pads but I need to cut the plant down and pull
the new pads for planting and see if I can get it going again.

There is a 10 footer on the sidewalk path I take for morning walks that
is probably a different variety. I want to snag a few mature pads from
it and plant those. They might winter over better since that one seems
to be thriving and it's just down the block.

What succulents do well? Hens and chicks and even Kalancho always seemed
to freeze back!

I'm watching some of the more attractive low growing weeds for ground
cover now and selectively letting them grow where I need them. It looks
much better. I don't know what this particular one is so I need to take
a photo. It seems to do well in low water conditions.


I happen to think some bushes like Texas Sage
don't look out of place in a cactus garden.

I'd need to import some. I've not seen it around here?
I see _lots_ of various salvias around in landscaped parking lots. White
seems to be the main one but I have some red salvia in a pot. It's in
the greenhouse tho' so I've no idea if it'd freeze or not.

It is probably too difficult to
grow a Joshua Tree or a Seguaro in central Texas, but the "skeletons" of
some of the plants in Arizona and New Mexico can be very attractive.

Oh, the irony ... it is flooding in Phoenix!

j jhnsn

lol Too true! My sister lives in Phoenix but they are ok.....
--
Peace!
Om

"My mother never saw the irony in calling me a Son of a bitch"
-- Jack Nicholson

I have 'Tropicana,' 'Striped,' and 'Pretoria.' These grow beautifully
in water. They are flowering since April and I have these same in the
ground near the pool which is always getting water because we hose it
off when the tree drops debris.

In article ,
Jangchub wrote:

I have 'Tropicana,' 'Striped,' and 'Pretoria.' These grow beautifully
in water. They are flowering since April and I have these same in the
ground near the pool which is always getting water because we hose it
off when the tree drops debris.

I don't know the names of mine, but the main ones are a bright lemon
yellow and I have a few that are red with yellow lips.

I'll keep that in mind when I finally get a pond in. ;-)

I think part of the problem is lack of mulch. Every winter when they
froze back and I'd cut them down, I'd lay all the cut stalks on top of
the ground over the rhizomes and let them rot down.

I quit doing that a couple of years ago, and since then, the health and
size of the plants has deteriorated.

I have several bags of leaf mulch now that have been bagged for close to
a year. I'll drag a couple of those up front and dump them on top of
them and wet it well, then see what happens. ;-)

These are planted along side my driveway and the bed is a good 15 years
or so old.
--
Peace!
Om

"My mother never saw the irony in calling me a Son of a bitch"
-- Jack Nicholson

BJ in Texas wrote:
Gary Brady wrote:
|| It's in the librady if anyone's interested.
||

'li-brady' intentional or a slip :-)

Slip. Fingers going into auto mode.

--
Gary Brady
Austin, TX

The Earth has been warming for the last 18,000 years as evidenced by the
fact that the average temperature has risen 16 degrees and the oceans have
risen 300 feet. The warming is nothing new. We have yet to reached the
average temperatures experienced during the medieval period. The hottest
know period in the Earths history was the Holocene period some 4- 7k years
ago, long before we were burning fossil fuels. So relax, we are in a normal
warm period despite the fact that some politicians and groups of
environmentalist scream doom to insure their funding and scare up votes from
the uninformed. I was around for the 7 year drought, it lasted from 1950 to
1957. Was it tough?Yes but we all survived. Since that time some of the
historic desert areas of Texas have had to be reclassified as Semi-arid
because of the fact the average rainfall as increase so much. . Carbon
dioxide is a nutrient that all carbon based life depends. Want to increase
the growth rate of plants? Give them more CO2. So again, spend more energy
on adapting and less on needless end of the World pessimism.

Cheers

JEM


"Jonny" wrote in message
link.net...
"Cindy" wrote in message
news
* OmManiPadmeOmelet wrote, On 8/23/2006 10:02 AM:


Pray for a hurricane, we need at least that much rain.

No kidding. :-(

So much for this year being bad for hurricanes!

Yeah right. ;-)

Geez, don't wish 'em on us just because you're not in the firing line...!

You're right of course. And, of course, this is one of the few solutions
for a quick fix to our lack of water problem. The other happened a few
years ago (July, 2001?), when the multi-day deluge overflowed all the
local major rivers in the region. A long term solution, weatherwise, I
don't see happening.

My concern at this point is drinking water, not irrigation for pretty
plants and lawns. Not only for myself, but the rest of the Central Texas
area. The drought may end next week, or extend itself through winter or
more. Latter is not a pretty thought. The last major drought was in 1954.
The difference is the amount of water, due to human population increase,
being drawn from wells, aquifers, and surface water sources. Another
difference, regarding weather, is the high pressure cells just sitting
over the region, preventing rainfall. I've seen no year to year history
on this by the weather service. I don't believe this is an oversight, but
a denial by muting. Politically motivated. See the climate changes
cyclical vs. carbon gas induced (global warming) debate. The weather
service is a U.S. owned service of the U.S. government.

BTW saw, as usual, the local high school football field being sprinkled
at 3:30 p.m here in Wimberley again. My lawn is almost entirely dormant
due to lack of irrigation, live just outside Wimberley proper. A wealthy
landowner had been pumping well water into a sizable pond to keep some
water in it, no visible reason, no horses/cattle are on this property. Am
sure there's similar happening in Austin in surrounding areas. Right now,
its not sustainable.

Any reports regarding local high school and their sports fields, and their
watering times is appreciated. I reported on this past January, and got
flak for local football fields are the exception blah, blah, blah as TX
loves football at this group. Guess what? The football players don't
care about the grass, they just want to play football.


This water problem may end tomorrow. And, as usual, the general
population will continue to use water prolifically, breed and make more
water users. The continued overbreeding is just as bad as wishing the
hurricanes. Both cause death and suffering, as in the long run, its not
sustainable. The difference being, the amount of humans is controllable,
the weather is not. But, what we do to the climate is controllable. Both,
from the population size standpoint, and energy usage from carbon gas
creating electrical plants, and the choices made day to day for energy
usage deriving electrical energy from those plants. All of which affect
the weather in the long term.

Sadly, we as nation may not be able to positively affect the climate.
Reason? U.S. gave and supported China for economic reasons.
(translation: corporate greed) China is building many coal fired electric
plants, and rapidly increasing for demand reasons.

All this is depressing etc., I admit. But emmotional perception doesn't
change a thing, it still exists. Ignoring for emmotional welfare
proliferates the problem in many ways.

Hurricance Katrina hurt alot of people. These people chose, knowingly or
unknowingly. to live in an area that is sinking or just below sea level as
that's where their parents or whatever lived. If you've received the
knowledge, and continue to live in the area, and expect others to help
you, not smart. I can't believe that the majority who choose to stay
there don't know this. MS area is similar, almost a flood plain as the
land rises very slowly from the sea. Rita was different, but, there are
many exceptions similar to those noted above.

Then, there's the "non-existent" global warming. The ice at the poles and
Greenland northern areas may melt, causing the sea level to increase by 30
ft or more, not taking into consideration thermal expansion of the oceans
increasing the sea level even more. If you've taken a drive around the
East Coast and Gulf Coast and paid attention to the homes and businesses,
you would see the potential for major loss of these and human life.

You're right, we shouldn't pray or wish for weather calamities to increase
our fresh water supply as others may get hurt or killed. We should
continue to live as usual, and kill our future.
--
Jonny

In article . net,
Gary Brady wrote:

BJ in Texas wrote:
Gary Brady wrote:
|| It's in the librady if anyone's interested.
||

'li-brady' intentional or a slip :-)

Slip. Fingers going into auto mode.

Oddly enough, I rarely notice typos like that anymore. ;-)
I just read "around" them.

But I am glad that the updated MT Newswatcher has a built in spellcheck.
G
--
Peace!
Om

"My mother never saw the irony in calling me a Son of a bitch"
-- Jack Nicholson