Those of you who know me understand how passionate I am about preserving our environment through nurture and conservation. I believe there are many natural methods we can use to make our lawns greener and healthier without adding harmful chemicals to the mix. I also believe that we should conserve the resources we have been given. We are stewards of this planet and as such it is our job to not only take care of it for our basic survival needs, but also ensure it thrives for future generations as well as is aesthetically pleasing.
With that in mind, I want to share a bit about water conservation. California has experienced an unprecedented drought for the past three years. Since 2011, we have received very little rain and it is starting to show, big time. A few weeks ago I posted a pic on Facebook showing the Bidwell Bar Bridge that passes over Lake Oroville. The pic was taken near Bidwell Marina and shows the reality of how this drought has affected us. Here are the pics again in case you missed the facebook post.
That is a pretty stark comparison right? The first pic shows the lake in 2011 while the second one taken this year shows the lake at it’s current water level. Now I understand that we have had a few hefty rainstorms as of late, but these have been described as merely a “drop in the bucket”. If we Californians continue using water at our current level, there is growing concern that some towns might actually run out of drinking water. This is not a conspiracy theory, this is a scientific fact. It’s also one of the reasons I did not participate in the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. I am a fan of raising money for charity and I did make my own $100 donation towards the cause. I just can not in good conscience participate in something that might cause a daisy chain event where hundreds or thousands of gallons of water are wasted when we are under such extreme drought conditions.
The point of all of this is to say that in order for anything significant to happen, significant action must be taken. My fair city of Sacramento is taking action. They have implemented a stage two water shortage contingency plan.
The short version of the plan is as follows:
- Watering is reduced to two days per week
- Odd-numbered addresses must limit watering to Tuesdays and Saturdays
- Even-numbered addresses are to water on Wednesdays and Sundays
- No automatic irrigation watering is to happen on Mondays, Thursdays, or Fridays (This does not limit hand watering since it’s difficult to over use and waste hand watering)
- All watering is to be done prior to 10 AM or after 7 PM (Since evaporation of irrigation water is greatly reduced during these times.)
- No over watering is permitted. This typically applies to things like watering your lawn and having run-off that spills onto the side walk, street, or gutter.
If you are a Californian, check your local municipality’s website or that of the county in which you live. Then simply comply. It is incumbent upon all of us to take decisive action so that the situation as a whole will improve.
If you do not live in California, there are still ways you can contribute. After all, water is one of those universal resources that we all use. Consider installing a rain barrel outside of your house and use the collected water for your garden or plants. This conserves fresh water aka drinking water. If your soil is predominantly clay based you might also consider installing drip irrigation as a means to water your shrubs or other plants around the exterior of your home. Drip irrigation is efficient and just as effective as traditional spray or what we call “overhead watering”. If properly installed and managed, drip irrigation can be highly efficient and effective. There are other things you can do to conserve water as well, but my point is simply to raise our awareness of the issue. If we think about how we use water in our own homes, and develop a plan to conserve it, then we will make a difference.
Little by little.
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Porterville California IS without water already – wells have gone dry. The reality shown by the comparison pictures is absolutely scary!!!! Praying hard for sustained rainfall in my adopted state of California!
Everything you say is exactly what we should be doing.
I can’t believe how everyone is ignoring the fact that our
reservoirs are empty. Years ago in the 1980’s
we could only water on even days if your address
was even, odd days for odd addresses. Is all I can say is pray for
rain, because we will be in dire straits without it.
Wells near you will be drying up soon too.
Your words ring true even in parts of the country without drought. There is a limited amount of fresh water in the world. I’m appalled every time I see a sprinkler system working during a rain storm. We all need to conserve our resources as much as possible in order to make them available as needed in the future.
Hi Ahmed, as you know I love gardening. I’m not a professional like yourself but I enjoy the gratification I get from planting and watching my flowers grow. I can relate to your subject of water supply because here in Georgia we suffer from droughts with two of our water sources Chattahoochee river and Lake Lanier. Usually, a great amount of rainfall helps the level’s. But, I’m sure if that’s a permanent solution. Like you appointed out. Shorter shower and bath times would help as well. I can say, ” we do take shorter shower’s and bathes.” Our summer weather came with more rainfall this year. So, it was great not to have to water our flowers. I’m proud of the fact, we catch rain water on those days so when we have a dry week. We can use the rain water we saved. Alway’s seek ways of saving our resource’s. Thanks, Khadra Morrison
We are experiencing similar drought in Texas. The highland lakes above Austin are littered with islands now. We’re moving to native species and less turf,
Moving from CA to the desert southwest made me appreciate the conservative use of water even more. I get annoyed with the careless waste of water here because “it is cheap” or people try to transform the desert to people’s preferences of where they come from and try to make their landscape the same as the East Coast or Pacific Northwest. The natural water supply for this area has long gone away and we now rely on water from the Colorado River to recharge our aquifers we have pumped dry. All new commercial landscapes must use 50% rain harvested water by mandate, yet our rainy season only lasts 3 months in the summer with sporadic storms in the winter. Water consumers only comply with water rationing and conservation when it affects their wallet unfortunately. I installed a RainBird ESP-SMT controller which I feel is the best overall smart controller for the Residential/Light Commercial in my opinion. He in turn, deactivated the weather controls and made it time based to feed his non native fruit and citrus trees and grape vines to feed these plants the 77,000 gallons of water a month they required in our hot and dry climate. ET in June reaches .50 which makes for an extremely high water consumption rate. I applaud your advocating the use of high efficiency sprinklers and drip irrigation. I hope that your voice can help teach the consumers of the precious little water we have for human consumption that you don’t have to have a baseball field in the backyard to have a beautiful yard. Xeriscapes and zeroscapes can be just as beautiful if they are managed and with the same level of maintenance if not less. If I can help you out at all in your next step of your journey, I’m ready, willing and able! Well done and good luck my friend!!!!!
Andrew Chase
Great reminder of the true severity of drought conditions taking place both in the short and long term. Thanks for sharing.