HELP!!! This hot summer weather in California (90F) is killing all th
plants in my backyard. To make it worse, the state is putting a limi onto our daily water usage. Any suggestion?!
-- gardenlover
HELP!!! This hot summer weather in California (90F) is killing all th
plants in my backyard. To make it worse, the state is putting a limi onto our daily water usage. Any suggestion?!
-- gardenlover
How about lots of mulch? Can you buy bags of shredded hardwood or cedar mulch out there? It'll probably cut your water needs by at least half.
The other solution is more painful. I'm basing this only on what I hear from an ancient gardener friend in L.A. Not sure about other parts of southern CA. Apparently, all the lush plant life that existed in L.A. for many, many years consisted of species that looked great, but had no business being there. Apparently, L.A. is a desert, except for all the water people use to force the wrong species to grow there. Now, there are lots of resources which will help you gradually replace your plants with native ones that are better able to cope with the climate.
It has been cool (cold) cloudy and drizzly here for weeks. So I bought a fushia (loves cool wet weather) hanging basket a few days ago -- so the weather will turn hot and dry and windy and I can get on with my real gardening. :-) It's starting to work.
In your case, you might plant a few cacti as a sacrifice. The weather should turn cool and wet shortly thereafter.
Best regards, Bob
Buy plants that are native to your area that like hot, dry weather. Also, do a search on "xeriscape" to find ideas for conserving water.
It was suggested here in SE PA a couple years ago during a drought that when you shower, you plug the drain and save the water in the tub. Then dip out the water with pails and use the water to water your plants. Recycling at it's finest! LOL
/J-never did it myself
Dish & laundry water, too, although obviously, not when bleach has been used.
Have you ever heard of ZEBA?!? My neighbord has the same problem an after using it his yard definitely looks much better. I can ask fo more info if you'd like
-- northwest_man
I use soaker hose. Can be purchased at Costco or Home Depot. Bury it in the garden and water the roots directly. And yes lots of mulch will stop the evaporation.
Okay so I asked my neighbord about ZEBA for you. Here is the websit that you can check it out
-- northwest_man
The message from snipped-for-privacy@netscape.net (paghat) contains these words:
Those posts all come from a uk website called www.gardenbanter, which acts as a portal to usenet groups and lets its users post from it's address. I block all posts emanating from it and don't have the original. However, if you still do, and open the posts full headers, you'll find the "abuse reports" address of gardenbanter. Send them the full post with full headers and they'll get their convenient anonymous account pulled. Gardenbanter has already had some warnings about abuse of usenet groups.
Or you could just post very rude things here about the crapulous website hosting spammers, happy in the knowledge that the crapulous website's members and advertisers will all see your cheery message ON the website
:-)
Janet
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