CA drought

[RosieTR]

Ugh, the drought monitor came out yesterday with 100% of CA in bad drought. And of course now the fires, possibly purposely started. I'm sending good thoughts (and FWIW, rain thoughts!) to all y'all in Cally. Drought sucks....you know there could be a fire any time, and the tension and heat just wears on you. I know there's some SoCal folks here so best wishes!

[Spartana]

Thanks Rosie TR - It DOES suck being here right now. I was just up in the Sequoias and Yosemite and it was already super dry up there - and hot. Not as hot as it is here in my town of Huntington Beach (102 yesterday and Santa Ana winds as I came home) but apparently it's hot everywhere on the west coast and even Seattle. We have some heavy water restrictions even in the best of times but now they will be extreme. I have killed off all the grass in my large backyard and plan to just put weed paper and mulch over it all. Had already put in many drought tolerant cypress trees for shade along the fence line and a big swatch of decorative stones and mulch in a bout 1/4 of the yard - maybe more. But now I'll have a zero-water yard so that should help. Front yard, unfortunately, is large and grass - and the city reguires that. I built a brick patio and also a large rock garden but the lawn still needs lots of watering. Not sure what I'll do about that though. Sis and I decided to hang on to the house awhile longer (just a few more months) so took it off the market but now am wondering if that was a good idea. Time will tell. If all the reservoirs continue to dry up in SoCal as they are, and we can't depend on water from either the Colorado river or NorCal in the future, we'll be - literally - toast. My hope is that the cities will ban grass yards and require rock gardens or some kind of drought tolerant landscaping (and help pay for that). Also reduce watering golf course and parks with potable water (most use reclaimed water now anyways so that's good). Not sure what to do about privately owned pools at houses (a huge water user) but probably nothing as it would be a big infringement on private rights. I do foresee more businesses leaving the state though as water costs and restrictions rise. I worked as an environmental compliance officer enforcing industrial waste pollution regulations for many years for a water/wastewater district and the volume of water needed by many big manufacturers and businesses is staggering.

[pinkytoe]

Front yard, unfortunately, is large and grass - and the city reguires that.
That's so crazy in a drought - our city pays us to get rid of grass. Alas though, people have conserved water so well that the city needs to raise our water rates to meet their budgets.

[awakenedsoul]

I got rid of my grass in the front yard. My front garden is tiny for loaded with old fashioned flowers: hollyhocks, four o'clocks, lavender, rosemary, sunflowers, and geraniums. I also have three citrus trees. It's all mulched with straw, which really helps. The fruit trees in back can go without water for two weeks and still be fine. Our water bill was raised $5.00 a month. We have a group system, like an association. Some of the people just have dirt and rocks in their yard. But, it's always been that way here. You either see a fabulous garden, or junked out cars, dirt, and rocks...

[ApatheticNoMore]

Some cities do subsidize to get rid of grass, it depends on the city (and incidently city laws can often be changed - so if one wanted to be involved in politics the "grass policy" :) could probably be changed), and then there's HOA's and they might require grass even when the city doesn't.


Sis and I decided to hang on to the house awhile longer (just a few more months) so took it off the market but now am wondering if that was a good idea. Time will tell. If all the reservoirs continue to dry up in SoCal as they are, and we can't depend on water from either the Colorado river or NorCal in the future, we'll be - literally - toast.

Yea but the housing market will probably crash well before that point :) (because it's seems to be based on questionable economics - mostly investor money etc.). But LONG TERM (30 year mortgages) in CA - yea .... problems. Yea, yea, who knows, people will still be insisting houses in 100 degree deserts without any water will be worth 700k because of Prop 13 tax breaks or something >8).


My hope is that the cities will ban grass yards and require rock gardens or some kind of drought tolerant landscaping (and help pay for that).

Drought tolerant or low water or edibles or trees (like oaks) might be best. Because having some plants is beneficial (absorbs carbon, cleans the air) etc..


I do foresee more businesses leaving the state though as water costs and restrictions rise. I worked as an environmental compliance officer enforcing industrial waste pollution regulations for many years for a water/wastewater district and the volume of water needed by many big manufacturers and businesses is staggering.

Well maybe if at least drives fracking out! :) I dont' see how one can be positive on the economics of this state. Ok many farms in the central valley had to go out of business due to lack of water (some was for water to protect basic ecosystems, that's important, and the farms never were sustainable - nontheless it's an economic loss). Who knows how much money we're paying in firefighters now to fight massive fires (and summer still to come). And they talk about how much GDP we might have to sacrifice to mitigate climate change? Uh huh ... But even governator Arnold saw the results of climate change clearly (it's only the complete morons in D.C. that don't).


Ugh, the drought monitor came out yesterday with 100% of CA in bad drought. And of course now the fires, possibly purposely started. I'm sending good thoughts (and FWIW, rain thoughts!) to all y'all in Cally. Drought sucks....you know there could be a fire any time, and the tension and heat just wears on you. I know there's some SoCal folks here so best wishes!

Yea it's wearing. Perhaps behind a rant or two of mine :)

[Rogar]

A little off topic, but I've been gradually replacing my lawn with no water alternatives, mostly xeric plants and mulch. This year I was going to plant some native grasses to replace part of my lawn (I know it's Colorado, but not those native grasses). Most of the choices for native grasses have their issues, like some won't tolerate traffic, or they are difficult to get established. My first choice was buffalo grass, and then I ran across a new variety called "dog tuff". I went down to my local nursery where they have a sample plot to check it out. I looks just like the regular lawn except drought tolerant, only a few mows a year, and takes traffic and pets. It's new and the nursery and was sold out for the year. Pretty neat, though. http://www.highcountrygardens.com/media/pdf/DogTuffGrass.pdf

Doing a rain dance for all the folks in CA.

[RosieTR]

A little off topic, but I've been gradually replacing my lawn with no water alternatives, mostly xeric plants and mulch. This year I was going to plant some native grasses to replace part of my lawn (I know it's Colorado, but not those native grasses). Most of the choices for native grasses have their issues, like some won't tolerate traffic, or they are difficult to get established. My first choice was buffalo grass, and then I ran across a new variety called "dog tuff". I went down to my local nursery where they have a sample plot to check it out. I looks just like the regular lawn except drought tolerant, only a few mows a year, and takes traffic and pets. It's new and the nursery and was sold out for the year. Pretty neat, though. http://www.highcountrygardens.com/media/pdf/DogTuffGrass.pdf

Doing a rain dance for all the folks in CA.

Great to know, Rogar! After 2002, I xeriscaped most of our (south-facing, sloped) front yard. This was possible because we have no HOA. :~) Now we have drought-tolerant herbs: oregano, sage and thyme; some other drought-resistant ground covers like lamb's ears (aka "prepper TP" ha ha); wildflowers for the bees and fruit-bearing trees and shrubs (which need supplemental water but produce food). Eventually we'll get rid of some of the backyard grass though I'd like to keep some, so perhaps something like that strain would work well. As for the desert, I know some cities such as Las Vegas were paying people to take up lawn in favor of xeriscape. My experience in Phx was that Bermuda grass grew like the weed that it is, it just wasn't green *all the time* if it didn't get water. But it didn't die. If people's perceptions of having to have *green* grass would change, that would help a lot in the desert areas. They could have some lawns, just not green in mid-summer. We shall see if that starts to become a reality.

[Teacher Terry]

We actually put in some very high quality astro turf in our front yard. It was expensive but will last a long time & it has been improved so much that it looks real. plan to do that in our back yard too. WE also have problems with water shortage & many people have either chosen this option or went with zero-scaping. Some HOA"S are also allowing these 2 options.

[Gardenarian]

And now there is evidence the drought may cause earthquakes:
Pulling Water Out of the Ground May Lead to Quakes on the San Andreas Fault (http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/pulling-water-ground-lead-quakes-san-andreas-fault-180951456/?no-ist)