Category Archives: California drought

California drought, drought tolerant gardens, drought tolerant plants, groundcovers, lawn replacement, low maintenance gardening, low water use plants

Planning for the Dry Season – Step One: Lose the Lawn

low water use plantings2Front and center in the news and in your garden is the drought and what you can do about it in your own landscape. If you?ve dabbled before with replacing thirsty plants with climate-appropriate low water use California native plants or those from areas similar to ours this is the year to step up your efforts.

Gov. Brown?s mandate for water conservation state wide is a call to action to transform our landscapes into resilient gardens that not only save water but act to build the earth into a living sponge that harnesses rainwater and replenishes the aquifer.

Replacing that water guzzling lawn now that the kids have grown or dramatically reducing it?s size is a good place to start and is easier than you think. If you?ve been paralyzed with the thought of digging out and hauling away hundreds of square feet of heavy sod or using dangerous grass-killing chemicals, sheet mulching is the method for you.

This simple technique eliminates the lawn by smothering it with layers of recycled, compost and renewable materials. Here?s how to do it:

1. Mow the lawn down to 1-2?, leave the clippings in place and soak with a hose. Don?t worry. This soaking is nothing compared to what you?ll soon be saving by removing your lawn.
2. Flag the locations of sprinkler heads you will be keeping for your new plantings and cap off the ones you won?t need.
3. Add an inch of compost to speed up the decay of the grass. If your lawn borders a driveway, path or sidewalk you?ll have to remove about 3? inches deep of soil along these edges and back 8-12? so that the new mulch doesn?t slide off into the sidewalk.
4. Put down 2-3 layers of newspaper or one layer of cardboard overlapping the edges by 6-8? to prevent regrowth at the edges. You can buy recycled cardboard in rolls for larger projects or find your own at appliance or bicycle stores. Wet the cardboard or newspapers to keep them in place as you go along. It?s best to use cardboard or newspaper that will break down quicker. Weed fabric is not recommended as it takes much longer to break down. Don?t use plastic sheeting because water and air cannot penetrate it.
5. Add a 3? layer of mulch such as bark chips from a tree trimming company. You can use compost, straw or shredded plant matelow water use plantingsrial. If you have Bermuda grass or other weeds like oxalis you will need to layer about 8?of mulch to smother them.
6. Water thoroughly.

If you can wait a month or more to let the decomposition process get going so much the better. If you just can?t wait you can begin planting now by scraping away the mulch and poking a hole in the cardboard or newspaper where the plant is to go. Then add some compost to help the new plant become established. Be sure to plant high enough to prevent crown rot and keep the mulch a couple inches away from the stem. The top of the root ball should be 1-2? above the soil and just below the mulch.

Modify the sprinkler to drip and remember to adjust your irrigation system run times to accommodate your new plantings.

This is a basic ?lasagna? method for lawn removal. If you are planning to replant with water smart grasses you would choose finer composted mulch instead of bark chips. Either way the process works on the same concept as a compost pile. As the lawn dies from lack of light, it decomposes with the activity of beneficial worms, insects and microorganisms coming up from the soil and doing their job to break down the nitrogen and carbon in the sheet-mulch layers. It?s a win-win situation for the environment and your water bill.

California drought, Hetch Hetchy reservoir, Rim fire, Sierra newt, Yosemite

Yosemite: Fire, Water, Renewal

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Yosemite ValleyI spent my holiday in a most remarkable place. I drove through miles of the Stanislaus National Forest devastated by the Rim Fire a couple of years ago. It was the 3rd largest wildfire in California history. I played in the snow at Crane Flat before descending into Yosemite Valley where water flowed freely after several years of drought. Nature is renewing herself as she always has. At this time of year it?s especially relevant to look the process of rebuilding. Take a lesson from nature.

There is much controversy about the dams and reservoirs that supply Hetch Hetchy reservoirdrinking water. Should some, like the Hetch Hetchy reservoir that sits within the boundaries of Yosemite National Park, be restored to the pristine valley that was there originally? It?s a complicated question, one that I pondered while hiking over the O?Shaughnessy Dam on the way to Wapama Falls. With a storm brewing I made my way along the rim of this breathtaking, glacier carved valley surrounded by towering granite cliffs much like Yosemite valley.

newt.1600Bright orange Sierra newts waddled across the trail looking for a crevice in a rock or log. Their skin secretes a toxin which is a hundred times more deadly than cyanide and is being studied at Stanford University as a pain medication. Under some burned Black Oaks, I found a lush stand of Tufted tufted rock ferns.1280Rock ferns described by John Muir when he hiked and camped in the area in 1873 as having ?rare beauty?.

Hetch Hetchy is a lesson in the value of a watershed, this one being supported by the Upper Tuolumne River. With much of the forest and chaparral destroyed by the Rim fire the forest surrounding the reservoir is starting to come back with succession plants like the resprouting of California black oak, ceanothus and manzanita in the lower elevations and Ponderosa pine, dogwood and incense cedar in the higher areas.

Forest rejuvenation began immediately after the Rim fire went out. Native burned forestwood-boring beetles rapidly colonize burned areas while black-backed woodpeckers depend on them as a high-protein food source eating over 13,000 beetle larvae every year. Remote sensing satellite images indicate that virtually all the vegetation is dead on nearly 40% of the burned area. Chaparral and oaks will resprout but ecologist say it could take 30 to 50 years for the forest to reestablish itself. It scorched some of the last remaining old growth in the Stanislaus National Forest and 78,000 acres of Yosemite National Park.

Merced RiverRecent rains and snowfall have been welcome in all of California but it is especially important in a burned forest. Yosemite valley was spared the brunt of the fire but not the effects of the drought of the past several years. Water is flowing in the Merced river and the waterfalls are spectacular but the light dusting of snow on El Capitan, Half Dome and other famous peak are mostly picturesque. It?s the snowpack in the Sierra that provides so much of the drinking water for Californians and the snow has mostly been falling at the higher altitudes so far this season. Still the reservoir levels are increasing with each storm and if Mother Nature can keep up the good work between now and April we?ll be in better shape than the last couple of drought years.

The California Dept of Water Resources has published electronic readings of the snow survey which show that its water equivalent is only 54% of the average statewide so far. The winter?s first manual measurement of the snow pack is set for December 30th. They will publish the findings on their website. Reservoir levels and precipitation levels can also be found on the CDEC website.

We gardeners approach the New Year with optimism and hope. Here?s to 2015 and all that it brings.