Friends, I come you today with one thing on my mind other than the vile weather we're still having.
We're in a drought and we've been asked to cut back our residential water consumption by 10%. This really shouldn't be too hard without having to resort to showering with another person. Here are some easy to implement suggestions -
- Shorten the time you run the water in your shower/bath by 20% by simply turning off the water when you lather up and shave your legs.
- Turn the water off when you brush your teeth.
- Run full loads of laundry and ditto for the dishwasher.
- While it may be gross - refrain from flushing after every pee (at home) but still wash your hands.
For the love of Pete (whomever he might be), don't stop watering your vegetable garden, the one you ripped out your sod and cut down that street tree to put in your parking strip. The same one you spent so much time and money talking about installing, waiting in line at the Tilth sale, instagramming and blogging about. Those beds need to be watered and tended until the crops are done producing and you've pulled out the last wizened tomatoes plants from those really expensive cages you bought (to instagram, natch).
All plants require water as they become established. Seeds need water to germinate,and need moisture to establish roots, Judicious watering plumps up those tomatoes, beans and strawberries you desperately want to eat. Most imporantly, everything needs to be planted in the right place and in the right containers.
The picture I took today was in our neighborhood. I'm sure the person who planted their parking strip had the best of intentions, but something got in the way of their regular watering and tending of their strip garden. It kills me to see a huge patch of strawberries dead - maybe from the lack of water, maybe because they were planted in full western exposure and probably because they were planted in a metal trough which baked the poor plants. It was likely a combination of all three of these things.
In my dream world, I would own a large pumping truck full of water and I would go around with my minions in the dark of night, watering all these poor beds and on occasion performing interventions and removing blueberry and gooseberry plants from unsafe homes and rehoming them in boggy areas where they can fruit in peace.
There is a great concept - Right plant, Right place and even I need a refresher course on how important placing plants with the same growing requirements can help conserve water and your time because you are not having to adjust your watering schedule or tempo from one plant to another.
Yes, I sound like a crank, but do it for next year's strawberries.
