Adding insult to injury

I've complained about our dry conditions often enough that any regular reader probably knows that's a nearly perpetual state here.  I've got a rudimentary gray water system that feeds laundry water into an unirrigated area of our back slope.  I've got drip systems in place in beds along the street, a few other garden beds, and in my cutting garden.  I hand-water numerous areas that aren't reached by our sprinklers.  I collect rainwater to avoid using municipal water whenever possible.  Yet my garden looks ragged, especially after 2 years of low rainfall.  Still, even as local water restrictions tightened, I was glad we were allowed to water twice a week here.  However, on Tuesday we received notice from our water provider that, like Los Angeles' Metropolitan Water District (MWD), we are required to suspend all outdoor watering for 15 days starting September 6th.  Our local provider, Cal Water, said this is necessary as it receives some of its water from MWD and MWD is repairing a critical pipeline.  Why Cal Water didn't notify us a month ago when MWD's own customers were informed I don't know but leaving us just days to prepare is upsetting to say the least.  On top of this, we're currently experiencing our worst heatwave of the summer season.

Oblivious to the looming water ban, I'd recently been exploring new options for reducing our water use.  I decided to try making a few DIY ollas.  An olla is an unglazed clay pot, which when submerged in soil and filled with water gradually provides moisture to surrounding plants as needed without the same loss to evaporation that occurs when plants are watered by hand or automated sprinklers.

The first problem I encountered was that there's a terracotta pot shortage here!  As I wanted pots that came with saucers I could use as lids, the largest pots I could get were 5.5 inches in diameter.  I decided that was okay for a test run.  The first steps were to seal the hole in the pot using molding putty on the bottom and the top.  To create a better seal inside, I added plastic bottle tops pressed into the inside layer of the putty.

These are the 3 ollas in place in a particularly dry area of my back garden where everything dies.  I recently added 3 Teucrium cossonii (syn T. majoricum, aka creeping germander), which needs low to moderate water (depending upon the source you consult).  Unfortunately, the pots are using water faster than I'd expected.

There are many ways to create DIY ollas, which you can find online.  The approach I used is the simplest and, if it doesn't work out, I can remove the putty and use the pots for their customary purpose.  Given that my three pots are emptying in less than 2 days even after I watered the surrounding area, I think I need to try a larger olla created using 2 pots joined at their rims with the help of a silicone sealant, as described in a video by Gardening Australia.   A taller vessel like that will not only water the area more deeply but it may hold water for a longer period - provided I can find more terracotta pots.

I've previously used terracotta spikes inserted in the soil and fed by plastic bottles of water.  They're especially useful with new plants that require more water to get established than the plants surrounding them. 

The spikes are somewhat fragile.  This one has done a great job of keeping this Ceanothus griseus horizonantalis 'Carmel Creeper' alive since I planted it in March - and I've previously killed a variegated sister plant in this same area.

I purchased another package of 6 spikes because the online testimonials referenced how well packaged they were.  None were broken upon delivery, whereas 2 of the original set of 4 I purchased several years ago arrived already broken.

I added spikes from the new batch in several locations in a variety of circumstances (some dire).  The bottle-fed terracotta spikes have gone a week on average before going dry.  In contrast, the plastic spikes I've purchased fitted with small holes and also fed using bottles empty within a few hours.

Wednesday night, during the height of my angst over the pending outdoor watering ban, I ordered another box of terracotta spikes to add to the raised planters in my cutting garden in a possibly vain effort to save my dahlias.  I'm still dreading what the 15-day break in watering may mean for my garden.  I'm planning to add more bagged mulch and will deep water as many vulnerable plants as I can in advance.  I've already stored some water in my empty rain tanks for use as emergency rations.  If I go silent on my garden blog for awhile, don't be surprised.  It's probably a better thing than subjecting you to a profanity-laden rant. 

How compliant neighbors will be in response to the watering ban will be interesting to see, especially as the ban's impact on Cal Water customers hasn't been communicated well and many aren't following existing restrictions to begin with.  Back in June, I wrote about evidence of neighbors' responses to our severe drought and the introduction of new water restrictions.  At the time I concluded that it was too early to tell much. My current conclusion is that responses very dramatically, although relatively few neighborhood homeowners have taken visible action with respect to their outdoor areas.

Large expanses of well-watered grass remain commonplace

However, one neighbor stopped watering his front lawn and had faux turf installed in its place (at significant cost)

This was another neighbor's newly renovated front garden immediately after it was planted in June

This is the same garden 2 months later, filling in nicely.  The massive drip system under a good layer of shredded mulch is clearly doing its job.  None of my Lantana look that vigorous!

Climate change is real.  With evidence of its impacts rapidly emerging all over the world who knows what kind of challenges the future holds for gardeners.  I'm hoping we can all learn new things to aid us in adapting to the new reality but I admit it scares the heck out of me.

All material © 2012-2022by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party