Three Tips for Gardening in the California Drought

Tips, Tricks

1. I like your dog
2. Thanks CaliKim. This is helpful especially today when there's no running water and new water rules are now on island-wide. At the moment I have a balcony with container veggies growing and sweet potato (with mulch) thyme and some tomato plants in the garden. It's a mostly lush area filled with trees that gets daily morning and night rain and rainwater would fill up to water the plants. I'm now sourcing a water tank and learning more resourceful ways of saving and using water in the home and garden. Thanks for your videos
3. It's brown and beautiful, good for you. We live in Lodi CA, I took out my grass and replanted micro clover, its a nitrogen fixer, chicken food and I never have to water it, even in this drought.
4. We had also a little drought in germany, but we are not restricted in water usage. Nevertheless I mulch my garden with wood chips (Back to Eden Garden) and try to collect rainwater as much as possible.
5. We keep a bucket in the shower to collect while we are rinsing our hair. We do shut the water off while soaping up.  Also making sure there is pearlite in my soil.  I place a terracotta pitcher and bury it in the soil next to my plants and fill it with water.  Also I fill wine bottles with water and flip them upside down next to my plants on super hot days for my less sturdy plants.  I use the hose too, but I also use my watering can on specific pots.  I water early morning and late evening, to make sure the sun does not quickly dry out my water.  I love the mulch and do that regular.. it helps me to water less.
6. Ever consider augmenting soil culture with hydroponics?
7. I use the duck pond water on my trees, so I don't feel so guilty when I refill the pond. I've also started two rain barrels. Monsoon will be starting soon, so hopefully they'll fill up quick. I also use tons of mulch.I'm planning a grey water system, and we take shorter showers. The less we use to bath, the more I can use in my garden, lol.
8. awesome update
9. Great tips! Was wondering how people in California were growing a garden. Here is the Dallas area, the past 5 years there have been some ever-tightening of water restriction, because of our drought; not to y'alls extent. But now, wow we are being flooded with rain the last 2 months!
10. Here in Las Vegas, we have had alack of water situation for centuries.  My house was built with a front lawn, and after a few years of constant high water bills, I tore all the grass out out and replaced it with desert landscaping.  Getting creative with it can produce some nice results and MUCH lower water bills.
11. I switched from overhead watering to a drip irrigation system. Really helped me cut back on water usage. +CaliKim29 Garden & Home DIY
12. Kim,
    
    I live in a desert.  NM.  9" of rain per year is the average precipitation, though, for at least this particular season, we're not experiencing drought conditions.  We're still a desert though.  Ensuring that you have plenty of organic material in your soil is one fantastic trick, but also, planting in depressions.  If you have to pay attention to your water usage, you want to make sure that any precipitation makes it to the plants and you also want to make sure that any irrigation that you use stays on your plants.  This can be accomplished, in part, by manipulating the topography of your garden.  Raised beds are good when drainage is an issue or if you have a bad back.  That is not the case here, though messed up backs seem to be region independent.
    
    Another trick is picking drought resistant cultivars.  If you like dried beans, tepary beans are awesome.  They're better than your typical common bean, such as pintos, and they can be dry farmed in the sonoran desert.  A lot of the indian tribes and old Spanish settlements in the SW have drought resistant cultivars that are starting to make it into seed shops.  I have a Corrales Melon that required almost no irrigation in July last year, for example.  If you water it like a normal plant, it will not taste good.  Wait until it's thinking about wilting, and they're packed with sweetness and flavor.
    
    I generally save a lot of my own seed, but here are two places that I like to use when ordering seed:
    
    http://shop.nativeseeds.org/pages/seeds
    http://plantsofthesouthwest.com
    
    The first one is in Tuscon, and the second one is headquartered in Santa Fe, NM.  They have a brick'n mortar store near me.  Both have treated me well.
13. Is it really that bad in California? What happens when you go over the allocation target? Is there legal action taken against anybody for consuming too much water? I'm sorry for the questions but I've never been faced with the threat of drought because I live in a city that has many lakes in its border and a cold, wet climate. I really hope you guys get some really wet weather soon.
14. Interesting, I'm in Socal and we don't have any restrictions in my area. In fact I've never even seen a lawn that wasn't green.
15. Kim what you are doing there with drip irrigation is so important ,drip , low volume low flow irrigation   saves water and puts the water where it is needed ,over a 6 and a half year period my partner and I irrigated more crop land then anyone east of the rocky mountains ,I was just thinking you might do a segment in what is called Fertigation ,in my area and east United States farmers will put 20Percent of the fertilizer for a growing season in the bed in a dry form and the balance 80 percent in the irrigation water -just a thought
16. Hi, I wouldnt hang around, have you thought about moving to a state with plenty of water ?
17. lovely.
18. Heya Kim
    Some good advice. I'm in a pretty wet climate, so water is not that sparse, also because it's much cooler here. However, I just returned from a 5 week trip from LA to Utah, Arizona and Napa, of which only LA was really dry. My brother in law is geologist for the city-counsel and he told me the city was promoting or even making it mandatory to have "planter-boxes" made out of concrete to have a retaining function for the rainwater and especially the stuff that it has dissolved in it (run off from bituminous roofs, exhaust & soot) and a way to absorb/break down/filter these substances, so when it finally reaches the storm-drain and the LA river (;o)) into the ocean, it is to some extend less polluted.
    I am amazed that there is so little catchment while importing water from all over CA and beyond. Anyway. I think LA gets about 13 inch of rain normally, only the last 4 years it is even less. Is there maybe a possibility to have some swales in your front-garden ? Just a thought ;o)
    Cheers !
19. Kim, the great state of California appreciates your efforts. Mulch! Mulch! Mulch! ...and capture rainwater when you can! Nice episode. Formerly, Binky's Garden