red yellow rose, side garden
In this month’s blog:
The Drought: What Are You Thinking?
Spring Planting? A Partial Yes
April 2022 Gallery
No plantings in these pots this year
About the Drought–A Few Views
One: The Metropolitan Water District in Southern California took the unprecedented step this week of requiring 6 million residents in Los Angeles, Ventura, and San Bernardino counties to reduce outdoor watering to one day a week in response to the ongoing drought, now in its third year (LA Times, April 27).
Two: I drove to the LA area on April 22 to visit our two children (and their significant others) who live there. As I drove on Interstate 5, I was assaulted as always by the many signs and billboards that line the highway proclaiming the supposedly unfair treatment by state government toward the large farmers and ranchers whose properties dominate the Central Valley. Year in and year out, regardless of the plentiful or meager rainfall across the state, the demand on these billboards is always the same: give us more water–more, more, more. “Build more dams.” “Don’t let so much water reach the ocean.” “We grow food! We need more water!”
There’s never any recognition by these growers that anyone else needs water. Never any recognition that there is a drought, and that everyone has to get by with less. That agriculture uses roughly 80% of all the water in the state (CA Dept. of Water Resources) is taken for granted by those who plant the signs. The chant is always the same. No one else matters.
Three: I asked one of the folks I visited in SoCal if they ever thought about the drought. The person answered, “Not for one second.” This was said apologetically, as if they knew they should be more concerned, or maybe just that they knew my point of view. I appreciate the honesty. I also appreciate that if I spent, as they do, 2-3 hours per day dancing in the bumper-to-bumper ballet of traffic on “the 405,” I might not be thinking about drought either.
Four: Instead, I live in the middle of a garden that I take care of. How can I not think about drought?
Panorama from front to side garden, with one of three rain barrels at the center
Spring Planting? A Partial Yes
By not planting fall-winter veggies in 2021-22, I cut my household water use by almost 40% compared to 2020-21, roughly 700 gallons per month between October and March. This decline also included reduced watering (drip irrigation) of the rest of the plants in the garden.
I speculated last month that I might forego veggie planting in spring-summer 2022 as well, if I didn’t see the reduction in water that I’d hoped for in fall-winter. But since the figures give me hope, I’ve decided to cut back significantly, but not eliminate veggie planting altogether. So here’s the compromise:
| 2021 (22 pl) | 2022 (10 pl) | |
| Tomatoes | 7 plants | 5 plants |
| Mild peppers | 4 | 3 |
| Hot peppers | 1 | 0 |
| Zucchini | 1 | 1 |
| Cucumbers | 3 | 0 |
| Eggplant | 2 | 0 |
| Herbs | 4 | 1 |
I’ll grow slightly fewer than half of what I grew in 2021, and those I’m keeping are my best and most versatile producers. The one herb I’m planting is sweet basil, which is always prolific and goes so well in dishes with tomatoes and peppers. Last summer I found that zucchini makes excellent pickles, so I could afford to eliminate the cukes this summer. What about hot peppers? While they are always so colorful and photogenic, I have so many in the freezer that growing more makes no sense.
So we’ll see what difference 12 fewer veggy plants make in water use.
Fewer than half new veggy plantings in beds this year
Annual flowers. Oh, I didn’t mention my cutback in annual flowers. Last spring-summer I planted 6 petunias, 6 pansies, and 12 vinca. This week I planted only 6 petunias. Last year’s were hearty, so I have high hopes for this year’s. The pansies are short-timers in this climate, so they were easy to eliminate. But the vinca? Planted in May, they spread fast, last long, and are so colorful that I hate to lose them. But they use a lot of water, so I’ll see if I can stand the sacrifice and all those empty pots.
A Few Other April Updates
Oranges and Lemons. By early April, all but a few oranges (of almost 800 total) were off the tree, and by saving 50 or so in the refrigerator, they continue to provide juice. Meanwhile, new green ones are growing, though next season’s crop looks as if it will be far smaller than this year’s record.
There are still many meyer lemons on the bush, so they will continue to be fuel for lemonade into the summer. The great number of buds last month promises an abundant crop in 2022-23.
Irises. Maybe the strangest development this month is that the three iris varieties in back did not bloom, except for two orange shoots in mid month. This is our first lack of an April iris extravaganza in 6 years.
California Poppies. In contrast to the irises, the six poppy plants I put in last summer have been an explosive success, especially the four I planted in the front garden. These native water savers spread throughout the front quadrant of the garden and have made a colorful show to the neighborhood for two months now. How I will deal with this success will be a task for the next few months. Meanwhile, I’m just enjoying it, as are the bees, for whom the poppies are a magnet.
California poppies dominating the front garden, with rock roses adding to the colorful show.
Roses galore. This April has been their month, after a cool March delayed their blooming. The most pleasant surprise has been the mixed thicket in the back garden, with more roses than ever before-including a red flower burst on the almost-dead plant I nurtured back in spring 2021, but which produced no blooms last year. (See the Gallery for more rose photos.)
Rose burst on bush that I brought back in 2021
Apricots and Cherry Plums. Both of these fruit trees are on track for big harvests in 2022–the apricot next month and the cherry plum in June. In 2021, the dry, windy weather early in the year almost eliminated any harvest of apricots–we had only about 20 fruit, super-low for that tree after several years of 100-300 per season. For 2022, the substantial rain we had in December 2021 gave the tree a great boost early on, so little apricots are all over the tree. Apricot jam and dried apricots are on the horizon for May!
April 2022 Gallery
(Move the cursor over each photo for a description)
And on to May!
From Sacramento to Potomac: Tales of Two Valleys 