It’s summer! This is the garden’s harshest and most challenging season of the year, Southern California’s gardening equivalent to winter in most parts of the country.
Pay close attention to how much, how long and how often to water different kinds of plants in your garden.
Your goal is to water just right — not too much, not too little — for each.
Set down roots, water a tree and help bring shade to the city through La Mesa’s free tree program. The City of La Mesa is offering free trees to residents who have public right-of-ways located in front of their property. Public right-of-ways are the small strips of land between the sidewalk and street that often are covered with grass, dirt or cement. –
It was awesome to see so many local elected officials finally have their “aha!” moment on the South Bay sewage nightmare in June and complain so loudly and uniformly that the federal government’s response has been woefully inadequate. But any inclination to start handing out kudos should be tempered by a reality that in retrospect seems unfathomable: For years, many of these same leaders essentially accepted broken Tijuana sewage infrastructure constantly fouling our coast from the Mexican border to Coronado.
The slope of a 1920s La Mesa home went from a drab lawn to lush floral color with climate-appropriate plants, winning recognition from the Helix Water District as the runner-up in its 2023 WaterSmart Landscape Contest.
A new state task force charged with investigating the local effects of the drought-depleted Colorado River and recommending legislation to respond to the water crisis met for the first time this week.
Members representing different river interests who gathered for the first meeting on July 31 shared hope that they would find common ground as they collaborate on possible policies, tools and solutions to help respond to the Colorado River, which has been depleted by a 20-year megadrought, climate change and overuse.
We’re living in a pivotal moment in history, on the cusp of either sinking into a dark period of growing poverty, accelerating ecological destruction, and worsening conflict, or moving forward to a new age of equity, sustainability, and stewardship of the only planet in the universe where we know life exists. I believe a positive future is not only possible, but inevitable, but solving our current crises and moving along the path to that desired future will require new, concerted, and sustained efforts.
After California’s record-breaking winter rains, public health officials are warning about an increased risk for valley fever this summer.
“California’s dry conditions, combined with recent heavy winter rains could result in increasing valley fever cases in the coming months,” California Department of Public Health Director Dr. Tomás Aragón said in a news release.
Affordable housing and water – you can’t have one without the other. It’s a stark reality cities on the Monterey Peninsula know well, with the latter always seeming in short supply. But the city of Monterey seems determined to make sure the tap doesn’t run out, for either resource.
It was just before dinnertime on Day 16 of the worst heat wave in Phoenix history, and the temperature outside Karen Shute’s suburban home was 117 degrees.
Inside, Shute mixed two cocktails and sat down with her friend at the kitchen table. To save on her electric bill, Shute kept her thermostat around 80 degrees during the summer, but she decided she’d treat her friend that evening. She got up and turned it down to 77.
About three-fourths of Arizona’s water supply goes to agriculture, and policy makers say the state needs to address that fact as it confronts a shrinking Colorado River.
That’s why a University of Arizona program is helping farmers use water more efficiently.
