Soil is essential to a healthy landscape and efficient water use. Learn about your soil’s characteristics and how to care for it. The results include easier maintenance, a healthier environment, and a more beautiful landscape despite drought conditions.
Here are some simple tests to help you evaluate your soil.
When Gilbert Quintana, a farmer in the Mexicali Valley, learned he would soon lose 15% of his water supply, he did what he’s done before in a pinch: buy water from other growers in northern Mexico.
But Quintana worries that such workarounds won’t always be possible. The water used to irrigate his 2,000 acres of (800 hectares) of Brussel sprouts, green onions, and lettuce comes from the over-tapped Colorado River, which a megadrought in the American West due in part to climate change is rapidly depleting.
(AP EDITOR’S NOTE: This is part of a collaborative series on the Colorado River as the 100th anniversary of the historic Colorado River Compact approaches. The Associated Press, The Colorado Sun, The Albuquerque Journal, The Salt Lake Tribune, The Arizona Daily Star and The Nevada Independent are working together to explore the pressures on the river in 2022.)
Mount Shasta, the widely recognizable face of California’s far north, has lost almost all its defining snow cover for a second straight year.
Another summer of scorching temperatures, punctuated by the recent heat wave, has melted most of the mountain’s lofty white crown, typically a year-round symbol of the north state’s enduring wilds.
California is at a transformational moment when it comes to managing water. As aridification of the western United States intensifies, we have an opportunity to advance a better approach to flow management in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta and our rivers through a process of voluntary agreements to update the Bay-Delta Water Quality Control Plan.
The agreements, signed by parties from Red Bluff to San Diego, propose a new structure for managing water resources in the Delta and beyond in a way that is collaborative, innovative and foundational for adapting to climate realities while benefiting communities, farms, fish and wildlife.
As soon as the U.S. Department of the Interior last month announced that Nevada would lose 8% of its water allotment from the Colorado River next year amid the continuing drought, officials with the Southern Nevada Water Authority started fielding questions from concerned residents.
Southwest of Sacramento, the branching arms of waterways reach into a patchwork of farm fields and pastures. Canals and wetlands fringed with reeds meet a sunbaked expanse of dry meadows.
These lands on the northwestern edge of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta have now been targeted for restoration following the widespread destruction of estuary marsh habitats that began over a century ago.
San Diego County got minimal rain Saturday as the last of Tropical Storm Kay passed over the region.
The storm already brought record rainfall to the county on Friday, with around a half-inch near the coast and nearly 2 inches in some mountain areas. Rainfall totals were much lower as the storm dissipated over the Pacific Ocean on Saturday — around 0.01 to 0.03 inch on the coast and around 0.06 inch in the mountains as of 4:30 p.m., said the National Weather Service.
Water is a mirage in California. We tend to see what we want to see. In my case, the biggest illusion was Auburn Dam.
If you were a resident of Placer County in the 1960s to 1980s you viewed it as almost as a birthright that the American River be dammed in the canyon below Auburn.
Using water efficiently is a way of life and an important responsibility in a beautiful, Mediterranean climate like San Diego County. WaterSmart landscaping is all about rethinking the way limited water resources are applied and making smart choices to reduce outdoor water use.
Saving water isn’t the only reason for a WaterSmart garden. WaterSmart landscapes are attractive and in balance with our environment and climate. They incorporate elements of sustainable landscaping such as healthy, living soils, climate-appropriate plants, high-efficiency irrigation and rainwater harvesting, and generate many environmental and community benefits.
Working within the WaterSmart Matrix, you have lots of flexibility when selecting the combination of plants and irrigation to meet your water efficiency goals. Whether you want to create space for entertaining, limit landscape maintenance, or maintain some turf for children and pets, you can reach your water-saving goals and create an outdoor space to live in without resorting to gravel, concrete, or artificial turf.
These three models can help you get started. You can swap plants within the same usage categories, as long as the percentage mix of low, moderate, and high water use plants remain the same.
The Bucks’ winning landscape design includes beautiful outdoor living areas. Photo: Olivenhain Municipal Water District
Low water-use plants: 45%.
Moderate water-use plants: 45%
High water-use plants: 10%
In this style, small areas of turf in the high water use category are balanced by beautiful trees, flowering shrubs, and groundcover choices which thrive in our San Diego-style Mediterranean climate. This is a landscape perfect for outdoor entertaining.
This homeowner took advantage of turf rebates to transform the front yard with climate-appropriate plants. Photo: San Diego County Water Authority.
Low water-use plants: 90%.
High water-use plants: 10%
For even greater water savings, shrubs that thrive in our San Diego-style Mediterranean climate take center stage along with smart choices of drought-tolerant trees and minimal turf for a lush landscape look full of texture and color.
The Everetts’ winning landscape provides a native habitat and saves water. Photo: City of Escondido
Very low water-use plants: 50%.
Low water-use plants: 50%
California native plants and succulents thrive in our environments. They have adapted over thousands of years to survive on limited natural rainfall. Using natives to create natural habitat is the ultimate accomplishment in WaterSmart landscaping design.
Refer to the plant lists in A Homeowner’s Guide to a WaterSmart Landscape, or ask a local nursery professional for help choosing your landscape plants from the appropriate categories.
WaterSmart landscapes are an upgrade, not a compromise. Creating a yard that loves San Diego as much as you do also creates a sustainable habitat that also preserves our native environment. It can save you maintenance time and costs and conserves our most valuable community resource: water.
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(Editor’s Note: The San Diego County Water Authority and its 24 member agencies offer programs, resources, and incentives to improve water-use efficiency for residential, commercial, and agricultural users. WaterSmart choices are a way of life in the region. Stay WaterSmart San Diego! For more water-use efficiency resources, go to WaterSmart.SD.org.)
Californians sweated it out amid a record-breaking heat wave entering its 10th day Friday that has helped fuel deadly wildfires and pushed energy supplies to the brink of daily power outages.
