The San Diego County Water Authority is spending $100,000 from a state grant for a summer public outreach and educational advertising campaign to promote wider adoption of sustainable landscapes that are more suitable for the region’s Mediterranean climate.
A SDCWA statement said its “Thanks for Planting Me!” campaign offers gratitude to the hundreds of thousands of San Diegans who are using water efficiently, along with encouragement to expand regenerative, low-water landscapes.
https://www.waternewsnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/water-news-network.png00Mike Leehttps://www.waternewsnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/water-news-network.pngMike Lee2023-08-22 09:44:032023-08-22 09:49:24Water Authority Ads Thank San Diego for Sustainable Planting
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.
https://www.waternewsnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/water-news-network.png00Mike Leehttps://www.waternewsnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/water-news-network.pngMike Lee2023-08-07 10:12:172023-08-07 16:24:2250 Tasks to Tackle in the August Garden, From Frequent Harvesting to Thoughtful Watering
If you’re looking to upgrade your landscape or just love gardens, it can be challenging to choose the right plant that will thrive within your WaterSmart Living landscape plans for your specific conditions.
The online plant finder WaterSmart Landscaping in San Diego County can assist you through a comprehensive database of choices well suited to this region’s Mediterranean climate.
Pollinators and birds are attracted to native plants like this Stonecrop (Crassulae). Photo: City of Escondido
This interactive gardening tool has thousands of pictures of plants and garden designs. Take visual tours of beautiful, water-efficient landscapes through photographs that include hotlinks to plant information screens.
Photos are organized by landscape category to make them easy to find. Explore galleries of ideas for back yards, front yards, hillsides, patios, planters, and other outdoor living areas.
If you’re simply looking at plants, the online guide offers more than 1,000 plants and search tools that make plants easy to find.
Online guide features specialty plant sections
Beach strawberry makes an attractive lawn substitute. Photo: Flickr
Specialty sections include:
Lawn alternatives: Create non-traditional lawn space without thirsty turf.
Pollinator attracting plants: Pollinator gardens with flowers that provide pollen and nectar for pollinating insects provide vital nutrients to support the pollinator population, and preserve agriculture, ecosystems, and biodiversity.
Plants for fire safety: trees, shrubs, ground covers, vines, and perennials that can help reduce fire intensity and do not contribute significantly to fuel the fire due to moisture or chemical content, or total volume.
California natives: Because native plants are adapted to local environmental conditions, they require far less water. They also provide vital habitat for birds and other wildlife and preserve biodiversity.you’re exploring, save plant and garden images you like to your plant list, then print reports about them before you shop.
Most native Southern California plants do well in hotter temperatures, so summer plant care is easy with a little planning. Photo: Annie Spratt/Pixabay
(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.)
https://www.waternewsnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/succulents-845x450-e1564072084611.jpg450845Gayle Falkenthalhttps://www.waternewsnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/water-news-network.pngGayle Falkenthal2022-09-19 08:24:562022-09-19 08:24:56Find the Right Plant for Your Landscape Plans Online
With your new WaterSmart landscaping plans complete, demolition and turf removal done, and your new irrigation system in place, it’s time to get started on the plant installation. For most homeowners, this is the most rewarding part of the process seeing your new landscaping come to life.
Review the following tips to help you through the plant installation and placement process
Step 1: Use a garden hose to outline groundcover areas to help you visualize the design before you start the installation.
Step 2: Set the plants while still in their containers, in their approximate location per your planting design plan. Take a step back and review. View your plant placements from various angles. Make any adjustments to the design now to avoid having to dig up and relocate any plants.
Be aware many drought-tolerant landscapes look sparse for the first few years. As your plants reach their mature size, they will fill in over time. Be sure to allow proper spacing to allow each plant to grow to its full size.
Step 3: Dig plant holes twice the width of the plant root ball and just deep enough to bury the roots. Water the hole before placing the plant. When planted, the top of the root ball should be even with or slightly above soil level.
Colorful, water-wise plants replaced a thirsty, labor intensive front lawn in Deborah Brant’s winning 2019 landscape makeover. Photo: Vista Irrigation District
Step 4: Once in the hole, the plant should be packed firmly into place with the original, compost-amended soil from the hole. Extra dirt can create a berm around the plant to hold water.
Step 5: Cover the planting area with a two- to three-inch-deep layer of mulch. Keep mulch a few inches away around the plant stems to prevent rot. Using mulch has many benefits. It can help suppress weeds, enrich the soils, protect plant roots from compaction, provide a finished look to your garden, and mulch conserves water.
Step 6: Monitor your garden to ensure your plants are getting adequate water. Even native plant species and drought-tolerant plants need water to get established. This can take a year. To minimize your watering needs while your plants are getting established, install your landscape in the fall months before the months of most significant rainfall in San Diego, generally December through March.
(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.)
https://www.waternewsnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/sustainablegarden845X450-scaled-e1581726800658.jpg450845Gayle Falkenthalhttps://www.waternewsnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/water-news-network.pngGayle Falkenthal2022-08-01 06:50:392022-08-01 06:56:22Plant Installation Brings Your New WaterSmart Landscape to Life
Once your WaterSmart Living Landscape design starts coming together, pick your plants for each water-use category to ensure you meet your WaterSmart water conservation goals. Focus on local native plants or plants from similar climate regions.
https://www.waternewsnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/water-news-network.png00Mike Leehttps://www.waternewsnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/water-news-network.pngMike Lee2022-07-05 09:51:432022-07-05 09:52:57How to Pick Your Plants for a Successful WaterSmart Landscape
When designing your WaterSmart Living landscape, you want your new outdoor space to fit your house, your neighborhood, and your lifestyle. Finding that fit begins by asking a few basic questions.
First, how do you want to use your space? It’s possible to significantly improve your home’s water efficiency and meet your lifestyle needs at the same time. For example, you may want to use less water yet maintain some turf for your children and pets. Focusing most of your landscape plan on low and moderate water use while leaving a small area of turf with high-efficiency irrigation lets you achieve a WaterSmart landscape.
The Hausmanns award-winning landscape makeover also produces succulents sold to benefit a good cause. Photo: Vallecitos Water District
If your goal is an outdoor space for entertaining, use mostly low water plants, a water feature, and a moderate efficiency irrigation system for a different type of WaterSmart Living landscape.
You can reduce water use, minimize maintenance and create a landscape that will be the envy of your neighbors with a combination of very low and low water use plants and a highly efficient irrigation system.
Consider alternatives to traditional turf grass such as low-water-use groundcover and mulch, or permeable hardscape like gravel or decomposed granite paving wherever possible. But if an area of turf is important to your family – for example, a play area for your kids and pets – keep it but use a more drought-tolerant variety of grass in the warm season turf category.
Video: Learn more about how turf can be part of a WaterSmart design
Your Overall Planting Design
Before you start selecting plants, envision your overall planting design. Determine your landscape style and think in terms of plant size and characteristics before moving into actual plant selection.
Take some time to consider the style of landscape you find appealing. Think about how it fits your home’s architecture, your neighborhood, and your lifestyle. You might find a heavy tropical look appealing. But it requires careful low-water-use plant selection for the arid San Diego region.
San Diego shares its climate with many areas of the world, and there are many plant palettes to choose from.
Consider Your Views and Access
Plants can be used to screen views. Would blank walls or fences look better with a nice-looking shrub in front of them? You can frame the view out a window, but you probably don’t want a large shrub blocking the view.
Plants can also create access points. Is access from the side of the house needed to take garbage cans to the curb? If so, make sure you accommodate a safe pathway in your design.
(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.)
https://www.waternewsnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/HWD-2019-Landscape-Contest-6-845X450.jpg450845Gayle Falkenthalhttps://www.waternewsnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/water-news-network.pngGayle Falkenthal2022-06-27 08:24:442022-06-27 08:24:44Designing Your WaterSmart Living Landscape to Fit Your Life
Before starting your water-saving landscape makeover, there are significant decisions to make, including plant and irrigation choices. First, determine what type of landscape will meet your needs and maximize your water-saving potential.
Eliminating turf is the main target for saving water. Grass requires more water to keep it green than most other plants. In fact, turf needs four times the amount of rain our region gets annually.
https://www.waternewsnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/water-news-network.png00Mike Leehttps://www.waternewsnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/water-news-network.pngMike Lee2022-05-31 09:42:012022-05-31 09:45:09Choosing the Right Plants and Irrigation Are Crucial to a Water-Saving Landscape
More than 130 people took advantage of a drought-tolerant plant giveaway program offered by the Fallbrook Public Utility District. Since picking up their free succulents in November, homeowners have started their drought-tolerant home garden projects.
Participants were provided empty flats and invited to select from an assortment of three-inch potted succulents to suit their needs. Each person took home approximately 28 plants.
https://www.waternewsnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/water-news-network.png00Mike Leehttps://www.waternewsnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/water-news-network.pngMike Lee2021-12-08 10:16:142021-12-08 10:19:54Drought-Tolerant Plant Giveaway Popular in Fallbrook
During drought, it’s more important than ever to conserve water used for irrigation. When you follow just a few smart landscaping irrigation tips, you can get the most from every drop of water applied to your landscaping.
Don’t overspray your landscaping
Don’t allow your sprinklers to overspray your landscaping and waste water. Photo: Wikimedia
Watch your irrigation while the system is running. Check to make sure sprinkler heads aren’t spraying water onto sidewalks, patios, or structures.
If water is being applied too fast for your soil to absorb, runoff will occur. This needs to be prevented.
Puddling and pooling water may be an indication your water is being applied too fast or too often. Adjust your system until this isn’t happening anymore.
Repairs to broken pipes and sprinkler heads should be made immediately, or your system should be turned off until those repairs can be made.
Eliminate runoff with cycle and soak programming
Watch how quickly runoff happens when running irrigation. This is the maximum run time for your irrigation controller in a particular hydrozone.
Divide the total irrigation minutes recommended for the specific hydrozone condition into shorter blocks of time before runoff starts. For example, if you should irrigate for 15 minutes but runoff starts within five minutes, irrigate in three five-minute cycles. Allow a 30-minute rest period in between irrigation cycles.
Hand watering that works
Hand watering can be an effective method to water your landscaping. Photo: Ryan McGuire / Pixabay
Hand watering is especially good when your garden is getting established. You can spend more time watching your plants to be sure they are flourishing in the early stages.
When your landscape plants are new, you may need to water more frequently because roots are shallower. Roots on a newly planted one-gallon plant are only four to ten inches deep. This is why it’s a smart idea to plant during the rainy season.
Before hand watering, look at your plants. Do they appear droopy? Is the soil very dry? If so, give the plants a good drink. Don’t water more than two days in a row. Let the soil dry out completely before watering again. Overwatering and underwater symptoms can be similar.
Once your plants are established after the first year, your sustainable garden will not need watering more than once or twice a month – if at all. Stop watering after the first seasonal rains begin and let nature take over.
This article is part of a year-long series inspired by the 71-pageSustainable Landscapes Program guidebook. The Water Authority and its partners also offer other great resources for landscaping upgrades, including free WaterSmart classes atWaterSmartSD.org.
https://www.waternewsnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/VWD-2021-Kaplan-845X450.jpg450845Gayle Falkenthalhttps://www.waternewsnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/water-news-network.pngGayle Falkenthal2021-09-23 08:08:092021-09-23 08:11:20Smart Landscape Irrigation Tips Save Water
Due to the lack of rainfall in the San Diego region, even sustainable landscaping sometimes relies on artificial irrigation. Irrigation systems must be thoughtfully designed, installed, and programmed. Once in place, the many interconnected mechanical elements must be maintained properly for optimal performance.
“Irrigation efficiency” is a way of describing how well your irrigation system is doing its job delivering water for the beneficial use of the plants in your landscaping.
