Water Conservation

On Tuesday at the monthly Master Gardener meeting, our guest speaker was former Master Gardener, Nan Sterman. Nan is now the weekly garden columnist for the San Diego Union-Tribune as well as drought tolerant planting guru. I first heard Nan speak at a Master Gardener seminar many years back. I signed up for her class because I needed to fill my first class space and went in with no expectations. Turned out that Nan’s class was the highlight of my seminar day, and was a complete shift in thinking for me.

Nan’s talk yesterday was about Mediterranean gardens. She had a nice slide show that highlighted low water gardens around San Diego. She stressed that any style house can have a beautiful low-water garden that would be appropriate for the style of the house. Another statement she made which brought a wave of giggles around the room, but it SOOOO true, was “You only have a low-water yard if you don’t water!” Amen.

The biggest industry in California is the movement of water. Nan cited a statistic that really gnawed at me. Turning on your water spigot and letting the water run for 5 minutes is the equivalent of burning a 60W lightbulb for 12 hours. It took me a while to get my head around that. But think about all the entities involved to bring water to your house with the turn of a knob. It takes manpower, infrastructure and energy to move water.

Most of the water we use in California is for irrigating our landscapes. Still, we pay very little for something that is vital to live! It’s the best deal going. Unfortunately, we take it for granted, and we shouldn’t. It really irks me to have my neighbors, who rarely set foot in their front yard, running their sprinklers every morning just to keep the grass green. Their yard, and so many others, would be sooooo much interesting with interesting, less thirsty plants. I’d even plant it for them! (Yard Envy!) But first, a nice, cool glass of water.

I rarely water this Lion's Tail (Leonotis leonurus) and it is thriving!

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