Dry Garden

My garden had been toughing out the California drought pretty well until this summer. The grass was perpetually brown and all but the plants and trees seemed pretty unscathed. Trying to be a good conservationist, I rarely watered.

And I recycled bathwater whenever I could because I have a mega bathtub upstairs.

When I got back from my vacation at the end of June, my garden looked terrible. Many of the trees were losing their leaves, which sort of alarmed me. This poor lemon tree is looking really pathetic right now.

These guys (laurus nobilis) were turning brown and dropping their leaves as if it were autumn (in June!), besides that these guys keep most of their leaves year round.

The creeping fig was also drying up.

I bit the bullet and bought some soaker hoses. That way I can keep my garden alive while using as little water as is possible. I already have some soaker hoses on the east and west walls (which I had been using about once a month), but had none at the rear, north wall, where all this leaf dropping is happening.

I'm hoping that a few slow deep soaks can remedy things until the winter rain (hopefully) arrives. The hoses say they give about 1/2 to 1 gallon of water per foot per hour. I ran the long one for an hour and the short one for about a half hour. This is only about the equivalent of one or two big tubs, so everybody keep their pants on!  Oh please please please let a mother of all el ninos come our way this winter.

If you live in California, are you watering your garden or yard?