Now that we have our pots or gardens planted, Sonoma County and the city of Sonoma have decided we should cut back water usage, which is appropriate under local dry circumstances.
But what do we really need to do to accomplish this?
We know several people who didn’t plant vegetable gardens this year to save water, but continue to fill their swimming pools when the sun zaps the water into the atmosphere. On the other hand, swimming pools can serve as water reservoirs in fire emergencies.
Some experts, and city councilmember Joanne Sanders, say that most water usage runs through “irrigation.” But just what percentage of “irrigation” goes to personal home gardens?
“Irrigation” includes vineyards, many of which are on wells, and those wells are reaching deeper and deeper into local aquifers.
So what do those of us who have already been conserving water for years do to cut back, and are we subject to fines even if we are already near bare-bones dry?
We know we can collect the cool water while we wait for hot water to make its way into the house, turn off faucets while we brush our teeth or shave (if you guys do it the old fashioned way), go the “if it’s yellow let it mellow” route and save laundry water, as we did in the 1970s.
As Sonoma Mission Gardens manager Lydia Constantini suggests, “adjust our personal life to save water…by showering together!” If your repertoire doesn’t include a shower à deux, cut your shower time in half to accomplish the same result.
While Sonoma is considering prohibiting new lawns or lawns in future developments, perhaps they should consider not saying “yes” to almost every development.
Constantini and others suggest that if we are keeping lawns, we let them grow longer to shade the roots and retain water by keeping the sun from zapping it from the earth’s surface. To do this, just adjust your mower upward. It’s easy.
Constantini also says to water lawns for 10 minutes, let the water soak in, and water another 10 minutes. This allows water to go deeper and will force grass roots to go deeper when they get thirsty. If we just cut the time sprinklers run, Constantini says that amounts to surface watering, and the grass will get lazy and say “bring out the lawn chair, I’m relaxing.”
Janet Rude of Wedekind’s Garden Center suggests keeping roots of fruit trees and all of your plants shaded and protected by adding mulch to them, and feeding with organic (E.B. Stone) fruit and vine food. She says, “Don’t give up your garden; just don’t wash down your driveway and sidewalks, either with a hose or your sprinklers.”
Chicken poop, which both nurseries sell in bags, can work as a good mulch, as can grass cuttings and straw, which may also bring seeds you don’t want, such as “crabgrass,” or snails, bugs and slugs that eventually nest under the straw. You might even find a friendly rat or two. Just kidding, but it’s possible.
Rude also cautions against watering during the day, when the ground and plants have to race the hot sun for claims on your water. She also suggests that just reducing the size of your lawn can save lots of water without yanking out the whole thing.
You can still plant new rows and plots or pots of spinach, broccoli, melons and squash, but if your first plantings of spinach, chard and lettuce have grown themselves to death, or if you have dug up your onions and garlic from between squash plants, you might not plant anything new and simply allow your squashes to spread their wings and produce, produce, produce. That is, if little bugs aren’t making lunch out of your squash blossoms.
By the way, I am trying the Sluggo® Plus for organic gardening ($25.59) that I mentioned two weeks ago (“lasts up to four weeks” the label says). I don’t think I have bagged one bug, snail, slug or earwig. In fact, the leaves and stems of my zinnias seem to be disappearing before my eyes. Every morning there is less greenery on these once-hearty plants, although the flowers seem to survive, if a little sadly. Let me know if you have different results.
I am going to plant new lettuces under the protection of larger vegetable plants’ (squashes and melons) leaves and branches so that they won’t “bolt.” I am finding new spots where I can plant lettuces as I watch the movement of the sun now that we are in full summer. It reaches the ground in different spots under the trees than it did when I planted my first lettuces in late winter. Lettuces can do just fine in the heat if they find a shadowy home in dappled sun under trees or other plants’ appendages.
You can still introduce cilantro, radish and arugula seeds to your garden or pot. They only take a few days to germinate in Sonoma Valley heat.
Keep trimming your basil and cilantro, make pesto out of them separately or together if not using immediately, and freeze in ice cube trays for later. Nothing needs to be thrown away. Major ingredients of the best pesto include basil, olive oil, garlic and pine nuts, the latter often added into the blending process, thereby giving body to the sauce instead of looking like skinny little white nuts.
If you have veggie leftovers when making pesto or tomato sauce, toss the waste back into the garden to mix in with your dirt and create yummy productive soil.
Since nasturtiums are one of the Jolly Green Goddesses favorite edible flowers, partly because of their bright yellow, orange and red colors and partly because they take little water and even the brownest thumbs can grow them, I am including a recipe from our friends at Sooke Harbour House on Vancouver Island, British Columbia.
The whole nasturtium flower or individual petals can be used as a garnish or in salads, but use sparingly to gage friends’ palates for the slightly peppery fragrant flavor.
Red Bandit Rockfish
(red snapper or rock cod) with Nasturtium Flower Butter
From Head Chef Edward Tuson and Frederique Philip of Sooke Harbour House, Sooke, British Columbia, Canada and their 2007 Calendar
Ingredients:
6 five-ounce Red Bandit rockfish
(red snapper or rock cod) pieces
1 cup nasturtium flowers
1 cup Japanese bread crumbs
(Panko)
1/2 cup unsalted butter
(at room temperature)
1 teaspoon ginger, minced
Preparation:
Preheat oven to 400 F
Place all ingredients (except fish) in a food processor and mix until a fine paste has formed (approximately three to four minutes). Place mixture between two pieces of parchment paper and roll 1/4 inch thick, then refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Cut paste into shapes similar to the shapes of your fish pieces. Remove parchment paper from mixture and place the shapes on top of your fish. Bake for six to 10 minutes, depending on the thickness of the fish.
Serve hot and enjoy!
Serves six.
“When I go into my garden with a spade, and dig a bed, I feel such an exhilaration and health that I discover that I have been defrauding myself all this time in letting others do for me what I should have done with my own hands.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson, from Man the Reformer.
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