SUZY SUCHE SEZ…the drought is not over by a long shot. The State Climatologist indicates that the drought may well last into 2013. In his report for the past year he says: “…the 12-month rainfall total for October 2010 through September 2011 was far below the previous record set in 1956 [the Drought of Record – ss]. Average temperatures for June through August were over 2 °F above the previous Texas record and were close to the warmest statewide summer temperatures ever recorded in the United States…Twelve-month rainfall was driest on record across much of western, central, and southern Texas, and many stations received less than 25% of their normal 12-month precipitation.” For the full report please go to: http://atmo.tamu.edu/osc/press_releases/2011_drought.pdf.
Benjamin Franklin’s “Poor Richard’s Almanac” advises us “a penny saved is a penny earned,” which is also good advice for water conservation. A gallon saved is a gallon earned, so we offer the following water wise tips.
Take shorter showers: save 5-10 gallons for every minute you cut back. It doesn't take that much water to get clean. Some of us even take a “navy shower,” which means turning off the water when you are soaping up or shaving in the shower and only have the water run to rinse off. You can also put a mop bucket in the shower with you to catch any extra water and use it to water house plants.
On average, 2.5 gallons/minute of water are wasted from running a faucet while brushing teeth, if that’s only 5 minutes; it’s still 12-1/2 gallons, enough to water 100ft2 of lawn on a hot sultry day or 1250ft2 on a cool cloudy day. When we lived in an area that we had to use bottled water for drinking (or else catch a horrible stomach ailment), we put water in a cup, swished the toothbrush around in it to wet the brush before using it to brush our teeth, rinsed our mouths from it and then used what was left to clean the toothbrush when we were done. It’s a good practice to save water, as well. If that’s a little too drastic for you, keep the faucet off while you brush.
Toilets use up to 25% of the water used in a home. Really. We’ve asked everyone in our house to use the old adage, “if it’s yellow, let it mellow…” you know the rest. The males in our homes are thrilled to have the level of toilet etiquette lowered!
Use a pan or one half of a double sink to wash dishes, run the rinse water into the wash pan instead of down the drain and don’t have the faucet going full blast. Empty the pan or sink only when the water is too dirty to use. If you use a dishwasher, be sure it is full before you run it and scrape dishes rather than rinse them. Most new models don’t require rinsing the dishes first.
Use cold water to wash clothes rather than hot. Be sure the washer’s level is set to the appropriate amount for the load you are running or better yet, use the newer low-water models that calculate the level for you depending on the weight of the load.
Anywhere from 60-75% of residential water use is used for landscaping and up to half of that is wasted! It is lost to evaporation and run off. Adjust your sprinkler heads regularly: watering the driveway has never grown a thing. Monitor the amount of water being used on your landscaping. The amount needed in winter is much less than in the heat of the summer. It’s easy to use a small can like a tuna can to measure the amount of water being put out by your system. Be sure to water in the summer months before 8am so evaporation will be minimized. Even better, use rainwater catchment or recycle your gray water (including the condensation from the AC units) for your landscape watering needs.
Be smart in selecting plants for your landscaping. Tall grasses, shrubs and trees act as brakes for the rainwater which falls and hold onto the rainwater until the ground is able to take it up. Flat lawn areas hold no more water than a driveway! Plants native to the area (not just to Texas in general, it’s a big state!) are used to the extremes in temperature and the lows and highs of our rainfall. And remember mulch, mulch and more mulch for the best and cheapest means of keeping the precious water where it belongs…in the ground!
Saturday, February 4, 2012
Texan Native Trees in a Drought
As a gardener who grew up in the northern states, I am programmed to revel in the rebirth that occurs each spring after the long, dark winter. As a Texas gardener, I am even more surprised by the miracle of renewal that occurs here whenever the Texas native plants decide it is time!
After months of punishing drought (less than 7 inches of rain in my weather station this year through August), we have received 2 inches of rain in mid September. Of course, the Texas Sage bushes immediately – within 24 hours – started blooming and feeding the hungry bees. I walked through the yard in the areas that are wild or that are more than 50 feet from the house. These areas are not irrigated at all. My Sandpaper tree immediately caught my eye. It had lost about half of its leaves in August, though it remained green. After the rains of the last two days, it doubled the number of leaves. No tree in the North decides to put on leaves this late in the fall. My Toothache Trees and Possum Haw Holly had done the same. Why now when both will lose their leaves in just a few months? The Yaupon Holly and Goldenball Leadtree ignored the drought and have a full complement of leaves. The Yaupon even managed to flower and set a huge crop of berries.
I wandered back into the ravine and there my Kidneywood trees were again full and green. I bet they will have bee and butterfly pleasing blooms within the week! Even the more delicate Beautyberry has survived with some gemlike purple berries. It will be much prettier in a year with rain, of course.
The young Big Tooth Maple that sits on the top edge of the ravine hadn’t lost leaves at all during the drought. What a great tree! It stays green through drought, and then it will turn a lovely orange sherbet color in early November. The flame leaf sumac is much the same – fully green and bushy through the drought and heat, and then rich scarlet in the late fall. We don’t have the fall color that New England has, but with a little planning we can have some great color from resilient, beautiful natives.
The Evergreen Sumacs have kept their leaves and color all summer. They will stay green all winter making a great screen or hedge. The sumacs will send out runners and start new plants, so I do keep an eye on them for unwanted plants. The sprouts are easy to control or move.
The two Huisache trees flourished through the drought. They didn’t bloom heavily, but they didn’t drop leaves just because it was 110 degrees and dry. The mesquite has dropped some leaves, but is obviously not suffering much! My Chinquapin Oak just kept growing and making acorns despite the weather.
The native Persimmons have all survived without water. I have one in the front that loses its leaves in August pretty routinely and then leafs out in the fall. My tree man was bewildered to find it green in the middle of the winter when the other persimmons were bare. That’s what I mean about Texas natives. They seem to make their own rules. Even two trees of the same species might decide to bloom or leaf out at different times.
If you are thinking about adding some of these great natives to your yard, Fall is a great time to do that. I can tell you from experience that the Huisache, Mesquite, Sandpaper Tree, Chinquapin, and Yaupon Holly are not favored by the deer. Do protect their trunks during the fall since the male deer will rub their antlers on the trunks of any tree, it seems. The deer have never nibbled on a Texas Persimmon in my yard, either (though the fruit disappears). The Kidneywood is eaten by deer, so it does need protection. My wild Kidneywoods started showing themselves after one year behind a fence. I have a lot more wonderful natives to tell you about, but not enough space! Maybe another time.
As a gardener who grew up in the northern states, I am programmed to revel in the rebirth that occurs each spring after the long, dark winter. As a Texas gardener, I am even more surprised by the miracle of renewal that occurs here whenever the Texas native plants decide it is time!
After months of punishing drought (less than 7 inches of rain in my weather station this year through August), we have received 2 inches of rain in mid September. Of course, the Texas Sage bushes immediately – within 24 hours – started blooming and feeding the hungry bees. I walked through the yard in the areas that are wild or that are more than 50 feet from the house. These areas are not irrigated at all. My Sandpaper tree immediately caught my eye. It had lost about half of its leaves in August, though it remained green. After the rains of the last two days, it doubled the number of leaves. No tree in the North decides to put on leaves this late in the fall. My Toothache Trees and Possum Haw Holly had done the same. Why now when both will lose their leaves in just a few months? The Yaupon Holly and Goldenball Leadtree ignored the drought and have a full complement of leaves. The Yaupon even managed to flower and set a huge crop of berries.
I wandered back into the ravine and there my Kidneywood trees were again full and green. I bet they will have bee and butterfly pleasing blooms within the week! Even the more delicate Beautyberry has survived with some gemlike purple berries. It will be much prettier in a year with rain, of course.
The young Big Tooth Maple that sits on the top edge of the ravine hadn’t lost leaves at all during the drought. What a great tree! It stays green through drought, and then it will turn a lovely orange sherbet color in early November. The flame leaf sumac is much the same – fully green and bushy through the drought and heat, and then rich scarlet in the late fall. We don’t have the fall color that New England has, but with a little planning we can have some great color from resilient, beautiful natives.
The Evergreen Sumacs have kept their leaves and color all summer. They will stay green all winter making a great screen or hedge. The sumacs will send out runners and start new plants, so I do keep an eye on them for unwanted plants. The sprouts are easy to control or move.
The two Huisache trees flourished through the drought. They didn’t bloom heavily, but they didn’t drop leaves just because it was 110 degrees and dry. The mesquite has dropped some leaves, but is obviously not suffering much! My Chinquapin Oak just kept growing and making acorns despite the weather.
The native Persimmons have all survived without water. I have one in the front that loses its leaves in August pretty routinely and then leafs out in the fall. My tree man was bewildered to find it green in the middle of the winter when the other persimmons were bare. That’s what I mean about Texas natives. They seem to make their own rules. Even two trees of the same species might decide to bloom or leaf out at different times.
If you are thinking about adding some of these great natives to your yard, Fall is a great time to do that. I can tell you from experience that the Huisache, Mesquite, Sandpaper Tree, Chinquapin, and Yaupon Holly are not favored by the deer. Do protect their trunks during the fall since the male deer will rub their antlers on the trunks of any tree, it seems. The deer have never nibbled on a Texas Persimmon in my yard, either (though the fruit disappears). The Kidneywood is eaten by deer, so it does need protection. My wild Kidneywoods started showing themselves after one year behind a fence. I have a lot more wonderful natives to tell you about, but not enough space! Maybe another time.
Fall Vegetable Gardening
Well it has been a tough summer for any kind of gardening. Since I have set up a simple irrigation system with a timer, my plants didn’t suffer in the vegetable garden. I also had put down a layer of compost in the spring which the plants really loved – especially the tomatoes. However, the pesky armadillos spent their nights finding out which area of the garden had been irrigated and dug there. I lost most of my first crop of beans to them. I thwarted them when I planted my second crop of by using fabric mulch which I nailed to the sides of my raised garden! The irrigation was under the mulch, so the plant roots stayed cool and moist, but the armadillos couldn’t freely dig in those plots. I made slits in the mulch and planted the rows in those slits.
The hungry and thirsty birds were a nuisance in the tomato plot. I have a wildlife pond and two birdbaths that I keep full, but the tomatoes seemed irresistible to them. I could have draped the plants in bird netting, but felt that a few pecks in my tomatoes were tolerable. The cucumbers are still producing. The sweet potato bed is completely covered and growing out into the paths. I can’t wait to harvest them in early November. My one year old grape vine produced fruit for the first time this summer. I haven’t seen as many stink bugs and grasshoppers as usual. I think the birds and the drought have kept them at bay.
But, the planting season doesn’t end with the arrival of the fall months. Here in Hill Country, we usually don’t get our first frost until sometime after November 15. With cooler temperatures, gardening at this time of year can be very enjoyable. Many gardeners prefer the fall vegetable gardening season to the summer season. Many plants for fall vegetable gardening should go into the ground in August. The young plants (tomato, squash, and cucumbers) will appreciate a little shading with some shade cloth in their early weeks – especially if temps are still in the 100 degree range as they were this summer.
Many vegetables love some cool weather and can go in right now. Onion seed, beans, beets, collard and garlic can go in now. Peas can still be planted in October. And if you like radishes or spinach, you have time to harvest more than once. Plant a row of spinach or radishes, then plant another row in one or two weeks. These cool weather plants can be seeded as late as the first week of November.
If you prefer gardening in containers, think about putting some herbs or fall vegetables in those pots. This is a great time to add some herbs to any garden. Add some sprigs of thyme or oregano or a few chive and parsley plants combined with a row of spinach to a planter. They will stay green and pretty until November and enrich your soups and salads all fall!
Well it has been a tough summer for any kind of gardening. Since I have set up a simple irrigation system with a timer, my plants didn’t suffer in the vegetable garden. I also had put down a layer of compost in the spring which the plants really loved – especially the tomatoes. However, the pesky armadillos spent their nights finding out which area of the garden had been irrigated and dug there. I lost most of my first crop of beans to them. I thwarted them when I planted my second crop of by using fabric mulch which I nailed to the sides of my raised garden! The irrigation was under the mulch, so the plant roots stayed cool and moist, but the armadillos couldn’t freely dig in those plots. I made slits in the mulch and planted the rows in those slits.
The hungry and thirsty birds were a nuisance in the tomato plot. I have a wildlife pond and two birdbaths that I keep full, but the tomatoes seemed irresistible to them. I could have draped the plants in bird netting, but felt that a few pecks in my tomatoes were tolerable. The cucumbers are still producing. The sweet potato bed is completely covered and growing out into the paths. I can’t wait to harvest them in early November. My one year old grape vine produced fruit for the first time this summer. I haven’t seen as many stink bugs and grasshoppers as usual. I think the birds and the drought have kept them at bay.
But, the planting season doesn’t end with the arrival of the fall months. Here in Hill Country, we usually don’t get our first frost until sometime after November 15. With cooler temperatures, gardening at this time of year can be very enjoyable. Many gardeners prefer the fall vegetable gardening season to the summer season. Many plants for fall vegetable gardening should go into the ground in August. The young plants (tomato, squash, and cucumbers) will appreciate a little shading with some shade cloth in their early weeks – especially if temps are still in the 100 degree range as they were this summer.
Many vegetables love some cool weather and can go in right now. Onion seed, beans, beets, collard and garlic can go in now. Peas can still be planted in October. And if you like radishes or spinach, you have time to harvest more than once. Plant a row of spinach or radishes, then plant another row in one or two weeks. These cool weather plants can be seeded as late as the first week of November.
If you prefer gardening in containers, think about putting some herbs or fall vegetables in those pots. This is a great time to add some herbs to any garden. Add some sprigs of thyme or oregano or a few chive and parsley plants combined with a row of spinach to a planter. They will stay green and pretty until November and enrich your soups and salads all fall!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)