Water Woes

[Res Ipsa]

Understanding up front that individuals make essentially no difference when it comes to overall water conservation, what are you all doing to conserve water so you’re acting within your own ethos? My wife and I have a fairly strict ‘if it’s yellow let it mellow’ policy, though it’s always fun to drive by a farmer’s thirsty corn field to witness the end cap to a large side roll watering system detached and thousand of gallons spilling onto the high desert floor ... just pooling.

- Doc

I murdered my lawns.

[Doctor CamNC4Me]

Understanding up front that individuals make essentially no difference when it comes to overall water conservation, what are you all doing to conserve water so you’re acting within your own ethos? My wife and I have a fairly strict ‘if it’s yellow let it mellow’ policy, though it’s always fun to drive by a farmer’s thirsty corn field to witness the end cap to a large side roll watering system detached and thousand of gallons spilling onto the high desert floor ... just pooling.

- Doc

I murdered my lawns.

Are you planning a lawn revival, permaculture, xeriscaping, traditional garden, or letting it go to seed? I’ve found I haven’t missed grass since I’ve gone full ‘No Lawn’.

- Doc

[Res Ipsa]

I murdered my lawns.

Are you planning a lawn revival, permaculture, xeriscaping, traditional garden, or letting it go to seed? I’ve found I haven’t missed grass since I’ve gone full ‘No Lawn’.

- Doc

I don't plan to ever have a lawn again. So far, I've just been seeing what sprouts and removing what I don't want to grow. (No blackberries, morning glory or ivy). My yard is pretty shaded by big fir trees, so nothing really wants to grow there anyways.

I did get some low water use toilets that use compressed air. They work great, but sound like a jet taking off.

[Doctor Steuss]

Understanding up front that individuals make essentially no difference when it comes to overall water conservation, what are you all doing to conserve water so you’re acting within your own ethos? My wife and I have a fairly strict ‘if it’s yellow let it mellow’ policy, though it’s always fun to drive by a farmer’s thirsty corn field to witness the end cap to a large side roll watering system detached and thousand of gallons spilling onto the high desert floor ... just pooling.

- Doc

Haven't really made any changes on the in-home use area. Got an HE washer a month ago, but that was more because it was on sale. In the Las Vegas valley, 100% of what's sent on through the sewer is treated and recaptured. I think City of North Las Vegas (for some reason, they do it separate from City of Las Vegas, Henderson, and unincorporated Clark County) recaptures 100% too, but from the smell that wafts from the Sloan Channel... I don't know that they put much effort into treating it first.

For outside use, I'm down to a yucca, and a sumac. The yucca I haven't watered in probably 4 months. The sumac gets a deep soak every 2-or-so weeks in the summer, and every 2 months in the winter. Might need to up it a little though during the summer, as it's beginning to look like a Jim Hensen creation, and it's the only source of shade.

[Doctor CamNC4Me]

... and a sumac.

...

The sumac gets a deep soak every 2-or-so weeks in the summer, and every 2 months in the winter. Might need to up it a little though during the summer, as it's beginning to look like a Jim Hensen creation, and it's the only source of shade.

Tiger Eyes Sumac? I love sumac. Here’s the one I planted in my old yard that’s a few years old now:



That was my side yard with my old neighbor’s house in the background. I love everything about it, to include the Fall colors. Breakdown of plants from left to right:

- Red stick dogwood behind and to the left of the rock feature
- Grapes behind the rock feature and down a shared chain link fence
- Bulbs and wild flowers at the base of the rock feature
- Russian sage next to the driveway
- A golden smoke tree hidden we planted that you can’t see
- Scotch brooms surrounding the sumac that’s centered
- Cat mint on the corner
- Yellow elderberry other corner
- Golden baskets to fill in the gaps

I’d deep soak plants once a week during the hottest times, which usually ran from July through September. If I had to do it again, I’d keep the sumac, Russian sage, cat mint, and wildflowers. The rest were a little too thirsty for this climate.

- Doc

[Doctor CamNC4Me]

And since sharing is caring, here’s a new project - we laid drip lines down, and in this section we’re attempting to grow a lavender field and you can see our grapes out front. Each plant has one 1/2 gallon/hour* emitter on it and I think we have the right amount of water because, well, they’re not dying:



The rest of our yard is also outfitted with drip lines and we’re doing stuff with as little water as we can get away with. We think once all the plants are established we might be able to shave a few minutes off watering times.

* note: we’re not running them for an hour at a time. 35 minutes one day, 15 minutes the other. I tried skipping watering days but we were losing too many sprouts.

- Doc

[canpakes]

Tiger Eyes Sumac? I love sumac.

If I was betting, and if this sumac is a tree, I’d go with African sumac. Tough as nails, and super drought hardy. It’s a bit messy and has fallen out of favor in the last couple of decades with desert metro landscapes, but it’s still a tree that I can appreciate for many reasons.

[canpakes]

And since sharing is caring, here’s a new project - we laid drip lines down, and in this section we’re attempting to grow a lavender field and you can see our grapes out front. Each plant has one 1/2 gallon/hour* emitter on it and I think we have the right amount of water because, well, they’re not dying:

...

* note: we’re not running them for an hour at a time. 35 minutes one day, 15 minutes the other. I tried skipping watering days but we were losing too many sprouts.

These are also tough plants; after they’re established, you might be surprised by how little water will be needed to keep them happy.

We planted 6 little 4” pots three years ago, and they require almost no supplemental irrigation now. They’re between a railroad tie-held retaining wall and the concrete drive, in a foot’s width of strip. They’ve surprised me. Maybe they’re getting some water filtering down from above the wall, but based on the near-dead and desiccated appearance of the shrubs up there, I doubt it. We’ve turned a hose on them a handful of times over the past 4 months, and they’re crazy full. They typically will flower well with less water than more once they get to size, but I’m probably being a little cruel to them at this point.

That lavender field of yours should start to look amazing right quick.

[Doctor CamNC4Me]

Well, swales catch and diffuse water underground. I wonder if you have something like that where the moisture is gravity fed to you lavenders? And yeah, I’m hoping in a few years the lavender will have grown together to create a nice effect. Bees and hummingbirds love them lavenders, so in it went.

- Doc

[Xenophon]

Understanding up front that individuals make essentially no difference when it comes to overall water conservation, what are you all doing to conserve water so you’re acting within your own ethos? My wife and I have a fairly strict ‘if it’s yellow let it mellow’ policy, though it’s always fun to drive by a farmer’s thirsty corn field to witness the end cap to a large side roll watering system detached and thousand of gallons spilling onto the high desert floor ... just pooling.

- Doc

I like your setup a lot, Doc.

We've done a lot of the standard xeriscape stuff for our happy little zone 8b selves although I did preserve a 700 sq ft strip of st. augustine in our backyard, don't hold it against me too much. We do leverage a fairly rudimentary rainwater capture system that consists of a couple 275 gallon IBCs placed at the downspouts (only on 3 corners, I couldn't convince SO for us to have one at basically the front door to the house even after building some cute little fence barriers around the other ones to hide the ugly plastic containers. Between our above average annual rainfall and these bad boys I've really never wanted for water for the small bit of lawn we have and the rest of the gardening even this year which has been exceptionally hot and dry. I've also liked having the system in place as it keeps the soil around our foundation in a much more stable position, not constantly expanding from moisture and then drying back out. I'd love to eventually move to a larger system that possibly filtered the water or at least integrated with our toilets but for now this does the trick and cost a fraction of those more advanced setups.

Here was my inspiration for the system if anyone is interested: https://www.instructables.com/DIY-275-G ... ollection/

As an aside, these IBCs also make for excellent self-wicking raised garden beds when you split them in half. I built a platform to lift them up so I don't even need to bend over in order to work in them. With just a bit of work you can make a great reservoir in the bottom of them that makes them very drought tolerant and even the reddest of thumbs can maintain a garden with them. Here is a picture of the first one I built for reference:

ICB garden.jpg