Tuesday, October 13, 2015

An El Nino year is better than nothing after drought

This year because of watering restrictions my cousin in Orange county had to pull out his 1/2 acre of beautiful lawns he has been growing since around the late 1970s when we moved onto his acre of land with his wife and kids. The county I believe paid he and his wife 20,000 dollars to remove his beautiful lawn that he has had for at least 30 years there and put in stuff that grows in the desert instead.

For me, plants like Scottish Heather and Rhododendrons that are about 8 feet high that I have watered for at least 15 years or so are dying or dead. At least one of the large Scottish Heathers is dead and the other might be gone too. None of these are happy with a completely dry soil like we have here now without any rain. Normally, my house is on a spring so once it starts raining I don't have to water from about October to about June of most years. But not lately. So, for me, it is watching plants I have watered a long time dying or dead already. I have sort of given up trying to keep anything alive except for my pine trees that seem to be okay even in a drought so far.

Though Dry soil is really bad that is cracked to dump a lot of rain on because it all tends to run off and flood and create havoc, still water is better than no water and flooding is always better than drought for most places in California. Up to 1/2 of California is somewhat or completely desertified already. And those of us who live here don't want the rest to be a desert anytime soon. So, for us, Flooding is always going to be better than a 100 to 500 year drought.

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