Drought

http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/ <~~~CLICK

Its a good thing that Mel's Mix is retains water so well and is drought restraint.

It looks bad for much of the country there.

Luckily For me Oregon is not expecting much in the way of severe drought in most places.

Our outlook is not so bad as some of the other places on that map.

Oregon Seasonal Forecast

We're in one of the "Exceptional" zones. It's been bad; the section of lake behind our house is not much of a lake any more. When we bought the house 2 years ago, we saw an expanse of water down there. That summer we watched the algae take over the surface, and it was interesting to see the water birds walking around. It was very shallow and we could tell the water level went down that first year.

Last spring, there were patches of grass sticking up at odd places around the lake. By the end of summer it looked like more grass then water.

This spring, the view of the lake from the porch is mostly grass, with a small patch of water. If we walk over closer to the top of the hill, we can see a ring of water. If we don't get a lot of rain this summer, our section of the lake will be all grass by fall. We're not seeing a return of the water birds to our side of the lake, either, and that makes me sad.

There's a finger of treed land that pokes into the lake, separating our
side from the main part of the lake; the other part still has water, and
that's where the alligators live. I suspect that part has shrunk, also,
but we can't see it from anywhere in our neighborhood.

This is why I want to get rain barrels going; when it does rain, there's enough running out of the corners of the runoff to fill the few barrels we need to water our garden most of the time. We have to have well water for our garden; I suspect our well pulls from the water table that feeds that lake, so I try very hard to keep my watering to a bare minimum until we get rain to fill the new barrels. The lawn sees none of it, only the vegetables. We will now be implementing a plan to save the water we use in our tubs, sinks and showers while waiting for the hot water to arrive and replenish the barrels from that, as well...especially since it's going to be at least a few more days before rain will arrive. We pay for that darn water, why watch it go down the drain unused?!

Some States have statutes regarding rain water harvesting. Florida is not one of them. I hope you get rain soon. http://www.harvesth2o.com/statues_regulations.shtml

Wow, it looks as though someone in FL is looking at this issue though; it would be nice if they offered incentives or something.

givvmistamps wrote:Wow, it looks as though someone in FL is looking at this issue though; it would be nice if they offered incentives or something.

My incentive is to keep my water bill as low as possible.

For me the incentives are not seeing the lake dry up entirely, the lower electricity bill when I don't have to run my well pump, plus the less frequent purchasing of the filters I have to use to get most of the iron and sulfur out of the water.

Bad news for this drought zone...those storms that have been crossing the US are splitting and going around us again! We had hoped for rain...We even thought we might wind up with thunderstorms and hard rain, so we set up some protection to keep the little seedlings from getting pounded...But it looks like yet another non-event for this area. *sigh* Sure wish things would go back to normal.

givvmistamps wrote:Bad news for this drought zone...those storms that have been crossing the US are splitting and going around us again! We had hoped for rain...We even thought we might wind up with thunderstorms and hard rain, so we set up some protection to keep the little seedlings from getting pounded...But it looks like yet another non-event for this area. *sigh* Sure wish things would go back to normal.

Same here today. At this site you can see just how much precipitation you haven't gotten.
http://water.weather.gov/precip/
Scroll to the bottom of the page for more info.

givvmistamps wrote:We're in one of the "Exceptional" zones. It's been bad; the section of lake behind our house is not much of a lake any more. When we bought the house 2 years ago, we saw an expanse of water down there. That summer we watched the algae take over the surface, and it was interesting to see the water birds walking around. It was very shallow and we could tell the water level went down that first year.

Last spring, there were patches of grass sticking up at odd places around the lake. By the end of summer it looked like more grass then water.

This spring, the view of the lake from the porch is mostly grass, with a small patch of water. If we walk over closer to the top of the hill, we can see a ring of water. If we don't get a lot of rain this summer, our section of the lake will be all grass by fall. We're not seeing a return of the water birds to our side of the lake, either, and that makes me sad.

There's a finger of treed land that pokes into the lake, separating our
side from the main part of the lake; the other part still has water, and
that's where the alligators live. I suspect that part has shrunk, also,
but we can't see it from anywhere in our neighborhood.

This is why I want to get rain barrels going; when it does rain, there's enough running out of the corners of the runoff to fill the few barrels we need to water our garden most of the time. We have to have well water for our garden; I suspect our well pulls from the water table that feeds that lake, so I try very hard to keep my watering to a bare minimum until we get rain to fill the new barrels. The lawn sees none of it, only the vegetables. We will now be implementing a plan to save the water we use in our tubs, sinks and showers while waiting for the hot water to arrive and replenish the barrels from that, as well...especially since it's going to be at least a few more days before rain will arrive. We pay for that darn water, why watch it go down the drain unused?!

Is it within the rules in your area to break into & join new pipe work into the waste water pipes from the shower / bath tub , bathroom sink & kitchen sink .

Then do like I did in 1976 which was a drought year here in the UK . We had to queue up ata tanker truck to get drinking & cooking water and could only get running water to flush the loo at low pressure after 20.00 hrs each day for a few hours

All that " grey " water was collected via pipes & pumps and put in a 50 gallon tank .

I used it to hand water my veg garden and was the only one for miles around to have crops .

Thanks for the link camp. It's pretty bad, has been for several years.

@ Plantoid: it'd be tough to collect grey water; our house is on a concrete slab. We could collect from the sinks, but shower would be impossible and the tub would have to be bailed out. I don't know why they haven't implemented water restrictions yet. I expect it'll have to happen eventually, though. We don't even have a river in our county, so the city gets our water from underground here. I'll tell you one thing, the water bill has gone up every year, so we're trying to find every way possible to conserve water wherever we can. I'll be finding flow-reducers for all the sinks, and trying to find some cheap low-flow toilets this summer when my husband's summer pay kicks in; we already have water-saver shower heads since that's where the majority of the water seems to flow from. The only time I take a deep, hot bath is when I hurt so much I can't move, and then I really need it!

givvmistamps wrote:I'll be finding flow-reducers for all the sinks, and trying to find some cheap low-flow toilets this summer when my husband's summer pay kicks in;

Those low-flow toilets don't work well. Sometimes you have to flush more than once.

The lawn sees none of it, only the vegetables.

It would seem like a good time to consider getting rid of lawns altogether.
Lawns are a concept dreamed up by the british (I think) so that they could see the enemy coming from further away. Back then, and back there watering was not an issue, but in many parts of the US it IS an issue. Plantoid I am SURE you are going to correct me.

Why would anyone waste precious water on something as useless as Lawn.

Because southwest xeriscape is painful to walk on, sit on, or lie down on.

Whether you have grass or flower beds, you still use water. Having stone "lawns" like they have at beach towns looks ugly to me.

All landscape is painful to lie down on, but if you had a choice between growing your own food or lying on the ground would you take it.
Q

Well it's a lot easier to maintain landscapes than it is to maintain a vegetable garden. Just my opinion

Too Tall Tomatoes wrote:

givvmistamps wrote:I'll be finding flow-reducers for all the sinks, and trying to find some cheap low-flow toilets this summer when my husband's summer pay kicks in;

Those low-flow toilets don't work well. Sometimes you have to flush more than once.

Believe me, flushing a low-flow toilet twice will use less water than flushing the toilets we have only once! The tanks are humongous, and the sad thing is, they really don't flush very well anyway. We're always having to pull out the plunger...my husband now refers to it as his "wand of office" since the job usually falls on him. I think these toilets were designed wrong, and the bend is too sharp.

GWN wrote:

The lawn sees none of it, only the
vegetables.

It would seem like a good time to consider getting
rid of lawns altogether.
Lawns are a concept dreamed up by the
british (I think) so that they could see the enemy coming from further
away. Back then, and back there watering was not an issue, but in many
parts of the US it IS an issue. Plantoid I am SURE you are going to
correct me.

Why would anyone waste precious water on something as useless as Lawn.

I do have plans to significantly reduce the the lawn in our yard by putting in a
lot more drought tolerant plants...the problem is cost of replacing it...a long-term project. Meanwhile, the lawn doesn't get watered at my house. I couldn't care less what my neighbors say, it's a waste of money when I'm certain my topsoil won't wash away in our circumstances. If the topsoil were at risk, I'd figure out a way to keep it where it belongs, whether watering the lawn or finding some other plants to hold it.

Why would we want lawns enough to water them? Well, children like to
play in wide expanses where they can run, play games, etc.... So, I've set aside one small
corner of the back yard where I plan to re-seed half with grass,
put in a playground, and put mulch under/around the swing set we'll set
up. If/when we decide to water that lawn, it will be an early evening play-time for the
boys...running through the sprinklers will be a fun treat and a great
relief from temperatures in the mid-90s or higher this summer.

GWN wrote:

The lawn sees none of it, only the vegetables.

It would seem like a good time to consider getting rid of lawns altogether.
Lawns are a concept dreamed up by the british (I think) so that they could see the enemy coming from further away. Back then, and back there watering was not an issue, but in many parts of the US it IS an issue. Plantoid I am SURE you are going to correct me.

Why would anyone waste precious water on something as useless as Lawn.

Lawns were 'invented' by the British, but had nothing to do with defense, but more to do with showing other people how rich they were. Lawns were(and still are) status symbols mostly. However, I totally agree with you. Lawns are a complete waste of resources and one of the largest offenders of fertilizer misuse(well, not the lawn itself, but the people who use the fertilizer improperly and therefor contaminate waterways and the water table).

I hope to start pulling up most of my front lawn in a year or two, once I have the back yard established and functioning properly.

givvmistamps wrote:Thanks for the link camp. It's pretty bad, has been for several years.

@ Plantoid: it'd be tough to collect grey water; our house is on a concrete slab. We could collect from the sinks, but shower would be impossible and the tub would have to be bailed out. I don't know why they haven't implemented water restrictions yet. I expect it'll have to happen eventually, though. We don't even have a river in our county, so the city gets our water from underground here. I'll tell you one thing, the water bill has gone up every year, so we're trying to find every way possible to conserve water wherever we can. I'll be finding flow-reducers for all the sinks, and trying to find some cheap low-flow toilets this summer when my husband's summer pay kicks in; we already have water-saver shower heads since that's where the majority of the water seems to flow from. The only time I take a deep, hot bath is when I hurt so much I can't move, and then I really need it!

If you have a toilet that has a water tank and ballcock valve , simply fill a polybag with water and slip it in the tank this will reduce the amount of volume of the tank and save you water each time you flush it. Some folks use bricks but they can break down and cause probs in the syphon & seal waterlift device. play with the amount of water in the bag til you get just enugh to flush the lumps away .

This even works in a dual flush toilet that used 4 pints to flush pee and 10 to do the remainder .

Unmutual wrote:

GWN wrote:

The lawn sees none of it, only the vegetables.

It would seem like a good time to consider getting rid of lawns altogether.
Lawns are a concept dreamed up by the british (I think) so that they could see the enemy coming from further away. Back then, and back there watering was not an issue, but in many parts of the US it IS an issue. Plantoid I am SURE you are going to correct me.

Why would anyone waste precious water on something as useless as Lawn.

Lawns were 'invented' by the British, but had nothing to do with defense, but more to do with showing other people how rich they were. Lawns were(and still are) status symbols mostly. However, I totally agree with you. Lawns are a complete waste of resources and one of the largest offenders of fertilizer misuse(well, not the lawn itself, but the people who use the fertilizer improperly and therefor contaminate waterways and the water table).

I hope to start pulling up most of my front lawn in a year or two, once I have the back yard established and functioning properly.

Piffle & Balderdash .. lawns were invented by god to hide weeds and to give you somewhere to walk up & down whilst observing nature and what youhave done twice a week without leaving home.

Lawns were originally patches of grass & weeds cropped short by geese & ducks or sheep & yes they did get developed as defence things as well .. Youn try hiding on a cropped 1 " high expanse of sloping ground that has been lanscaped smooth devoid of trees ....Zap ....an arrow through the chest PDQ thats for sure or at the very least a couple of dozen decent sized rocks from above you to split your head open or break limbs .

I've never had a lawn that needed watering other than for the first couple ofdays after sowing the grass seeds .

Like the ANSFG's ..it's the prep of the lawn that is the secret..

Here all my lawns are dug down to nearly thre feet deep ,all the rubbish , brick and concrete taken out . As the trenches have been back filled I've added something like 9 tons in total of well rotted stable muck with wood pulp & some five of last years barely rotted stable muck with straw bedding.

This makes for a massive sponge and barrow loads of both types of worms .

It will be good for around thirty years even if just left unloved and cut when needee so long as the cutting are removed and the grass is not scalped & cut shorter than 1 inch or so

Once levelled , sown and rolled when it is three inches high it will not get much more than cutting back to 2 inches high and removing all the cuttings .

Though I will be scarrifying the top with the de thatcher every three months to remove any moss build up and to aireate & strengthen the top 1/2 inch or so of grass plants .( they put down deeper roots )

Twice a year early spring and late autumn it will get a full 2 inch spike aireation from the Mantis rototiller , each time followed by a simple light dressing of homemade earth based sieved compost. which will then get gently worked over the aireation holes with a soft sweeping brush or a long swishy old sea fishing rod to get the compost down into the holes left by the aireatiing.

We don't need to water very much even in the veg garden for here in Wales just off on the top of a big hill we get an average of 42 inches of rain per year that is driven in off the Bristol channel & the Irish sea weather systems.

The masses of sea water around the whole of the islands of the UK & Southern Ireland also stabilizes the temperatures which makes us good for growing all sorts of slow growing crops and salad stuff .

We can do as you do and use glasshouse / green house or polytunnel things to extend the seasons . Here it's not unusual to use an unheated glasshouse all year round for everything we can garden grow as well as big beef steak tomatoes and other hotter clime plants from May to the end of October .

Barely four miles away there is the Welsh National Botanical gardens , they have massive architectural glasshouses that run the whole gamut of plants from or cold to tropical & desert climates.

They use solar energy & wind power for most if not all the heating in the glasshouses that are heated.

I'd like to make a big solar & PV water heater system to store heat all year round and then give in back in a controlled & highly regulated manner so I can gently warm the glasshouse in winter but that's another story in my book of life & a near empty wallet..

Piffle & Balderdash .. lawns were invented by god to hide weeds and to give you somewhere to walk up & down whilst observing nature and what youhave done twice a week without leaving home.

Lawns were originally patches of grass & weeds cropped short by geese & ducks or sheep & yes they did get developed as defence things as well .. Youn try hiding on a cropped 1 " high expanse of sloping ground that has been lanscaped smooth devoid of trees ....Zap ....an arrow through the chest PDQ thats for sure or at the very least a couple of dozen decent sized rocks from above you to split your head open or break limbs .

Although (of course) I cannot find evidence, I have read where the old castles of england were once surrounded by forest and the area surrounding the castles were thus planted with grass to give the castle owners an early opportunity to see pillagers from afar...

plantoid wrote:I've never had a lawn that needed watering other than for the first couple ofdays after sowing the grass seeds .

Oh, how I wish this was the case for us. Here in FL, the houses are built and sodded with St. Augustine grass brought in on pallets and put down in squares. With the watering restrictions of 2x a week, the grass struggles to survive but you can be fined if you are caught watering on your non-watering day. The homeowners association will also come after you if your yard looks like the grass is in need of re-sodding. It's a catch-22. It does help having a sprinkler system that you can run early in the morning or late at night while it is still dark. It's one of the only ways to really keep the grass from dying during the hot summer months. Because of how difficult it is, it usually results in re-sodding every few years. I think in the 16 years I've lived in this house, we've had to re-sod 5 or 6 times - about the 3rd time is when we put the sprinkler system in. So far this year, three of my neighbors have re-sodded and there are spots that I need to get some sod and put down.