Off-topic question...FRC: Drought discussion - is container gardening helpful?

M

mariadnoca

Moderator
I've looked around the web and haven't really seen anyone addressing the drought we currently are looking at here in CA and the west from a veggie garden POV.

I think it's safe to say produce is going to take a severe hit, especially hearing today the Fed said no to any water relief for CA farmers.

I'm already using gray water to give to my lemon tree as the lemons were starting to shrivel up. This was the year I really wanted to get a garden in, but now...seeing salmon can't even spawn because the rivers don't reach the ocean/etc and some towns are near to running out of water with the state saying - don't come to us we're hoarding what little we have.

I'm feeling like a small garden is not in the cards - unless I can come up with some real water saving ways to get a few things growing without any water waste. Containers? Or maybe I should be thinking dust bowl and save all water to keep folks alive...I don't know. I've heard of dry farming tomatoes, but not sure how that's done or if it fits this problem.

Thoughts?

http://i788.photobucket.com/albums/yy163/4ebay_bucket/Garden/IMG_2505_zpsbdf72230.jpg

http://i788.photobucket.com/albums/yy163/4ebay_bucket/Garden/ffd90f11-7ba4-44ed-b4f3-91248ffde1d6_zps0aa66ab6.jpg

This is the Almaden Reservoir near me, folks normally water ski here:

http://i788.photobucket.com/albums/yy163/4ebay_bucket/Garden/REUCALIFORNIADROUGHT2_zpsf7a34b07.jpg

 
Container gardening is definitely water-efficient, and it might be the thing to do this year

rather than starting a garden in the ground. I'm going to be writing up a detailed article about saving water for our community gardens which I can share. One of the best ways I know of saving water in the kitchen is to wash salad greens, veggies, etc. in big bowls rather than the sink and use that water to water the garden. It's not even grey!

 
Oh good tip! -- I'd love to see the newletter when if comes out. Thank you!!

This is the reservoir near my house, so mandatory rationing, like we had in the '70's or worse, can't be far behind.

(Couple weeks ago the north bay got 12" of rain, but given we have the coastal mtns/redwoods between us and the ocean, we got .16 of an inch. Not good.)

I've been using my canning pot in the sink for any running of water/rinsing dishes and a big plastic bucket (free from the grocery store bakery - icing comes in them) in the shower. That's going toward the garden so far.


http://i788.photobucket.com/albums/yy163/4ebay_bucket/Garden/REUCALIFORNIADROUGHT2_zpsf7a34b07.jpg


http://rack.3.mshcdn.com/media/ZgkyMDE0LzAxLzMxLzE4L2NhbGlmb3JuaWEuNzBhZjkuanBnCnAJdGh1bWIJODUweDU5MD4KZQlqcGc/6499dfcf/017/california_drought_6.jpg

http://media1.onsugar.com/files/2014/02/04/969/n/1922398/b8e52ae8a8c7c5cb_465648153_10.jpg.xxxlarge/i/ground-dry-cracked-bottom-San-Jose-Almaden.jpg

 
Maria, are you sure the lemons in your picture were the result of lack of water? We had lemons that

looked like that, but from the freezing temps NoCA had this winter. We covered our tree with frost cloth, but could not reach the top of the tree. The lemons up there did what yours did. We watered our tree all winter because of lack of rain.

 
Great tip! May I offer another....we have a five gallon bucket in our shower

to catch the water we use waiting for it to warm up. Then we take a GI shower,(get wet, turn off water, soap up and wash, turn on water, rinse, turn off) we stand directly over the bucket during the rinse to catch as much water as possible. Some families we know are standing in garbage cans (new ones, purchased for this) to shower and catch any water. It is a pain, for sure. I am not agile enough to get into a small garbage can, much less get out of it...LOL!

 
oh my goodness! looks like an after apocalypse movie set. dreadful. real.

and I had to use spellcheck in Word to spell apocalypse correctly!

 
Yes, they looked fine until: no water, no water, no water

I was able to cover it well for the freeze and only got maybe 2 leaves with part damage. Also it fits into the L corner of the house that protects against wind plus, has some roof overhang coverage - both give it quite a bit of freeze protection.

I hadn't been watering, normally I never have to, then I started seeing less juice, then wrinkle/shrivel. Also, due to lack of water the lemons are small. All signs say it's thirsty. I did a slow deep watering I let run for 2 days last week, but no bounce back yet.

Today the water company asked us to cut back another 10%. We are only at 20% reduction, but I expect they will have asked us to cut back a lot more come summer.

Back in the '70's they came and put water restrictors on homes that didn't cut back...wonder if they will again? This go round is so much worse, not to mention we have something like 16M more people.

I'm looking forward to tomorrow's "storm", but often the mtns get most of the rain and down here at sea-level we barely get anything, so we shall see.

 
I'm doing this too and I'm going to try to catch roof run-off

I have a couple of spots I get pretty good roof run-off I'm going to stick some garbage cans under, in case it actually rains enough to collect some for the yard.

 
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