Super-savers\u2019 solutions…<\/b>Every night when I walk, I see water running down the street. Two questions: Why are folks still using sprinkler heads on steroids and why every night? Just wait \u2019til the City\u2019s plans to ration water hits them. We\u2019re in for a sober, count-the-gallons summer. As a flower garden designer, I\u2019ve been following the water crisis closely. The Anderson household\u2019s reasoning is this: The more we save inside, the more for plants and flowers outside. Our front-loading washing machine really helped (a big expense, but worth it). In the kitchen, a new misty sink aerator automatically limits us (turn it high and you take a bath!). Our crummy hot water system helps too\u2013I fill three buckets with five gallons of shower warm-up water for outside container plants. Kitchen warm-up (using plastic juice containers) keeps four backyard birdbaths fresh. Eve\u2019s Garden Guide\u2026<\/b>Still watering your grass daily? Here\u2019s how to limit that. Switch to three times a week immediately, adding a few minutes each session. Then reduce, one minute a week. We switched from three days to twice a week, same method, and the grass never looked better! Deeper roots, sturdier grass. Next, visit a nursery (Green Gardens Nursery is at Cass and Beryl) for three important helpers: \u2022 A moisture meter\u2013Use it religiously to check containers and flower beds. You\u2019ll be surprised every time. \u2022 Bark\u2013Pile it around shrubs and flowers. No weeds, much less watering. We use “fuzzy bark” (shredded redwood) from Armstrongs topped by Microbark from Green Gardens. \u2022 Succulents\u2013Instead of lobelia and alyssum in front, I plant two varieties of kalanchoe: “Thyseflora” has soft green paddles and is edged with red (also called “Flapjacks”) and “Tomentosa” offers gray-green, fuzzy finger-clusters with brown trim. Great for pots, full sun or part-shade. Dozens of other cool, unusual succulents await your choice. Get rid of water-wasters\u2026<\/b>We replaced one ratty grass section with Vigaro rubber bark, a neat brown solution. Stone paths with flagstones can reduce grass areas. And color helps immensely. We spray-paint old rattan or metal chairs and watering cans, with either cobalt blue or “garden green” from ACE Hardware. Use your imagination; even with less water, your garden can still be appealing.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Super-savers\u2019 solutions…Every night when I walk, I see water running down the street. Two questions: Why are folks still using sprinkler heads on steroids and why every night? Just wait \u2019til the City\u2019s plans to ration water hits them. We\u2019re in for a sober, count-the-gallons summer. As a flower garden designer, I\u2019ve been following the […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":275930,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11559","_seopress_titles_title":"UC San Diego to hold conference on challenges for Mexico\u2019s President-elect","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11559,12360,11551],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-275933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-beach-bay-press","category-duplicate","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=275933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275933\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/275930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=275933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=275933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=275933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}