Anyone hesitating to order for spring with the continuing total water BAN?
drought
Spring? I didn't do anything for fall. I will get some seeds and maybe some perennials, but no shrubs or trees until they lift the ban.
I'm mail-ordering a few trees and shrubs... but only rugged natives in small sizes. Last fall, I mail-ordered a few plants but paid a local nursery to plant (to qualify for the 30-day watering). I'm so used to carrying around buckets with "saved" water that I think I can keep smaller plants alive. Trees and shrubs are my priority - we just bought our house last year. I've always wanted a woodland garden and it was too depressing to not plant anything...
It is depressing. Not that I disagree with it if the resevoirs are low, but it still stinks.
We must save the mussels and oysters.
I just read on ajc.com that some watering will be allowed starting April 1st - but no sprinklers. But I'll still be using "saved" water and rainwater... Next summer might very well be problematic...
I think the governor lifted the total ban today. My understanding it will return to odd water, even water.
I work at Walmart and they canceled many of the orders because they were afraid they wouldn't sell with the ban.
Georgiaredclay, you are RIGHT!! A friend mailed me the article in the AJC from Wednesday. I'll find it and link it.
I can't link from my outlook. Here is the website. VERY interesting guys, there is some hope for us. Everybody has to be VERY prudent about water though!
http://www.ajc.com/services/content/metro/stories/2008/02/06/water_0207.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=13
Hopefully copying the addres works etc. Sorry I am not very good at this.
Tulip
Aha, is this how it works??? The link works. It only goes to show old dogs CAN learn new tricks!!!! LOL
Tulip
Hand watering 25 minutes a day (on the days you can water) isn't going to do much if it is another dry summer. Who can water their whole yard by hand in 25 minutes? This is a real joke and shouldn't even make the news.
Speaking of news... Georgia has miraculously found the drought solution! All we have to do is correct an incorrect 1818 survey and annex part of Tennessee! Much easier than building reservoirs, desalination plants, etc.... Before this summer I hope to have rain barrels...
Well I will have to forego lawn again this year, but maybe my perennials will live!
Everyone should be doing a rain dance. Rain always better than watering. Its been dry for a few years, some year here it's got to start raining again. We also haven't gotten any hurricane rain for a few years. I live on the coast can tell you it's been way to quite on the hurricane front. I haven't seen a feeder band in years which is a good thing but they will be back, it's just a matter of time.
I feel so bad for all of you. Flooding in OH and you can't catch a break. Even we got a little rain this year and we were only getting close to your situation. Best of luck - I'll keep praying for rain for y'all!
I guess I am in somewhat less of a predicament because we have a constantly flowing creek adjoining our property. We installed a pump last year, with a 100ft hose so I can water my whole lawn. I installed soaker hoses in flower beds on a timer, works perfetly!
The soaker hoses have been on 2x p/wk for 7 minutes only, but I have young plants "who don't know any better" ??? they might not grow as fast perhaps.
This is a wonderful opportunity for everyone to continue thinking about alternative ways to water your landscape. Instead of being frustrated, why not change your gardening plans and use some of the money you might spend on plants to go towards some sort of water collection means for yourself.
Rain barrels, a cistern, or at the flower show they had this thing that you put in your crawl space that filled with water...sort of like a giant inter tube. Air conditioner water saving, a barrel to dump your grey water or shower run off water into...
Hooked up to a small pond pump or a submersible pumps and you'll be off rockin and rollin! You can pump right into a soaker hose system and have automatic watering!!
I made 6 rain barrels last year and am thinking of new and inexpensive ways to continue collecting water so that I can keep my water bill lower and not use water that could be used for drinking (or the future) etc.
GGG
I am incorporating permaculture into all of my designs on a go forward basis. All of my veggie beds have been changed to no-till. I am going to build swales come the spring and a lot of our beds will be fed by drip irrigation.
I'll post some pics when I get a chance.
BB
I think micro-drip irrigation is the smart thing to do (it takes quite an effort to set it up for all the plants, but it is so much more efficient than sprinkling). Is drip irrigation allowed under the 25 minutes hand-watering rules proposed by the guv though? Soaker hoses work well too especially if you have row crops.
GGG, the water pillow at the SFS was kind of neat but boy is it expensive. For $2,500 you get a 1,000 gallon "pillow". I'm thinking a rubber lined pond could be much larger and cheaper for enterprising souls.
Here is a bit of trivia: one inch of rain on an acre is over 27,000 gallons (about 113 tons of water).
What's a water pillow?
A water pillow is the name of the contraption. It looks like a blow up mattress or water bed mattress. Here is the web site:
http://rainwaterpillow.com/
Nice concept. Too bad it requires a crawlspace. I'm on a slab.
BB
It can be put almost anywhere if you have the tubing and protect it during winter is what I understood when I talked to the owner.
If you have a natural source that's the way to go but it's still a pain to cover a big yard or garden effectively. Also planting less water demanding plants and trees is always good. Salvia is nice and doesn't like water at all. Just one thought. Drip irragtion is great for saving water. If you put a few ideas together you might come up with a good solution. One big mistake I see is shallow watering. Especially laws. If you let the lawn dry out in between waterings the roots will grow farther down. The most I ever water is twice a week and that's rare. Watering every day is not needed at all and every other day is over kill.
I still think cisterns are a good idea but not cheap if your water is cheap. I my area I've had neighbors hit $300 or so in a month on their water bill. When you get into those numbers cisterns start to make much more sense.
$300 bucks a month???? WOW
That has to be for a family right?
BB
I've had $300 bills in the past but some of that was mainly due to faulty timers (more programming errors on my part but that shows how poor some of the systems people have to put up with). Leaks don't help but then the city knows of hundreds of leaks that don't get fixed (not a high priority).
I don't understand why water isn't a commodity to be traded among states, regions, and counties just like NG and electricity. Some communities are willing to pay for water and others are willing to sell it but the red tape prevents this for the most part.
The person in Cobb County (my county) that got all the press late last year for having used over 400,000 gallons of water in a month is what is really whack with the whole rationing idea. If the county couldn't do a thing about this obvious offender how are they going to monitor 25 minutes of hand watering? It makes no sense. Jack up the prices and see who starts to conserve and who laughs at the price hikes. It's like gasoline - as the price continues to climb, it will cause a lot of folks to buy more efficient cars, conserve, or continue paying what the market demands. It is the law of supply and demand - the utilities demand a lot of money and we supply it.
There are water ETF's and companies that can be traded but water isn't as simple as electricity. You have to realize what you guys do up in the mountians can effect us on the coast. Basicly if the rivers get cut off on the way to us, salt water will head up the rivers a long ways causing all sorts of problems. Out West they have a bunch of laws and agreements over water not just between states but Mexico and the USA.
Just a few thoughts.
Yes $300 is for a family but it's more to do with irragation. A family of four wil pay about $80-100 a month for inside consumption. If you have a bunch of tropical water loving plants and your lawn doesn't have deep roots you can run up $200 or so for irragation.
My water bills for winter are averaging $17 a month. The base charge is $7 and $3.50 is added for street lights. I pull maybe 50 gallons a week for watering around 500 pots.
The water to Mexico from the Colorado river is basically nil and void. So much for sharing with our neighbors. The west has grown due to changing the water flows dramatically over the last century. Laws need to change as the population grows and needs change.
If you were to conserve water collected from roofs and downpipes when it does pour, you might have water to spare when the dry weather cranks up the heat.
6 mil black plastic is not so pricey, mebbe $40 for 1000 sq ft? easy enough to make a pond of any size for collecting rainwater from a down pipe
Plonk a few hardy, tropical waterlilies and floating aquatic plants in it and the surface cover of the lilypads, salvinia or azolla will cut evaporation considerably...
With time the pond will be colonised by dragonflies, beetles, native winged beneficial insects, perhaps introduce a few mosquito fish and the pond will contribute to suppresing the local mosquito population...
Say you made a 40x7x2' deep pond, using a 100x10' roll of black plastic (double lined) that collected 3,600 gallons of rainwater, that could provide 50 gallons a day of water for irrigation for 72 days...
Regards, andy
http://s93.photobucket.com/albums/l42/adavisus/
This message was edited Feb 20, 2008 3:25 PM
Why use plants in the pond if you plan on draining it in times of drought? It's like farms that stock ponds with fish and then use the pond for watering in droughts - leaving the fish to die. I would just cover the pond with more black plastic to keep mosquitoes out, algae from growing, and evaporation to a minimum.
Nature is a cruel mistress at times.
The fish eat bugs etc. You don't want to make a skeeter pond.
Well when the pond runs dry, there won't be any skeeters anyway (nor fish).
True but you rarely (nornmally) drain the pond dry. You would need to get that really sealed to not get skeeters in your covered pond BTW.
Or use Mosquito Dunk.
Didn't think of that.
A pond would buy you some time, provide a cheap and reliable water supply for irrigation through a drought, assuming there is less occasions when it does rain, you get to conserve the water rather than waste it...
Aquatic plants can reduce evaportion almost completely and provide a barrier to mosquito's laying eggs.
A pond with the surface well shaded by aquatic plants will keep a pond 15°f cooler, encouraging good conditions for a diverse fish and insect population which will suppress mosquito. Any mosquito laying eggs on a healthy well balanced pond is going to be eaten...
No, you would not want to drain such an asset to the point of destroying the aquatic habitat, that would be a waste. You might set aside samples of the useful aquatic plants in a tub if push come to shove, you had to use every last drop and drain the pond
Regards, andy
http://s93.photobucket.com/albums/l42/adavisus/
I know that Perdue removed the ban but didn't I read that it was still left up to the county and Cobb is still a total water ban?
Mayor Franklin says Atlanta will still have a total water ban but you can fill your pools. The Guv says we can hand water 25 minutes on the 3 days a week based on your street address. I haven't heard where Cobb County stands on this issue.
I just went to the Cobb County Water website and it says "ALL outdoor water use is prohibited". I'm hoping this changes before spring.
I need to get some water keepers to catch this rain.
I truly hope all of you in North GA & Atlanta area have gotten as much rain this weekend & today as we have down here in South Ga. - over the weekend we got over 7" - all the ponds around are full to the brim, & I keep praying for Lake Lanier & other reservoirs up you way! We had more today, but I forgot to empty my rain gauge. . .