“Abnormally dry”
A mild El Nino winter has meant abnormally dry conditions in the Pacific Northwest, Hawaii and the Rockies feeding the Colorado River, a key water supply source for seven western states, including southern California. Click on the map for NOAA's seasonal drought assessment.
The week that was 3/7-13/2010
“Late at night when you’re doing graffiti with the river’s sound, the freeways and with a full moon, you could look down at all the broken bottles and see a diamond-studded highway.” — Charles “Chaz” Bojórquez, one of the artists in the Pasadena Museum of California Art’s exhibit “The Ulysses Guide to the Los Angeles River,” “LA River Runs through it,” Wall Street Journal, March 10, 2010
Federal prosecutors this afternoon filed a criminal complaint that charges a Santa Monica sushi restaurant and one its chefs with selling Sei whale meat. — Press release, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, March 10, 2010
A pair of running shoes? 1,247 gallons. — “How to size up a ‘water footprint’,” Los Angeles Times, March 13, 2010
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The Dry Garden: “Spontaneous urban vegetation”
Weeds do so much cooling, aerating and stabilizing of vacant lots and roadsides that Harvard horticulturist Peter Del Tredici has taken to celebrating them as “spontaneous urban vegetation.”
But when a mother lode of seed from these fast-breeding, water-hungry plants germinates in a garden, particularly a drought-tolerant garden in Southern California, it’s war. It’s a water war.
By weeding after winter rains, you can allocate water to the right plants and cut off the thirsty interlopers. You’ll snare the seeds of weeds before they can spread. You’ll also clear out a sweaty little under-zone of greedy greens that block air and light from the plants that you want to thrive.
Click here to keep reading The Dry Garden in the Los Angeles Times. Or click here to read about Tredici’s intriguing new book “Wild urban plants of the northeast,” keeping in mind that, thanks to us, many of …
April uploaded
Hikes. Tours. Bugs. Plants. Landscape design courses. Spring. Southern California April dry garden event listings newly loaded. Or click here for March. If you have an event that you would like added to the calendar, please e-mail details to emily.green [@] mac.com.…
Rain in Spain
FROM NASA’s Earth Observatory: left is an image of southern Spain showing the course of the Guadalquivir River past Seville in March 2009. To the right is an image from March 2010, with blue areas around the river bank showing extensive flooding from late February rain. Click here to see the full resolution images.…
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