Girding the grid for 20% water savings
Posted on | January 18, 2014 | 1 Comment
The Governor has issued a drought proclamation in which he has called on all Californians for a 20% reduction of their water use. This sounds almost reasonable, except as reservoirs are headed toward empty many homeowners are still under water financially. So asking the public to spend thousands on garden designers, native plants, rain harvesting systems and front-loading washing machines is untenable. Even taking advantage of soon-to-be juicy rebates may be beyond the common purse. Rebates are discounts, not giveaways.
The good news? This collision of drought and hard times may finally break LA’s insistence on year-round green lawns. The most cash-strapped householder should be able to find 20% savings if we could only adjust what we expect from urban landscaping. In that spirit, here follows a working man’s and woman’s guide to doing their part affordably to save California’s water supply. Click here to keep reading
Tags: chance of rain > drought > Emily Green > irrigation > lawn watering
Through a dragon brightly
Posted on | January 13, 2014 | 1 Comment
Asked in December 2012 by the Trust for Public Land to create a children’s climbing frame for a Los Angeles park, artist Jolino Beserra decided to cover it with thousands of pieces of broken tile, crockery and glass. The Trust agreed. Click here to keep reading
Third year in the garden
Posted on | December 17, 2013 | 8 Comments
This set of pictures captures a year in which I was away from the garden on a writing assignment for more time than I would have wished. Then, when home, I was inordinately preoccupied by the construction of new living quarters. But it is a source of tired satisfaction to report that, barring primping, the most important things in the garden were done and, for the most part, done right. Click here to keep reading
Judge decrees awards of rural water for Las Vegas “arbitrary and capricious”
Posted on | December 11, 2013 | No Comments
Spring Valley wetlands near the Great Basin National Park targeted by a Las Vegas pipeline. Photo: Emily Green
UPDATED 12/12: A Nevadan district judge has invalidated the largest groundwater awards in the Silver State’s history. In a decision published Tuesday, Senior District Judge Robert Estes found assurances from Nevada State Engineer Jason King that the engineer’s office could monitor impact of Las Vegas pumps proposed for rural valleys covering more than 20,000 square miles and drafting more than 27 billion gallons a year “arbitrary and capricious.” Click here to keep reading
Three days in Seattle
Posted on | November 20, 2013 | No Comments
An Angeleno giving a talk on landscape solutions for stormwater pollution in Seattle is a case of taking coal to Newcastle, but I did it anyway in an October 2013 address to the Northwest Horticultural Society. It was a revelation when hosts Gregory Graves and Ann LeVasseur of the NHS took me around the greater Seattle area to visit a number of gardens, including four stormwater projects. This Flickr set contains photos of a remarkable green street grid in the Broadview area, the “Growing Vine Street” project downtown, the “Swale on Yale” in the South Lake Union neighborhood and the madly impressive Madison Valley Stormwater Project near the Washington Park Arboretum.
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