Re: Re. Evolution of a Gardener

Hi Ben,

 

Another early morning start to try to avoid the heat. A 'cool' change arrived after midnight lowering the temp about 5 degrees.

Do I water? Yes, I do. I water my small vegetable garden. We water opur pot plant collections. I water newly set plants until they are established - one year or two. I top up three large tubs filled with water, aquatic plants and gold-fish. I put out water for the birds and animals.

We have tap water - unlimited in the house, limited to 1 hour a day for the garden, and rain water tanks - 60,000 gallons and about 26 inches of rain per year mostl;y falling from the end of April through to the end of November. The point of difference is that NONE of the water we use leaves our land. It is all recycled into the garden. Our house is about 1846 and at some stage early two large drainage soaks were excavated parallel to and either side of the house running about one third the length of our land. All the household 'waste' water from kitchen laundry and bathrooms goes into these. (We choose our cleaning agents and detergents on biodegradability of the contents and never put fat or scraps down the sinks. The 'system' has worked without apparent fault all that time. Our toilet water is treated on site by an old-fashioned septic system installed post WW2 and also soaks away in another part of the garden with no odours and no apparent detriment to trees and plants tho' it isn't anywhere near our vegetable garden. we've been here 35 years with two kids, heaps of friends and parties, family shows, open garden days etc and only had it serviced once.

The rainwater tanks are used exclusively for our pot plants and the goldfish bowls. I have a large greenhouse with bromeliads, terrestrial bromeliads, tillandsias, adeniums, Madagascan euphorbias, masses of dwarf aloes and haworthias, a few orchids, some epiphytic cacti. Outdoors under a big old tree we keep hostas in pots alongwith various lilium hybrids and several Japanese maples in big tubs. On our front proch my wife keeps a good collection of geraniums. In a sunny area I have two standard Bay trees - one golden leaved form and the other willow leaved, big agaves, big aloes, a pair of olive trees, several lantanas, some summer bulbs that need watering - cyrtanthus, chlidanthus, valotta, the odd arisaema or two, potted herbs and annuals mixed in pleasing colour combinations. I think you'd agree our garden is one of variety and interesting plants, colour, some perfume - perfectly within the usual idea of what a garden is.

We have plenty of native birds - small blue wrens(insects I think), fire finches(grass seeds), silver eyes (insects), eastern spinebills (nectar), rosellas -sm colourful parrots and big cockies (large parrots) black and white sp. We have koalas moving through our garden all the time, mostly at night, and we have kangaroos around tho' none resident, the garden being way too small. We also have heaps of native lizzards but no snakes. It is alsmost all exotic plants and I conclude our native birds appreciate the shelter of my many dense, thorny rose species plus the hips, the water we put out every day, our walnuts - the parrots and cockies get the lot at this time of year when other native  kernels and seeds are in very short supply, they like and use all the trees for nesting and roosting. I think we get along pretty well with our native fauna though I am glad the pesky possums no longer live here since we had all the gaps in the roof plugged with heavy duty wire mesh.

So I think we use our water pretty well without wasting any. We don't have any sort of techno-based irrigation system. Mostly I spot water with a bucket or hand held hose. I don't wash our cars here, we don't have a hard paved drive so I don't sweep or hose it. We shut down our s/pool and use it as a minor water storage which we pump out two or three times a year. In fact we don't have any hard paving much apart from the decking over the old pool and some paving skirts around the foundations of the house.

 

I need some coffee ........ if it stays hot I'll get back soon.

 

trevor

 

 

 

 

 

 



On Mon 11/01/10 3:14 PM , Ben Wiswall benwiswall@pacbell.net sent:

Hi Trevor,
Thanks for your thoughtful response.  I'll try and answer it as best I can: I do love a dialogue, it does wonders to sharpen and clarify thoughts!

Yes, I agree humanity changes the environment in drastic and irreversible ways, mostly unintentionally.
But not all our activities are equally destructive. There is clear-cutting old-growth virgin timber, and there's managed forestry.  There is sport hunting with licenses and set seasons, and there's poaching.  In other words, I think civilization can be done right, and it can be done wrong.

In the interest of doing civilization right, I'd like to garden right.  This means not damaging areas outside the garden gate by activities I perform inside the garden gate.  The biggest impact my gardening has revolves around water, siphoning it away from somewhere else, and then dumping it somewhere downstream.

As for native plants, it is an ambiguous term, but for purposes of wildlife value I'd say native is within 100km or so.  I've also heard the Pacific Flyway of migratory birds as a good area for defining California "native".  (Which means I could plant anything from a Guadalupe Island Palm to a Redwood in my Los Angeles garden and be "native": a little broad for me).

I think the need to preserve native life is more acute in California than many places.  Civilization is so new here: I am the first person to actually cultivate the ground my garden is on.  Before the housing development I live in was built in 2004, it was a cattle ranch for maybe 180 years or so, and before that it was hunting grounds for the Chumash peoples.  Being the first gardener here is a big responsibility!

And one I feel I have failed.  I used to think smugly that my garden of Olives and Cistus was so much more appropriate than my neighbors' Queen Palms and Begonias, but from the point of view of the local fauna it's all equally alien, and all equally inedible.
This is why I want to plant some (mostly local) native plants: I like to see the Quail and Roadrunners and Bushtits, the Alligator Lizards, the Rabbits and Raccoons and even the Coyotes we've elbowed out of their homes.  I hope that by my gardening choices we can coexist.

As for using elaborate irrigation systems to provide water carried long distances via aqueducts and canals, I don't think there's anything wrong with it conceptually: we are a clever species, and it's a clever thing to do.  It's only a problem when it starts seriously damaging whole ecosystems (like the Sacramento Delta) due to thoughtlessness, waste and inefficiency.

I'm not sure what you mean by saying irrigation creates a garden design dead end.  Especially if you see the Robert Irwin gardens at the Getty as Art with a capital A (and I agree with you, those extravagant gardens are art).  Which is it? You can't have it both ways.

Thanks for the input Trevor.  Do you really not irrigate at all?  Does your garden look like a garden?  Without irrigation, my garden would look so austere, and be so low maintenance, I'd have to find another hobby to love.

Yours, Ben A-W
Simi Valley, CA
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