Re: Mediterranean irrigation

Michael--free water! I'm so-o-o envious.

Barbara

On Mon, 19 Jun 2000 21:24:31 PDT
 "michael larmer" <mlarm@hotmail.com> wrote:
> Charles
> 
> I must confess I find the whole subject of irrigation
> fascinating.
> So the opinions herein come from someone who has at times
> been
> captivated by the history and techniques, some of them
> quite ingenious, of 
> man's attempts at environmental modification by
> the addition of water.
> 
> My own current gardening includes a suburban home
> landscape and
> a 40 by 50 foot community garden plot here in Sacramento,
> and
> a small home in five acres of woods in the foothills
> about an hour from 
> here.  In each of these I have taken somewhat different
> approaches to water.
> 
> Here in Sacramento, at the confluence of two major rivers
> in one of
> the State's oldest cities, water is cheaply and readily
> available.
> It is in fact, unmetered, so any urge to conserve is
> strictly on
> a volunteer basis.  I have retained the front landscaping
> pretty
> much as laid out in the 1950's, with a large lawn of
> bermuda and
> fescue, for a number of reasons. Not the least of these
> is that
> someday I will probably want to sell the house.
> Additionally, if
> I have to I can let the bermuda go dormant in summer by
> drastically
> reducing watering, and it will still come back with the
> fall rains
> with little or no damage.
> 
> When I come home from a day of whatever, the temperature
> is hovering
> around 105*f, the humidity is about 20% relative, and
> there's a
> constant dry wind from the north that makes your eyeballs
> feel like
> sandpaper, I want to immerse myself in something lush,
> green, and
> soothing.  So the small backyard is both heavily planted
> and heavily
> irrigated.  I have tried other ways to get this effect,
> and many
> of the actual plants are somewhat drought tolerant
> (camellias for
> example) but I have to confess I have been unable to
> produce a cool,
> green oasis without the use of substantial amounts of
> summer water
> here in the central valley. A small recirculating
> fountain with the sound of 
> falling water also seems to help.
> 
> In the foothills, only an hour's drive, at an elevation
> 2500 feet
> higher,  I bought the oasis already pretty much
> established.  The woods are 
> mixed pine, oak, and madrone; there are an endless
> variety
> of interesting wildflowers that pop up from time to time;
> and I have
> so far confined my gardening efforts to the areas
> immediately surrounding 
> the house, except for a variety of bulbs and a couple
> of roses with large growth potential.  Here I have to
> pump water
> from a well, with resulting additional expense of
> electricity and
> occasional repairs.  I'm doing a whole lot of soil
> ammendment near
> the house, since it would appear that the area was
> scraped to level
> for the house, and if they saved the topsoil, I sure
> can't find it.
> I've been putting in, if not truly mediterranean plants,
> ones that
> I've found still living in abandoned gardens nearby, thus
> having
> demonstrated their ability to live in this particular
> area without
> supplemental watering.
> 
> Now these are both "mediterranean" gardens, I think,
> certainly in
> the broadest and historical sense of the word.  The first
> in that
> moorish tradition that produced some of the palace
> gardens in Spain
> (a man's home is his castle, after all).  The second more
> in keeping
> with that peasant tradition wherein a person gardens as
> best they can
> given the limitations of soil, weather, water,personal
> energy, and finances. 
> The trees, shrubs, and wildflowers so abundantly
> naturalized
> in these woods at 2500 feet get a summer about a month
> shorter than here on 
> the valley floor.  When it rains a half inch here in
> Sacramento, the same 
> storm system commonly deposits an inch and a half
> of rain in the hills.  Consequently, these same
> California natives
> can be difficult to establish here on the valley floor,
> with or
> without irrigation.
> 
> Daffodils are another example.  I can grow a lot of stuff
> at 2500 feet that 
> I lose here in Sacramento, partly due to cooler
> temperatures, partly to the 
> shorter summer dormant season, and partly
> due to those mysterious reasons that make gardening such
> an adventure.
> When you expand the horizen of plant selection to "the
> five mediterranean 
> areas of the world" the possibilities both for disaster
> and successful 
> discovery seem limitless.
> 
> I think that you are absolutely correct in your assesment
> of the watering 
> practices you describe from your fellow volunteers.  Hand
> watering is not 
> the long term answer to anything except houseplants.
> Eventually either the waterer or the wateree will expire.
> I would also agree 
> with you that the best overall plan in a garden,
> especially one
> staffed by volunteers, is either very simply maintained
> occasional
> irrigation or none at all. But you will lose plants.  And
> this can be 
> difficult if they are hard ones to obtain or have been
> provided at 
> considerable emotional investment by someone who has
> raised them from seed.  
> Additionally, depending on how hot it gets there, you
> have to be prepared for some of your stuff to look
> somewhat beat
> in the doldrums of summer. Some find this hard to accept
> in a public
> situation.
> 
> 
> As to watering the cactus garden, even cacti need an
> infrequent drink.
> Many of the choicer varieties from the mountain ranges of
> Arizona
> and Mexico (Sonoran species in general) get surprising
> amounts of summer 
> rainfall from the monsoon season just starting up about
> now.
> 
> So I guess it all depends on what you want to grow,  what
> luck you have with 
> the local conditions, and how persuasive you can be with
> your fellow laborers. Good luck and maintain patience. I
> think I kind of 
> gave up on group gardening when somebody "pruned" a
> Philadelphus I spent two 
> years establishing in the aforementioned community garden
> down to six inches 
> from ground level.  It is now  trying to reestablish its
> bearings up in the 
> foothills.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Yours most respectfully,
> Michael Larmer
> 
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