Getting Through Our Long Dry Spell

It's been a weird year. The absence of winter rains combined with record heat has been very rough on our poor plants. How am I supposed to conserve water if I can't harvest rainwater?! In past years I boasted about not using any city water on my landscaping. This year was very humbling. 

Since most of our cisterns have been empty for a while, I was forced to use more city water than I would like to keep my plants alive. I confess that I have even watered our prickly pear when the pads were too emaciated to hold up the flowers.

I've given water to the native chiltepin to perk up the leaves and to the usually resilient rosemary plant that was beginning to yellow. When I saw the signs of leaves finally returning to the hackberry, I gave it some water to help it along. (I try to water them before it gets too hot - or at night - so it doesn't just evaporate.) 

The little bit of rainwater left in one barrel was reserved for my young pollinators and a few garden veggies sheltered by the Palo Verde.

Some native plants faired better in these conditions. I didn't have to water the desert broom or mesquite at all. 

Our durable curry was doing so well, I figured that was one place I could cut back on watering. Wrong.  The leaves wilted and yellowed. Lesson learned. I'm back to deep watering them with city water.

At least I have greywater, right? Nope. To make matters worse, our washing machine finally died - defying Dan's best efforts to repair it. So, for over a week, we didn't even have greywater for our pomegranate whose leaves were already stunted from the heat. We rushed to the appliance store and bought a new Energy Star washer. We were delighted to get a rebate from the city because it conserves water.... But that meant that it only supplied a gallon or two of greywater for our pomegranate and palm trees. And that water pooled by the entrance of the basin so it didn't even reach the tree.

Then it happened. I used up the last drops of rainwater from our rain barrel.

Now everything was on city water. I just have to keep them alive until monsoon season - in a month?!

Just when I thought it couldn't get any worse - a miracle occurred! It rained! 1/2 inch! In June?!

Dan was out in the rain clearing leaves from the gutter so every last drop of water could fill up the cisterns. Then he reshaped the greywater basin so the water reached the tree. My hero!

Our thirsty basin soaked in the rain. The spiderwort grew and bloomed. 

The moringa produced more nutritional leaves. 

The mesquite boasts green pods. Didn't I notice them before? Or were they just waiting for the rain? 

So I'm back to spoiling the pollinators and veggies with rainwater while conserving all the city water I can.

I'm usually more of an advocate for rain basins. But this experience has taught me the importance of having more cisterns to harvest rainwater for the plants in those basins. After hearing my story, a friend shared how she still had rain in her biggest cistern. She urged us to install the cistern sitting in the backyard before the monsoon storms arrive to get us through future dry periods. And so I can plant more pollinators! 

OK. Enough belly-aching. Here's some bunnies taking advantage of the moisture by the spiderwort I watered...

It's all worth it to keep my cooling plants alive until the monsoon rain arrives.