Steamy: awww, your comment warms my heart You totally get what I mean.

I think there MANY people have been having a hard time in SoCal re: water and gardening (and life!), so sorry to hear it!

I think we had 2.3 inches in the afternoon two days ago. My climate is definitely different than yours. Where you have to worry about too little water and heat we have to worry about too much water and cool or down right freezing temps.

Drip irrigating is definitely a good way to go.

I suggest also doing ollas (buried unglazed terra cotta jugs) to do an even better job.

Here is some info on the olla concept (found at this link http://cals.arizona.edu/cochise/mg/pdf/Apr05.pdf this is a PDF).

“Irrigation of plants by means of ollas, unglazed pottery jars, is an ancient practice. It was brought to the American Southwest by Spanish settlers and adapted to local gardens by Native American gardeners as well as by the Spanish settlers.

Over time, modern irrigation systems were adopted, but these modern systems are not as efficient as irrigation by seepage from buried ollas. Modern systems, even surface drip irrigation systems loose more water to evaporation and more likely to clog than ollas.

When ollas are used properly, plant roots will proliferate around the moist clay jar, intercepting water before it can move through the soil by capillary action. This water intercepted by plant roots will then be used in the plant transpiration stream. This results in almost 100% of applied irrigation water being absorbed by the plants. Proper plant and olla selection is important. Woody plants may break the pottery jars as their woody roots grow in diameter.

Herbaceous plants are less likely to damage ollas. Olla porosity, size, and shape must be matched to plant water needs, root size and root distribution. Deeply rooted plants benefit from deeper ollas, shallow rooted plants are more efficiently irrigated with shallow ollas. The diameter of the olla may also be chosen to match the diameter of the plant cluster.

Shallow, broad, ollas will provide adequate irrigation for clumps of grasses and annuals, Olla plantings should be planted in clusters to maximize water use efficiency. While the planting group may be of one plant type, mixtures of grasses, annuals, biennials, and perennials may also be planted around a single buried olla. Mixtures of plant types may be used to create a more natural landscape. The olla clusters may themselves be clustered to create more expansive or linear plantings.

The olla pottery may become a decorative element in the landscape along with large rocks and flagstones. Portions of olla left exposed above ground should be treated to prevent evaporation.

To modernize these ancient irrigation systems, the jars may be recharged by a drip irrigation system, timed and sized to replace water lost from the ollas. Recharge of ollas may be done daily, or as frequently as allowed by water conservation ordinances.

Some gardeners make ollas from plastic bottles pierced by pin holes to allow slow leakage of water. When buried near the plants to be irrigated they serve well as ollas, however, the plastic breaks down quickly if exposed to sunlight and should be covered with flagstone or other material to protect from sunlight.

In the search for ollas to irrigate woody plants and trees we are experimenting with porous concrete ollas reinforced with plastic or metal mesh. The recipe for a porous concrete will be the subject of a follow-up article next month.”

Remember to not use city water as it is chlorinated and has other chemicals. Do NOT use distilled either, especially right on the plant. You cant use rain barrels because, well, you dont really GET rain. I can see only one way of getting non-chlorinated water, use a filtration system. That can be expensive too! I am sure that there are gardening groups in your area that have found clever ways to deal with this.

If I could send you all some rain I would!

Nika

Your garden has come out beautifully! All that hard work has paid off!

I have a question about the recipe above. When you simmer the beet stems in the water for the polenta, do you leave them in or strain them out before you add the polenta? It looks divine, I can’t wait to try it – I love beets but have never used the greens before.

I have had a hard year in my garden, living in southern California where we have had only 2.3 inches of rain this year. But I have learned so many lessons and gained so much knowledge that it has been anything but a wasted year! I have been making copious notes of my mistakes and learning what I should do from blogs like yours as well. Next year drip systems!

Did you know that beet seeds are actually clusters of seeds (little dried fruits with multiple seeds) so you almost always have to thin them (which I hate, dont wanna waste!). Supposedly, there are some which have only one seed but I dont know where to get those (have to look into that)