I am lucky to live in what I consider to be one of the most beautiful areas in the United States, Southern California. When one thinks of Los Angeles thoughts of palm trees, beach and sun come to mind, but very few of us realize that the Los Angeles area is very much a desert. One that is screaming with warnings that most of us are choosing to ignore.
Ever since I was a child I've heard of the water crisis in the area, and how we will one day run out. As a kid I often asked myself how so? There is water everywhere you turn a corner! There are lakes and rivers and the ocean is right there!
Fortunately, the naive child grew up, and now I can find out for myself of what I can do to coexist with this beautiful area without consuming all of its resources.
Southern California with its 20 million people gets it’s water from a variety of sources. Groundwater makes a small percentage and the remainder is imported from the Owens Valley, the Colorado River, and the State Water Project.
The Los Angeles Aqueduct carries water from the Sierra Nevada Mountains, to major urban areas of Southern California.
I often ask myself if people around me even know where our water comes from. It's almost impossible to ignore sprinklers outside of city buildings and some private homes feeding their large lawns even during the few times a year we get rain. Just in my neighborhood alone 3 out of 5 of my neighbors still hose down their driveways once a week.
It sometimes seems hopeless to even try to bring awareness to the issue, but we can't give up!
I keep on thinking what about if I could influence just one person to maybe replace their lawn for a California Native garden, then that person could pay it forward and so on. I think it's worth a shot!
So here I am! The purpose of this blog is to give away the little knowledge I have of our beautiful plants and local flowers, as well as sharing some simple and inexpensive design ideas for water wise landscaping along with other tips on how we can save money while conserving our precious water.
We have been expecting rain for a few weeks. I hope tonight is the night.
Good night world!
