A few weeks ago, I wrote about the California drought and some of the things I’ve been doing to conserve water.

Well, I’m here to report that … I was billed for MORE water, not less, in June.  1,496 gallons more, to be precise.

Baffled?  Frustrated?  Me?  well, yes, a little.  Even though that’s still 2,244 gallons less than I used in June of last year.

After expressing my frustration in a few hours of pouting, sulking, and some strong language, I’m forging onward anyway.  And I’m attributing the results to two potential causes.

First:  In May, I was away every weekend at the Renaissance Faire.  That’s fewer showers (a huge water slurper) and less dishwashing, even though it’s also a little more laundry.

Second:  For at least a couple of weeks in June, I didn’t know it, but I had a broken sprinkler in the front lawn that was gushing instead of sprinkling.  That really sucks up water like mad.

So I’ve fixed the sprinkler head, and installed drip systems into the front flower-beds instead of bubblers.  And I’ve set all my sprinkler zones to adhere to the new watering restrictions that started on July 1st.  I’ve cut way back on some of the zones, because now that the plantings are established, they really don’t need that much water.  In fact, I suspect that the dead bush I took out over the weekend was a victim of too much water.  (I hasten to add that I wasn’t watering that area prolifically – but it was a bush that requires almost no water once established.)

I also made the startling discovery that I had already completely turned off the sprinklers on the stretch outside my fence that’s my VERY-low-water-use garden.  I thought I had it running once a week for just a few minutes, but nope.  Well, that would explain why several of the plants there were looking a tad peaked, but WOW.  The others – including a lovely mass of scented geraniums about six feet across - hadn’t had any water in months!

It’s a little hard to see at this size, but that’s yarrow on the right.

The palo verde is obviously having a blast – just look at those blooms! – and it never gets watered.  (It’s about three feet tall by now – I planted it a few years ago as just a tiny little seedling.)

Just for fun, here’s the whole length of what I call the “dry garden.”  The rock retaining wall, dubbed by a friend of mine “the great wall of Oceanside,” took me about five months to build a few years ago, and includes something like five tons of rock – all transported in my van, by me, and unloaded and stacked by me.  It was fun, and I didn’t even break any bones!  From end to end, it’s roughly 90 feet long; the height at the far end in this photo is maybe 12 inches, on up to two or two and a half feet at the near end.

That’s gilt-edged silverberry hanging over the fence – a bush that thinks it’s a vine, so I end up wrestling it out of the trees.  It redeems itself with its vivid foliage and the most amazingly-scented late-summer blooms.

The plant overhanging the rock wall underneath the silverberry is ceanothus, or California Lilac.  It’s just about done blooming, but it was in full blue glory a few weeks ago.  It has a reputation for being difficult to grow, but the answer is easy:  just don’t water it!

The things you can’t see are gaura (whirlybirds – very fun bloomer), rosemary, jade tree, and two white sage seedlings.  I am watering those by hand, once every week or two, since I just planted them.  Yes, that’s incense sage!  I’m looking forward to making my own sage smudge bundles when they grow up a little bit.

I’m hand-watering just a couple of things in that garden aside from the sage.  And I’ll run the drip system here for just a few minutes once a month.   (There’s no drip on the palo verde!)  We haven’t had rain since sometime in March, I think.  Pretty amazing, huh?

I’m monitoring the other areas of my garden to see what happens; some of them may need a little more than they’re getting.  The lawn doesn’t count. I’d be overjoyed, frankly, if it all died, though since it’s Bermuda grass, a.k.a. the unkillable snakelike grass from hell, I’m not hopeful.  What I would really love to do is plant a dry garden in the whole front yard, replacing all the grass!

And that’s the water update for the June billing cycle.  I can truthfully say that I am actually looking forward to receiving the July bill, because I’m very curious as to what it will be!

For more information about great low-water Mediterranean-style gardening, see Nan Sterman’s website Plant Soup..