Incentives? Maybe. Warnings and citations? No.

by angela@diggingbliss | Mar 4, 2014 | Uncategorized

Just saw the Bee headline, Sacramento City council may OK ‘cash for grass’ program. “Cash for Grass” incentives are an intriguing idea, but they have to be well thought out. You’ll give me money if I rip out my lawn and plant… what? Veggies? Ivy? Irish moss? Roses? Hydrangeas? Or can I only plant plants the City deems drought-tolerant, like rosemary and Mexican feather grass?

Will my tony neighbors a few blocks down in the Fab 40s, with their sweeping rows of tulips and grass and thirsty edging plants have to rip it all out or face stiff fines? Or will we all just start watering at night, which we know is bad for plants.

Will we have the Plant Palette Police cruising our streets by day? Will gardeners holding watering cans have to dive into the nearest bush to avoid scrutiny? And what if my front yard is a crispy salute to all things Mediterranean while my private backyard is a sloshing frenzy of grass, fountains, a pool, leaky faucets and frequent hose fights and slip-n-slide fests? Water is water.

Apparently, front yard warnings are already being issued. And what about tiny yards with thirsty plants? And what about my irrigation system? A leaky drip system is no better than sprinklers that run a couple times a week watering a less-thirsty dwarf Fescue lawn.

I’ll bet my lawn uses a gazillion times less water than the new downtown arena’s Farm to Fork display will. Proceed with caution, City of Sacramento. Some of us are pretty fed up with you right now.

Let’s keep an eye on this, Sacramento gardeners. A decision from the Sacramento City Council is expected tomorrow.

Tulips!

by angela@diggingbliss | Feb 16, 2014 | Uncategorized

Look what I unearthed from under a pile of leaves today! Tulips! Since we seem to be getting farther and farther away from freezing temps and finally had a decent rain after a record-breakingly dry winter, suddenly there’s life in the garden! Within just a few days, my tulips burst out of the ground. It’s exciting, and I still have blooms to look forward to!

The weather has been so funky lately (said the spoiled Californian)… with a winter freeze that turned my magnificent blooming Cupheas and Princess bush into crinkly beige sticks and many grey days without sufficient rainfall. I kept telling myself, “Jeez, I need to water.” It was an adorable notion, because the irrigation curse that had been placed on this house long before I moved is still in full force. I turned on the water and nothing happened. Dry silence. The next morning, however, we awoke to a flooded front lawn, with water seeping up from below quite spookily, and a flooding gutter.

A pipe had cracked, so Kim heroically threw on his sweats began digging in the cold, wet muck before heading off to work. All is good now, but we will need to gut the existing irrigation system at some point. On that note, our plans to re-landscape and fix up the kitchen have evolved into the possibility that we may add on a second story. Yup!

At my aunt’s urging, we had consulted her architect about how to approach a kitchen remodel. During our consultation, he made an eye-opening observation about the fact that no matter how much we spend on a new kitchen, the house will still be under 800 square feet. So in order to do a smart kitchen remodel, we may be increasing our house size.

At this point, we’re waiting to see the architect’s sketched ideas and then we’ll decide how to proceed. There’s a backyard re-landscape in our future, but we’re not sure when it will happen since we’ve shifted gears. What we’ve learned from all of this house and yard stuff is that, like planting tulips, it’s a process, and sometimes you don’t know what you’re going to end up with until you’ve done some of the work.