· WATER, AT WHAT COST?
· WATERING IN “TEXAS HOT” WEATHER
· HEAT WAVES
· FIRE THEN FLOODING!
· CALENDAR OF EVENTS
· FARMER’S MARKETS
Water, At What Cost?
Hallelujah for the Rain. Where were you when it started raining? I was on the trails at Brackenridge Park, when I smelled the wet soil, then felt the drops of water and the temperature dip.
I can’t tell you how great it was to feel Nature take a deep breath and exhale. That’s what the wind felt like blowing thru the trees.
But while it was a tantalizing taste of the future, Monsoon Season is approaching; it was not enough to satisfy the needs of lawns and plants in San Antonio.
This is the best time to discuss an article in mysanantonio.com by Bruce Davidson / Express News. It’s called “How much are we willing to pay for Green Grass?”
In it he discusses the current low prices of water for San Antonio, who receives this blessing thanks to the Edwards Aquifer.
But it is a bit unclear as to what the actual prices really mean to the average consumer, which pays by the gallon, not the acre foot. So I decided to break out Murphy’s Math again. This one is pretty straightforward.
1 acre/foot = 325,851 gallons
1 acre/foot = $283 (Edwards Aquifer)
100/gallons = 8.69¢
1 acre/foot = $668 (SAWS Storage)
100/gallons = 20.5¢
1 acre/foot = $1042 (Canyon Lake)
100/gallons = 32¢
1 acre/foot = $1094 (Regional Carrizo Aquifer)
100/gallons = 33.6¢
1 acre/foot = $3168 (Proposed Desalinization Estimate)
100/gallons = 97.3¢
Now we have numbers that we can wrap our head around. And remember, this is perhaps 1/3 of what it will ultimately cost to come out of the tap. This is just what it costs the city of San Antonio to purchase the water.
And the best quote of the article? {“By far, the best way to keep water costs down is conservation. Going to once-a-week landscape watering restrictions saves 45,000 to 60,000 million gallons a day, depending on the day of the week”, said Greg Flores, vice president of public affairs for SAWS}
Watering in “Texas” Hot Weather
Andrea DeLong-Amaya, horticulture director at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center has written an excellent article on watering in hot weather, Texas Style!
When they wrote the book on Gardening in Hot Weather, Texas has its own chapter.
The article is called “Helping Plants Handle Summer Heat”
In it she describes the use of native plants and positioning in the yard to best suit the plant’s needs.
But what I like to hear was her advice regarding drip irrigation.
To summarize, if you are using drip irrigation then you are getting water directly to the roots and not wasting a drop on any other surfaces or areas where it would just evaporate without watering any of the plants.
That is what we at H2O To Grow recommend for all homeowners. If your lawn is not already xeriscaped, please, let it go brown for the summer.
The amount of water used on lawns is approximately 30% of SAWS daily water usage for San Antonio.
Contact H2O To Grow for more information on installing a Water Reclamation or Rain Water Harvesting system with an attached drip irrigation system. Each home is unique, so each home’s system will be unique based on your needs and structures.
Heat Wave
Let’s start off with the definition first, though there is no standard one: heat wave is a prolonged period of excessively hot weather.
Now, if you live in Syracuse, New York, 2 weeks of 85° weather might have people passing out in the street, but here in Texas, that’s a good golf day. So a heat wave is also defined by its geographical area.
Right now, The Southern United States is
suffering a heat wave, and that’s like saying it feels unusually cold in Alaska around Christmas.
According to Jacqui Jeras, CNN article; “Record temperatures seen as heat wave plagues 23 states”, there are areas where the heat index has reached 110-115° this week.
Now, I have installed fencing and trellises in Ft. Worth, TX when the temp was at 113°, but that was what we were used to (and we took 15 minute breaks every 30 minutes). These neighbors to our North aren’t used to this.
We must prepare for prolonged periods of drought and heat hitting San Antonio and continuing on into October. And we must use as much care as possible to survive it. Here is an excerpt from CNN about that.
“Excessive heat is extremely hazardous to human health. According to information on the National Weather Service website, heat disorders can develop when the body heats too quickly to cool itself safely, or when a person loses too much fluid or salt by sweating or dehydration.
Signs of heat exhaustion include heavy sweating, pale and clammy skin, weak pulse, fainting and vomiting.
The agency suggests that people protect themselves from heat disorders by reducing activity during the hottest part of the day, wearing lightweight clothing and drinking plenty of water.” National Weather Service. So remember, check on your neighbors; check on your kids when they are outside playing; check on your pets. Drink Water!
You can also use Nature in your home to decrease energy costs and keep cool. The temperature is only going to get higher, and with May having triple-digit temperatures, I’m afraid of what August is going to bring.
“The trouble with weather forecasting is that it's right too often for us to ignore it and wrong too often for us to rely on it.” ~Patrick Young
Here are some hints on keeping your home cool using Nature:
1. Install Trellises on the South-West side of the house and allow vines to grow there. This will act as a solar shield decreasing the amount of heat reaching your homes surface. And in the fall, you can use the vines as compost to feed a whole new set of plants next summer.
2. Plant Trees in strategic locations throughout your yard to block the wind, retain soil, and of course provide shade. Always seek the advice of a professional landscaper, since the roots will be an issue when the trees mature. And again, the leaves in fall are going into the compost heap.
3. Potted Plants in the home can clean the air. According to a NASA and the Associated Landscape Contractors of America (ALCA) 2-year study, “common indoor plant may provide a natural way of helping combat “SICK BUILDING SYNDROME”.” So now you can get fresh air and keep the windows closed, keeping the heat out.
If you have any questions or require more information on the trellises or what vines to use, contact Cesar by e-mail at Cesar@h2otogrow.co
FIRE THEN FLOODING?
Yes, that’s right, it’s almost Biblical. But the truth is, New Mexico and Arizona have suffered terrible wildfires and are now in for possible Flash Floods.
But you see that is the domino effect of weather events. You must think 10 seasons back and 5 seasons forward to get a more accurate prediction of what’s happening.
Here is how I see it working. First, you are already in a desert climate, so expanding cities without greenbelts only serves to raise the local temperature via an Urban Heat Island effect.
Next, you get a drought brought on by the excessive heat. This drought begins killing any vegetation not receiving an adequate supply of water, which was any vegetation not being irrigated by humans.
So while you might see beautiful landscaping around the Commercial Buildings downtown, the surrounding environment is drying up and blowing away.
Now, you have lost the plants and the roots have withered away. Then you get some sort of Natural or Man-Made fire started that begins burning out of control. This fire eats up all the vegetation that might have made a comeback when the rainy season returns, and the fire scorches the roots.
OK, so now the landscape is barren, dry and loose. The wind can pick it up and blow it away. There is no vegetation anywhere.
And “Here Comes The Rain Again” – Eurythmics. Great song.
Now, we have heavy rains, dropping inches per hour, not weeks.
The soil begins to sheet up because it cannot absorb all the water.
There are no plants or trees to break the flow of water. And we now have half the city washed away by Flash Floods and communities on hillsides buried under mud slides.
"It will simply take just one thunderstorm in the right area of a burn scar to potentially have devastating effects," National Weather Service meteorologist Kerry Jones said. "That could happen [Monday] or Tuesday, or a month from now, or both."
Calendar of Events
July 16th, 2011 (Sat.) – 11am thru 12pm: Discover the Edwards Aquifer - Recharge Zone Water Filters: San Antonio Children’s Museum, 305 East Houston Street, San Antonio, TX 78205 - FREE
July 18th, 2011 (Mon.) – 12pm thru 3pm: Gardening Volunteers of South Texas Presents Dr. William D. Adams: The San Antonio Garden Center, 3310 N New Braunfels, San Antonio, TX , ph#210-650-9720 – FREE
July 23rd, 2011 (Sat.) – 9am thru 1pm: Botanical Garden Plant Sale: San Antonio Botanical Garden, 555 Funston, San Antonio, TX, ph# 210-829-5100, www.sabot.org – Cost: Call ahead
July 26th, 2011 (Tue.) – 6:30pm thru 8:00 pm: Effects of climate change on native plants: Lions Field Adult Center, 2809 Broadway – FREE
August 5th, 2011 (Friday) – 10:00am: Watersaver Tour: San Antonio Botanical Garden, 555 Funston, San Antonio, TX, ph# 210-829-5100, www.sabot.org – Cost: Call ahead
August 10th, 2011 (Wed.) – 9:30am: Wild Wednesdays-Water Water Everywhere: Friedrich Park, 21395 Milsa Dr, San Antonio, TX 78256 – Cost: $5
“In an age when man has forgotten his origins and is blind even to his most essential needs for survival, water along with other resources has become the victim of his indifference.”
– Rachel Carson
Farmer’s Markets
· Every Tuesday, 8am – 12pm - Main Plaza Farmer’s Market – 115 Main Plaza, San Antonio, TX.
· Every Wednesday, 4pm – Pearl Brewery’s Wednesday Market – Pearl Park parking lot (say that 3 times real fast!)
· Every Saturday, 7am – 11am - Bracken Farmer’s and Artisans Market – 7561 E Evans Rd, San Antonio, TX 78266
· Every Saturday, 9am – 1pm - Pearl Farmer’s Market – At Pearl Brewery along the banks of the San Antonio River.
· Every Saturday, 9am – 1pm – New Braunfels Farm To Market – Downtown New Braunfels, 148 S. Castell Ave., New Braunfels, TX 78130. Cost: $?
For back issues of H2O To Grow Newsletters, visit www.h2otogrow.co under the newsletter tabs.
“There seem to be but three ways for a nation to acquire wealth. The first is by war, as the Romans did, in plundering their conquered neighbors. This is robbery. The second by commerce, which is generally cheating. The third by agriculture, the only honest way, wherein man receives a real increase of the seed thrown into the ground, in a kind of continual miracle, wrought by the hand of God in his favor, as a reward for his innocent life and his virtuous industry.” – Benjamin Franklin
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