As some of you heard me rant in the past, the City of Santa Cruz passed the most draconian water rationing rules in the history of the Country. As of May 1st, every household is allocated only 10 units of water per month, or 249 gallons per day. Small adjustments to the allotment can be requested and depend on the household size. We managed to get our allocation raised by a small amount due to the size of our household but it's not much. (For those who don't know, one unit is 748 gallons of water.) Any units above our allotment will result in a $50 fine per extra unit of water used. Needless to say, going over is not an option.

My first reaction to the whole setup was panic, thinking my whole palm garden would not survive the Summer. My irrigation system has been a source of many high water bills and if I leave things as they were, I would end up with $5000 water bills. Worse yet, with rainfall far below normal by early February, my whole property was bone dry, meaning irrigation would have to run all year.

But, as it turns out, we will have more than plenty of water, and the garden will actually thrive compared to past years. It's amazing how a little ingenuity and effort can lead to drastic improvements in efficiency.

Step one of the plan was to try to delay as much as possible the time at which a dry season irrigation system would have to be turned on. That was easy to do. When our house was built, all roof, hardscape and hillside french drains were routed into the same location. It was relatively easy to tap into the collection point and divert all the water from the storm drain back into a tank. From the tank, the water was pumped all over the garden to saturate as much of the soil as possible. Enough rainstorms came through later in February and early March and I managed to saturate a good deal of the soil. A layer of thick mulch added in late March made sure to keep evaporation at a minimum.

Step two was to look at our water budget and see how much would actually be available for irrigation. Simple measures in the house such as reducing the number of baths and showers (showering at the gym for example), keeping tubs in the kitchen sink to rinse dishes all lead to incredible water savings. We also replaced toilets with super low flush toilets. We managed to drop our usage by drastic amounts. So we have water left over to water our orchard and palms.

Step three was to tackle the water hogging irrigation system in the garden. Over the years, due to constant plugging up of the system, I resorted to using micro-bubblers to irrigate. The frustrating part was that most zones would chug an enormous 10-13 gallons per minute flow, and the soil was still mostly dry. This was incredibly frustrating to watch and super costly even without water rationing.

Thanks to PalmTalk and Matty, I realized that it is possible to implement a super efficient watering system by converting everything to drip in a way that it won't clog up. The most basic solution involves adding a serious filter and removing all bubblers in favor of drip. For each zone, I close up all the manifolds to check for leaks. Then I flush out the pipes, and replace the entire system with pressure regulated 1 GPH and 0.5 GPH emitters.

The filtering system is by far the most important element that will ensure not having to replace all the parts within a year or two. I opted for a two filter system that's compatible with a tank storage system. The first filter is 140 MESH Arkal disk Filter with Valve which removes organics. The second filter is the required 200 MESH screen filter to remove any remaining particulate that could clog up the irrigation system.

Thanks to the emitters, the soil is far more saturated with water than it ever was before with the bubblers, and yet the water usage dropped off by more than a magnitude. It's simply staggering how efficient drip is compared to anything else, and it works just fine in sandy loam. Now, we can actually water the entire garden with plenty left over in our allotment thanks to the water savings we have implemented in the house.

Step 4 involves securing the system so as to never going over the allotment. The irrigation system needs to work like a pre-paid phone card. When it's empty, there's no more watering going on. Unfortunately, the cost of implementing such a system electronically is not available to the casual home owners. Most of the water flow controlled irrigation systems are targeted at large commercial usage like golf courses and runs in the thousands. The only way for us to accomplish this is to remove the irrigation system from the city lines and run it off our tank system instead. That means the tank system needs to be like a self sufficient catchment water system complete with pump, pressure switch and a bladder tank that provides enough draw down so that a pump isn't running continuously while the irrigation system is on.

We opted for a Gould 10GB07 booster pump that could handle the elevation on our property, and got a 30 gallon tank with a 10 gallon draw down at 60 PSI so that the pump would run only for about a minute every 10 minutes while a particular drip zone was turned on. It also provides enough draw down for hand watering in the greenhouse without continuously running the pump.

The beauty of the self contained watering system is that not only does it protect us from going over our allotment, but it also allows us to leverage the pump in the Winter to re-circulate water from the rain catchment system and distribute it across the entire garden. If we ever needed to truck in water, our tank capacity also provides us with that option.

Step 5: This is our bonus step, gray water. We get a considerable amount of gray water from the house. None of it is usable in the drip irrigation system, but we can use the hillside french drain system to purify the water and route it into our tanks. The gray water is used to water the palms on our hillside, and the excess water percolate through the soil down to the french drains and back out the other end, where it gets pumped into a smaller storage tank in the greenhouse for use on potted plants.

I still have the whole filtering of the rain water catchment to deal with. The disk filters probably won't be enough. I will need to put in place a better filter system right outside the tanks to try to bring particulate down. This is also important to maximize the lifetime of the pump. I am looking at some rainharvest.com solutions for that.

Keeping a water-thirsty garden in a desert with an imminent water crisis would pose many difficulties I would imagine.

Oh and the way you managed to stretch what water you do have is nothing short of ingenious.

Sounds like the cost of growing palms in the desert...

Great stuff, Axel. This certainly serves as inspiration in what's possible.

The question is would you have done what you just did if the water restrictions weren't as heavy? However draconian the water restrictions seem to be, it looks like they are working People just don't want to change their ways of doing things unless they are faced with some hard choices.

Great stuff, Axel. This certainly serves as inspiration in what's possible.

The question is would you have done what you just did if the water restrictions weren't as heavy? However draconian the water restrictions seem to be, it looks like they are working People just don't want to change their ways of doing things unless they are faced with some hard choices.

I think you hit the nail on the head, and it applies to me like everyone else. We tend to take everything we have for granted as if it will be here cheaply and abundantly forever, and either through cost or convenience, fail to conserve.

Sounds like the cost of growing palms in the desert...

The irony is that where Axel lives is an area of much higher rainfall than much of ca.

It could be said he lives in the middle of a rain forest.

What is sad is that he has to resort to these extreme measures.

The city and county of Santa Cruz is horrible in managing its water resources considering there are areas near Axel that recieve nearly 100 inches of rainfall per year.

Storage is very limited.

Great stuff, Axel. This certainly serves as inspiration in what's possible.

The question is would you have done what you just did if the water restrictions weren't as heavy? However draconian the water restrictions seem to be, it looks like they are working People just don't want to change their ways of doing things unless they are faced with some hard choices.

There is no way I would have done any of this if it wasn't for the water rationing, so the rationing obviously works. I've been meaning to do this for years, because I've had some $1200 Summer water bills even without the rationing. This brings our water bills down to super reasonable levels anyway. Over the years I will increase the tank capacity because now, with the drip's reduced water needs, there is actually a possibility to store enough water to cover the entire Summer. The added gray water is yet another bonus that allows us to spoil some of the palms that like a lot of water. Instead of using the hose to add that extra water, we use a sump pump to distribute the gray water.

Sounds like the cost of growing palms in the desert...

The irony is that where Axel lives is an area of much higher rainfall than much of ca.

It could be said he lives in the middle of a rain forest.

What is sad is that he has to resort to these extreme measures.

The city and county of Santa Cruz is horrible in managing its water resources considering there are areas near Axel that recieve nearly 100 inches of rainfall per year.

Storage is very limited.

The Santa Cruz water district has a shortage because all water comes from the San Lorenzo river flowing into the Loch Lomond, and even though the river is flowing in a healthy manner and we have lots of flowing smaller streams even during the drought, they can only divert so much of it for drinking water. That's to protect wild life. There is a surplus of water in the Soquel water district just to the East, but rather than trying to build a pipeline, they just have been trying to get a desalination plant going. Unfortunately and alas also fortunately, there is a great deal of opposition to improving the water supply because of fear it would fuel growth. This rationing gives the city tremendous leverage against the UC system in preventing them from developing a lot of beautiful open space. That is actually what really helped my morale in dealing with the rationing. I enjoy the open spaces and redwoods in Santa Cruz county. It's a small price to pay to have to ration water.

Sounds like the cost of growing palms in the desert...

As Jeff points out, we're actually not in a desert, but in a rain forest with a pronounced dry season. Our rain cycle is identical to Nosara Costa Rica, except in reverse, their Winters are dry and Summers are wet. My palm collection's backbone is made up of parajubaea, brahea, trachycarpus and rhopalostylis. All of these can actually be dry farmed here. Rhopies, parajubaea and trachys are so cold tolerant and drought tolerant that they can do most of their growth during the cool season and they go dormant without water during late August and September. Brahea don't grow so much in the Winter, but they are so deep rooted that once they find water, they grow a lot even during the dry months.

The palms that get the bulk of the watering are sabal, livistona, all Brazillian, New Caledonia and Madagascar palms. They make up about 40% of my collection, and if I had to restrict watering to just those, I'd use less than a unit of water a month on drip. My orchard is now mature enough that 80% of it is capable of sustaining itself. Citrus and avocados are really the only thing I need to water consistently.

Bottom line is that some ingenuity and proper selections of plants can really decrease the water usage by a significant amount.

Sounds like the cost of growing palms in the desert...

The irony is that where Axel lives is an area of much higher rainfall than much of ca.

It could be said he lives in the middle of a rain forest.

What is sad is that he has to resort to these extreme measures.

The city and county of Santa Cruz is horrible in managing its water resources considering there are areas near Axel that recieve nearly 100 inches of rainfall per year.

Storage is very limited.

Sounds like the cost of growing palms in the desert...

The irony is that where Axel lives is an area of much higher rainfall than much of ca.

It could be said he lives in the middle of a rain forest.

What is sad is that he has to resort to these extreme measures.

The city and county of Santa Cruz is horrible in managing its water resources considering there are areas near Axel that recieve nearly 100 inches of rainfall per year.

Storage is very limited.

What Dave said is so true. It's amazing how stubborn the officials have always seemed to be over water storage improvement given so much rain falls in that region. It is a rainforest of sorts with dense towering redwoods and fern forest floors. I'm just "over the hill" from Axel, in the Silicon Valley and you'd never know there was a drought. There are no water restrictions to speak of and homeowners are still dumping huge amounts of water onto their big lawns. Public plantings are well watered. We are just given the usual advice about using low flow faucets and watering gardens in the evening or morning hours. Excellent water management makes all the difference. By the way, rainfall here in the valley averages roughly only fifteen inches.

Sounds like the cost of growing palms in the desert...

The irony is that where Axel lives is an area of much higher rainfall than much of ca.

It could be said he lives in the middle of a rain forest.

What is sad is that he has to resort to these extreme measures.

The city and county of Santa Cruz is horrible in managing its water resources considering there are areas near Axel that recieve nearly 100 inches of rainfall per year.

Storage is very limited.

Sounds like the cost of growing palms in the desert...

The irony is that where Axel lives is an area of much higher rainfall than much of ca.

It could be said he lives in the middle of a rain forest.

What is sad is that he has to resort to these extreme measures.

The city and county of Santa Cruz is horrible in managing its water resources considering there are areas near Axel that recieve nearly 100 inches of rainfall per year.

Storage is very limited.

What Dave said is so true. It's amazing how stubborn the officials have always seemed to be over water storage improvement given so much rain falls in that region. It is a rainforest of sorts with dense towering redwoods and fern forest floors. I'm just "over the hill" from Axel, in the Silicon Valley and you'd never know there was a drought. There are no water restrictions to speak of and homeowners are still dumping huge amounts of water onto their big lawns. Public plantings are well watered. We are just given the usual advice about using low flow faucets and watering gardens in the evening or morning hours. Excellent water management makes all the difference. By the way, rainfall here in the valley averages roughly only fifteen inches.

Upper elevation slopes receive 100" (2,400 mm) of rain a year. I get about 50 inches a year on a normal year. The last three years it's been more like 40 inches, and last Winter it's been a record low 30 inches. And we are rationing water.

Sounds like the cost of growing palms in the desert...

The irony is that where Axel lives is an area of much higher rainfall than much of ca.

It could be said he lives in the middle of a rain forest.

What is sad is that he has to resort to these extreme measures.

The city and county of Santa Cruz is horrible in managing its water resources considering there are areas near Axel that recieve nearly 100 inches of rainfall per year.

Storage is very limited.

Great point. His question was can people survive? Sure, those in Santa Cruz doing what Axel could. Could I? No way. Rain catchment would be the first issue as discussed in that thread early on here.

Axel, I have seen read of even greater steps taken such as the use of those portable camping toilets to collect urine from the women in the house. Use to think it was ridiculous but after reading your comments, I bet with just two women in the house it could save 6 gallons a day. I guess if you really want to get crazy you can piss of the neighbors and have a portable one like found at events put in and do #2 in it. Then every month or so have it cleaned out. There is a few more gallons per day

Sounds like the cost of growing palms in the desert...

The irony is that where Axel lives is an area of much higher rainfall than much of ca.

It could be said he lives in the middle of a rain forest.

What is sad is that he has to resort to these extreme measures.

The city and county of Santa Cruz is horrible in managing its water resources considering there are areas near Axel that recieve nearly 100 inches of rainfall per year.

Storage is very limited.

Great point. His question was can people survive? Sure, those in Santa Cruz doing what Axel could. Could I? No way. Rain catchment would be the first issue as discussed in that thread early on here.

Axel, I have seen read of even greater steps taken such as the use of those portable camping toilets to collect urine from the women in the house. Use to think it was ridiculous but after reading your comments, I bet with just two women in the house it could save 6 gallons a day. I guess if you really want to get crazy you can piss of the neighbors and have a portable one like found at events put in and do #2 in it. Then every month or so have it cleaned out. There is a few more gallons per day

Len, I don't get the women thing in your statement, why just the women? But I did consider installing composting toilets. We have areas of the house from which we can't collect gray water, and the use of composting toilets would open up the gray water supply even more. But we think we have enough now that we don't need the extra gray water. And at 1.6 gallons a flush, our toilets don't exactly use a lot of water.

Sounds like the cost of growing palms in the desert...

The irony is that where Axel lives is an area of much higher rainfall than much of ca.

It could be said he lives in the middle of a rain forest.

What is sad is that he has to resort to these extreme measures.

The city and county of Santa Cruz is horrible in managing its water resources considering there are areas near Axel that recieve nearly 100 inches of rainfall per year.

Storage is very limited.

Great point. His question was can people survive? Sure, those in Santa Cruz doing what Axel could. Could I? No way. Rain catchment would be the first issue as discussed in that thread early on here.

Axel, I have seen read of even greater steps taken such as the use of those portable camping toilets to collect urine from the women in the house. Use to think it was ridiculous but after reading your comments, I bet with just two women in the house it could save 6 gallons a day. I guess if you really want to get crazy you can piss of the neighbors and have a portable one like found at events put in and do #2 in it. Then every month or so have it cleaned out. There is a few more gallons per day

Len, I don't get the women thing in your statement, why just the women? But I did consider installing composting toilets. We have areas of the house from which we can't collect gray water, and the use of composting toilets would open up the gray water supply even more. But we think we have enough now that we don't need the extra gray water. And at 1.6 gallons a flush, our toilets don't exactly use a lot of water.

I figured that you and your son (when old enough) will just pee outside. My son was "potty" trained to pee outside. I did it to get some free fertilizer and my wife did it to avoid cleaning up pee all over Even in the middle of the night I wake up, open my bedroom door and pee outside. Woman most likely wouldn't do this hence why I mentioned it. So peeing into a portable camper toilet and putting paper in the trash, you can carry out the stuff when full and dump on plants or dilute in gray water. If you are getting close to the Mendoza Line, this could save you a few extra gallons I bet.

How about pot planting (with the bottom of the pot cut out) for channeling water?

How about pot planting (with the bottom of the pot cut out) for channeling water?

You get the same problem as with pots in general. The water channels down the side. The drip takes care of all that stuff. Drip works better without the pot because you want as much capillary action going sideways. matty might be able to chime in better, he's the drip master gardener.

Gee, Len, now I don't feel so nutty and eccentric for peeing outside.

Dave, me too, I pee outside all the time. I just hate to waste the valuable nutrients. When I go to work, I often have the instinct to go outside and I have to remind myself to resist the urge.

Len, we also potty trained Lucas partly outside. My wife prefers he pees out there, less of a mess to clean up. But sometimes, it backfires. The other day, Lucas got up and followed me outside as I emptied a big bowl of water on my ambositrae. Only problem is, it was a little chilly early in the Morning, so he just walked out to the door frame, pulled his pants down and peed all over our entry porch.

Axel, I think you need to take us on a photographic tour of your apparatus from inlet to outlet!

Axel, I think you need to take us on a photographic tour of your apparatus from inlet to outlet!

Funk, exactly which apparatus are you talking about?

Edited May 21, 201412 yr by Pando

http://www.dezeen.com/2013/04/23/luritonnoir-urinal-by-les-ekovores-faltazi/

Axel, I think you need to take us on a photographic tour of your apparatus from inlet to outlet!

Funk, exactly which apparatus are you talking about?

*rimshot*

Axel,

What is the feasability of a deep water well where you live?

They can pay for themselves (and then some!) inside of 2 years depending on where you live.

I realize that water restrictions (usually) apply to well water also, but of course that is much harder for Big Brother to monitor.

A fence and a well are the first 2 additions I add to a property.

Garrett

At least you are not having to deal with Oregon's Water Law where all water is publicly owned. With some exceptions, cities, farmers, factory owners, and other water users must obtain a permit or water right from the Water Resources Department to use water from any source— whether it is underground, or from lakes or streams. Generally speaking, landowners with water flowing past, through, or under their property do not automatically have the right to use that water without a permit from the Department. That applies to rain catchment systems as well.

I hate anything to do with city's. Much easier to live in the county and have a well. Most city's wont allow you to have a well drilled, They force you to use there water.

If the drought were to last another few years, I wouldn't be surprised if California started putting meters on wells to track your water use, and tax it.

I hate anything to do with city's. Much easier to live in the county and have a well. Most city's wont allow you to have a well drilled, They force you to use there water.

If the drought were to last another few years, I wouldn't be surprised if California started putting meters on wells to track your water use, and tax it.

Yes, always best to go early and hope to get grandfathered into what ever craziness the governing entities come up with.

I am not in a city, but what they call here the "unincorporated" area of the parish (county). But even still, with that, and living on 3 acres of land I was told that I could not put a second residence on my property per code. Of course they went on the say I could apply for an exception and that they never turn anyone down when it is family, but still. I was considering a small place for my mom.

I hate anything to do with city's. Much easier to live in the county and have a well. Most city's wont allow you to have a well drilled, They force you to use there water.

If the drought were to last another few years, I wouldn't be surprised if California started putting meters on wells to track your water use, and tax it.

Actually that's the plan in California, to get every last well to be metered. The well situation here is that I can drill if I like because I am not within the city limits. A lot of my neighbors are on wells. The County ordinance allows it. But it's costly, $20K. Unfortunately, I sit on top of the Santa Margarita aquifer, and that has been drained by the city of Scotts Valley down to a depth of about 400 feet. Not cheap to drill that deep.

They hit water at 20 feet, in my backyard.

Here in Florida, they hit soil about 6 inches down in my front yard after a rain.

lol garrett

I don't like thinking about having to deal with human waste to save water--how about not living where your passion cannot be pursued to the fullest?! I was talking to my dad yesterday about how lame it is that we can't grow Ceroxylons and Geonoma atrovirens and other palms that don't do South Florida, but man, having to do toilet tricks for a Brahea is just too much! Axel, come be my neighbor and our boys can play in the puddles after our summer showers!

I don't like thinking about having to deal with human waste to save water--how about not living where your passion cannot be pursued to the fullest?! I was talking to my dad yesterday about how lame it is that we can't grow Ceroxylons and Geonoma atrovirens and other palms that don't do South Florida, but man, having to do toilet tricks for a Brahea is just too much! Axel, come be my neighbor and our boys can play in the puddles after our summer showers!

You didn't read the entire post. A large percentage of my palms don't even need to be watered. But since you mention it, I actually looked at moving to a place where I could pursue the palm passion to the max, the Big Island of Hawaii. In the process of looking into it, as much as I am passionate about palms, I realized that I would not move somewhere just for the sakes of growing palms. Even Southern California has a better climate for palms than I do here, and I won't move there either because I can't find any place in Southern California that has deep green rainforests filled with fern grotos within walking distance from the beach.

here's a picture of my ceroxylon, it loves gray water:

And then we can grow stuff like this:

And this:

And this!

And this, which never gets a drop of water:

Strange scenery, an Opuntia and a rainforest palm, but this is the charm of gardening beyond native plants and also pushing the envelope!

Strange scenery, an Opuntia and a rainforest palm, but this is the charm of gardening beyond native plants and also pushing the envelope!

Maybe I can illustrate our climate to you a little better with some pictures from around here:

And this:

And this is a 20 minute hike from my house:

Nice palms in town.

More palms for Santa Cruz County:

Pure washingtonia filifera:

Phoenix reclinata:

Jubaea chilensis:

Not sure what this is:

Date palms:

Bottle tree:

Silk tree:

Strange scenery, an Opuntia and a rainforest palm, but this is the charm of gardening beyond native plants and also pushing the envelope!

Hopefully, the pictures above properly illustrate to you how our climate creates a marriage between a rainforest and a desert. With 40-100 inches of rain per year and a pronounced dry season, we get the best of both worlds. Basically, coastal Central California is where the Southwest desert flirts with the Pacific Northwest. Botanically, we are actually in a significant floral transition zone, with many species whose Northern edge ends in the far reaches of Northern California and Southern Oregon but reaching all the way down to the tip of Baja and East into the Sonora and other species starting their range around Big Sur and going all the way into Alaska.

Not sure what this is:

Date palms:

Bottle tree:

Silk tree:

Jubaea x Butia for the first pic.

Nice scenery Axel !

good job on consolidating the water use !

Here is the California precipitation map for those who are interested in the diversity of rainfall amounts in California:

The official FRAP map (1900-1960)

WRCC 1961-1990 Northern California

NOAA 1961-1990 Southern California

I hate anything to do with city's. Much easier to live in the county and have a well. Most city's wont allow you to have a well drilled, They force you to use there water.

If the drought were to last another few years, I wouldn't be surprised if California started putting meters on wells to track your water use, and tax it.

Actually that's the plan in California, to get every last well to be metered. The well situation here is that I can drill if I like because I am not within the city limits. A lot of my neighbors are on wells. The County ordinance allows it. But it's costly, $20K. Unfortunately, I sit on top of the Santa Margarita aquifer, and that has been drained by the city of Scotts Valley down to a depth of about 400 feet. Not cheap to drill that deep.

Axel,

you mentioned you were thinking about a holding tank to hold water for all summer, would that not bring your total $input incl. all your modifications close to the 20k for a well ? Storing water for a long time brings other problems and it would have to be a very large tank.