Summer in the drought garden

Our first Summer in our new home has been a steep learning curve. Getting the air conditioning to cool at just the right time of day and mastering the extraction fan system for the attic which makes a pretty huge difference. We're sparing with the a/c as we were in Singapore. We adjusted to the heat and kick it in when the interior temperature is hovering around 80 and only cool to about 75-76. It's summer after all! Who wants to live like they're in a college library. Meanwhile outdoors most days are between 85 and 95 with heat waves here and there above 100.

Marin is fairly lucky for a lot of reasons when it comes to water. We have our own water in lakes right here so everyone can see where it's at on a short hike or drive and have that visual reality check. Residents aren't particularly interested in lawns, in fact I'm trying to think if I know anyone who has one here and I really can't say that I do. Most of us inherited a previously owner's attempts at drought proofing a property and either continue forging ahead or give up entirely.

Austen's succulent garden

Sea grasses are very happy

We have an extensive drip system over most of the 1/4 acre that works very well at keeping well attuned low-water plants happy enough to blossom and grow. New starts are not usually so happy so they get to move into pretty plant pots and not the heavy dry soil. We have several types of lavender in giant bushes, a rainbow of different sea grasses in tufts (can one ever get enough of these?) and a whole mess of shrubs that by some trick or another are making it. We also have a long suffering pear tree and apple tree and a huge redwood which is about 5 miles too far inland now to be happy. The fruit trees have been crippled by fire blight and the 100+ foot redwood is suffering from a fungus that hits these trees in these conditions. Both issues stem from drought. Joel spent the weekend driving huge watering stakes down into the ground near all the trees to try to deliver as much of the water on the drop line as we can down to their roots. Time will tell if it was successful.

My happy shade dwellers

From the fruit trees