As we search for answers to deal with the prolonged drought, I’m sure many of you are wondering what this summer will do to your landscape?

Luckily, most of you are well ahead of the game because you already have planted California native plants in your garden. You prepared years ago for this knowing that someday we would have a drought. Now the question is, what can I do to help my plants make it through the summer? I am taking the position of hunkering down and taking care of what you already have. Likewise, hold off on new plantings until after summer this coming fall.

Now this month’s topic. Can I use grey water to keep my natives alive? The answer is yes. However, first we must evaluate the requirements of our existing native plants.

Some may be able to go dormant and make it through this summer with very little water such as the salvias. Also, well established native shrubs or trees, five to ten years old, such as pine, cypress, and manzanita will need maybe one good soaking mid summer. Other plants such as Woodwardia, Penstemon and Ceanothus may require extra moisture monthly depending on your soil type. So where do we turn to get this water?

One solution is grey water. But before you start collecting grey water there are a couple of tips you should know.

First there are two types of gray water, clean and dirty. Clean would be the water you collect while waiting for the shower to heat up. This water is preferred for edible plants or natives that are not well established.

Examples of dirty water would be water coming from your washing machine, dirty dish water or kitchen sink rinse water. This water should be used within 24 hours in order to avoid bacterial build up. Dirty grey water can be used to water well established trees, shrubs and ground covers. If you wish, you can allow this water to settle for 24 hours in a larger container. Remove safe water from only the top three quarters of the container. This will allow the solids to settle and the top water will be much cleaner.

I hope this helps a little with this subject. Please feel free to e-mail me with any questions about gardening over the summer, gritlys@gmail.com. Until I see you again, Happy Gardening.

– John Nowak