Chuck B!!! Hi! You are right – that beautiful fuzzy plant in the first pic is Kalanchoe beharensis, and it is one of my most beloved plants! I have 3 of them, and they are all getting pretty big – but I have a friend who has a HUGE multi-branched one! The most beautiful one I’ve ever seen, and I covet it like nobody’s business. The ones at The Chateau are amazing, right? They DO grow fairly slowly, but fertilizing does help – although the bronze color along the edge tends to get lost when the soil is rich. But you can always make it grow, and then starve it a little to get it all colorful! Is that some form of torture?
I was a die hard drip irrigator for years, but it was so problematic for me and for many clients. Also, the fact that the surface of the soil never gets wet impedes the formation of roots on groundcover plants, and the self-seeding of volunteers (which I love) – so I became disillusioned. I love my sprinkler system. No flushing the lines, no chewed up tubing (critters love the easy access to water) and volunteers galore! But Drip does have it’s place – when you are irrigating an area that shouldn’t have overspray, like near a big window on a very modern house, or to establish shrubbery along a perimeter planting. I’m not a TOTAL anti- drip fanatic!
I enjoyed hand watering … it made me a better plantsperson. You develop a very close relationship when you are directly responsible for their lifeblood! It’s a wonderful way to spend time; very meditative. I’ll bet you love it!

Hi Summer ! I understand why deep waterings are the standard, but the more I gardened I saw that two ore three shorter waterings seemed to benefit my garden more than one very long one. I should do more research to really understand why this may be, but I’ve been encouraging clients to water the same way, and things are smashing!
I wonder if the shallow rooted drought tolerant perennials have a limit of the amount of water they can take up at any one time? Trees and shrubs are supposed to be encouraged to develop a deeper, stronger root system by having the deep infrequent waterings – but there are so many other plants in the modern garden. Maybe the prevailing water wisdom has to change a little?
I like your theory about our water vs rain water – maybe chlorine is the culprit! Or flouride!

Re: rain is better water – we have a lot of theories about why that is; my mom will water year round but after a rain, her desert garden just leaps to life. My grandfather, a farmer, used to insist that lightning helps fix nitrogen. Mom thinks the water is polluted in her area, but we in Houston have polluted air, too, and the rain *still* seems to perk up everything better than the sprinklers. My own theory is that ground water contains more salts and minerals and stuff. Something’s building up in frequently irrigated soil that doesn’t do the plants any good.

So interesting about the regular, light watering vs. the infrequent deep soaking and the drip vs. sprinkler. Your humidity idea sounds reasonable. But then people say humidity breeds fungal problems, so whatever. Everyone has an opinion (I do not). We are told to drip only here, never sprinkle, but sprinkling happens and sprinkled gardens often look very good.

People don’t realize drip lines get clogged or go off in some other way, or need to have the emitter lines moved around from time to time as the feeder roots grow…

I hand water in my tiny garden, a little bit every few days, a can here and a can there. Vegetables get watered every day or every other day. But if I ever get something bigger, I’ll need a different system.

Hi Marey Delle! We were doing the exact same thing at the exact same time! The reason we chose a metal roof for our house was to get that fabulous sound (well, that and it is a bitchin cool roof) of the rain coming down – even though it would only happen a few months out of the year. And it was worth it! I’m so glad you enjoyed the post – it was a great surprise to wake up to rain, wasn’t it? High Five!

Tendril! Don’t float away! What would we do without you?
I LOVE the cool, rainy weather – I ADORE that sleepy, cozy, turn off the world and knit type of feeling! It is so weird that I chose to live in the part of the world that gives me the least opportunity to be cozy than practically any other place I could live! But I hear you – the clean up is how we pay the price. I have sycamore branches and palm fronds all over the place. But I’ll think about that tomorrow – today, I KNIT!!!
XO my dear!

Pam the Wonderful! Hi! Yes, we are indeed the tough, the brave, the drought tolerant! Yes, we have water restrictions in LA County that were imposed in June of this year, but I’ve been watering that way for 5 years, so it was no big deal for me. We can only use automatic irrigation on Mondays and Thursdays, but we can hand water every day as long as we don’t do it between 9am and 4pm.
This is a big issue in another way, though – a big part of my business is installing brand new drought tolerant gardens, and as we know – in the heat of the summer, newly installed plants MUST be watered daily until they are acclimatized to their new ‘digs’. I’ve spoken to public affairs people at DWP, and while they have no official rule about regarding newly installed drought tolerant plantings, every fine is given on a case by case basis, and so if there is a good reason for using water differently than the restrictions demand, it will be considered. We have had no problems so far … knock on wood!
As for me, I was astonished that the more frequent small waterings actually made my garden happier than the customary deep waterings. I think it has something to do with giving plants in a dry climate a little ambient humidity, and that most of the plants I use are fairly shallow rooted. It does go against conventional wisdom. I also think drip irrigation doesn’t work as well for us as it does in other parts of the country.
Hmmm… is there a post here somewhere? I think so! Thanks for the great question – I think it is so interesting to explore the way our climates create different conditions and habits for gardeners! Always great to chat with my pal from my spiritual home!

Loree! Doll! Are you floating away, too? I am so glad we got to share in the wealth this time – so often those of us in the tail end of the West Coast get nothing! But here I am, listening to the musical rain!
If it gets drier, some type of irrigation system is great. It gives you flexibility! For anyone who loves to garden, but ALSO loves to travel, it is a real lifesaver. And it doesn’t automatically make you a water-hog … you can program it to whatever you need. I am an advocate, my dear! XO!

ESP, you brought the rain back from Scotland with you! Your posts have been STUNNING!
Hail Tlaloc indeed!
So now Austin is in a feast or famine water cycle, is it? Plants get so luxurious when the big spigot in the sky finally turns on – like they immediately become lazy opium addicts, laying down and dreaming and not caring if they get stepped on every so often, cuz it feels SO GOOD to be lush and wet! And if ‘Wet is the Best’ ISN’T a Doors song, it SHOULD be!
The tree behind the Watery Sky Necklace (I WANT one for REAL!) is a Pittosporum undulatum, or Victorian Box. It is a total weed, but it has the most intoxicatingly fragrant spring flowers that I can’t bring myself to get rid of it – that and it hides my neighbor! The seeds are VERY messy – so it’s best planted way in the background where the sticky pods won’t bother anyone (other than to turn into MORE sticky seeded trees!)
I am very fond of your Jerry Rigged (as opposed to Jerry Springer) Catch Basin System, and love the image of you running around, straight jacket belts flapping in the breeze, dumping water hither and yon. The rain brings out the crazy in we, the most fanatical of gardeners; those of us who are so into it we have to write about it when we aren’t DOING it!
So I’ll probably be in that white van with you – I just hope my straight jacket has a faux-fur vest component … maybe I can commission your daughter to do up a design?
Yours maniacally!

HI Megan! How have you been! Gosh, I’ve missed everyone! You know, I have noticed the same thing – rain seems to be BETTER WATER than any other kind! I’ll bet most gardeners will say the same (of course, there are those know-it-alls that’ll say no … there always has to be a naysayer!). Thank goodness your climate allows for both travel AND a hand watered garden – that was a dream I woke up from here in dry as a bone Southern California! XO!