Spathodea campanulata - African Tulip Tree Flowering

What if things don't get much better? Has the parks people said anything on the changes they might make?
I haven't been to GGP this year. But,they pump from underground their own water. Its why they have a forest of huge ancient tree ferns.

I know they use reclaimed or grey water. I'm not sure why the trees and plants are not getting more water. I know there's a lot of grey water out there.

In GGP,the Tree Fern Dell is a priority. Its also close to the AIDs memorial. I would think those ancient tree ferns a century old,would be the last to be squeezed for water.
Now that I think of it..The SF botanical garden has a few King palms..THEY look water starved. Thin trunks with many rings.

What's GGP (I'm so terrible with Acronyms! LOL!)

The soil in the SF Bay Area would be much moister than the soil here. At least there's more rain up there. The soil is better, also. Here the soil is like concrete!

Golden Gate Park. This drought is taking a toll on gardening, that's for sure.

This is why I'm selling off many plants. I can't water them all. Practically every plant wants a lot of water.

oh my... my sympathies. So sad that you must sell them off, D1. Our plumbing is not getting a work out these days... No showers...bathwater is kept, and dishes are washed in the sink and the water saved. It's interesting how much "gray water" we produce, isn't it? Flushing toilets that use less water are very popular now, some down to a litre a flush... too bad we couldn't find a way to incinerate waste. Is that large desalination plant working yet, D1?

I know. I do have too many plants, though. I can always purchase new plants later when the drought is over.

I do the same here. The shower water is used to water the plants in the front yard. I have a hose on the washing machine that goes to the plants in the back yard (and it's a lot of water wasted usually). The water from the dishes is used for the plants on the side of the house. There's new houses being build here in San Diego and it catches and filters all the gray water for landscape needs. It should have been done years ago.

The Carlsbad desalination plant has been on-line since last November. We getting quite a bit of water from it. We're not as in bad as shape as most of Southern California.

Luckily, Northern California had more rain last season (and about 100 percent of the snow pack in the Sierra Mountains). Their reservoirs are between 60 and 100 percent full. Many were dried up!...or below 20 percent. So, last year was good for them.

Lori- you ever consider those composting toilets? I see them all the time on HGTV homesteaders/tiny house episodes.
I had my plumbing redone 3 years ago. I wish- badly- I had told the guy,a family friend to use his engineering skills to reroute water like Andy is doing..only with valves and such.
Instead it was conventional.

yes, Stan. We have given some serious thought to investing in a composting toilet... Clivus Multrum, makes two models...one that composts (only) and one that composts and incinerates. ...all very new tech. Mentioned it on here last year and most of the comments were negative, or wait and see. We have become very refined in our toilet habits it seems...and although the new models are equipped with fans and require a "qualified technician" to install them there's always the "smell" concern. They are a tad expensive and not sure how long they operate at peak efficiency... With our wide temperature variation we have that concern too. If something goes wrong in the middle of winter with 5 ft of snow on the ground..I won't be the one digging it out!

That far north..are solar panels used? It sounds like it can get dangerous there with power outages in winter.

I'm sure you've heard of the midnight sun, Stan? Solar panels can be used but in the near north, as well as above 60 degrees north latitude, wind generation is the best. We lived for 12 years in a native community on James Bay, (the southern extreme of Hudson Bay.) They supplied electricity to their citizens by running a huge generator prior to the 80's... then the Ontario hydro electric company made power dams on the Arctic watershed rivers and strung miles and miles of cable so they can now pay ridiculous amounts for their power. We were in an isolated community which was only accessible by train or by plane. There were only 12 miles of road and lots of swampy areas and yes, you're right, a power outage in any month between September and July was a real danger.