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Waterwise Gardening - a book review

Waterwise Gardening: Everything You Need To Know About Efficient Watering to Grow a Healthy Yard by Richard Restuccia Published by Rizzoli, 2025 I would guess that watering is the major issue that most gardeners grapple with, especially novice gardeners. I know from working at the nursery that the majority of questions and issues we get stem from either watering too much or not watering enough.  Many people in our area have sprinkler systems and I'm sure that can be a good thing if used properly but I feel that they primarily keep the lawns green but fall short for landscape plants. Especially when it comes to trees and larger plants, the timing and amounts are not satisfactory for many plants. I often hear people say that their sprinklers are set to come on every day - yikes! And there are those who did not water because it "rained" when it actually drizzled.  The best thing to do in this situation is to have a xeric garden but that would mean sacrificing favorite plant...
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Windstorm

 


For once, the weather forecasters were correct yesterday when they said to expect a strong windstorm. It all started around 5pm when the skies became very hazy and then the wind hit. Gusts up to 50mph were mentioned. I'm not sure how strong they actually were but we were on pins and needles watching our trees and plants whip around in circles.

Fortunately, we fared well and had no damage. Just up the street, however, our neighbors lost a big honeylocust tree -


We always worry about our eucalyptus tree. This was a tiny slip of a plant when I brought it home from the nursery a few years ago. It is now reaching for the sky and continues to grow. Talk about a fast grower! Although I have an 8-ft. rebar stake next to it, it is woefully inadequate. I'm not sure how you go about staking a tree this size.


The morning, the smoke and haze had cleared and it is a beautiful day although it is still windy. 

 

Text and photos by Phillip Oliver, Dirt Therapy

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  1. ksSeptember 8, 2020 at 5:43 PM

    I have sure seen lots of photos of downed trees up your way.My brothers-in-law live in Lake Oswego and their next door neighbor had a very large Mimosa go over. Scary . I love Eucs, but they are controversial here in California. I think if you go to the U of Wa extension website and search for info on tree staking you will find that it is not longer recommended. If I remember correctly, the science is that trees develop better resistance to wind if they are allowed to be subject to it.

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  2. Lisa at GreenbowSeptember 9, 2020 at 11:31 AM

    I am happy for you that you didn't have any damage. Wind is a terrible thing to happen. It seems like there is more and more wind now days. Scary seeing your neighbors tree down.

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