Given so little rain, how does it stay so green in SoCal? (San Diego: landscaping, neighborhoods)

[drewjube]

Originally Posted by ResnoResno

Northern California's Shasta and Oroville reservoirs ,California delta, California aqueduct.

The only right answer in the thread.


And don't forget stealing from the Colorado River and Owens Valley.

[payutenyodagimas]

Originally Posted by drewjube

The only right answer in the thread.


And don't forget stealing from the Colorado River and Owens Valley.

what stealing?

[TheLonelyGoatherd]

Is there an easy way to upload photos from one's computer? I'd love to post some photos I've taken around our neighborhood so people can see what I mean.

I think a lot of it is expectations. I looked up places I've lived previously how many yearly inches of rainfall each got. Richmond VA -44 Monmouth county NJ- 48 Hartford Connecticut 50, Tampa FL 50............thousand oaks, 17 inches per year.

So I expected the summers to be much more brown here in Ventura county since it hardly rains. I thought it would look more like a desert. People warned me about CA not being as green as the east coast. So yes, it's not that dark lush green. But you can have that. Lush green means lots of rain and mugginess. I'll take CA green any day.

I have no plans to ever leave this state. I know it has a lot of issues but really every place I've lived has issues. I feel so at home here. I wish I could have gotten here sooner in life but I'll take 40s

[MtnSurfer]

Originally Posted by TheLonelyGoatherd

Is there an easy way to upload photos from one's computer? I'd love to post some photos I've taken around our neighborhood so people can see what I mean.

I think a lot of it is expectations. I looked up places I've lived previously how many yearly inches of rainfall each got. Richmond VA -44 Monmouth county NJ- 48 Hartford Connecticut 50, Tampa FL 50............thousand oaks, 17 inches per year.

So I expected the summers to be much more brown here in Ventura county since it hardly rains. I thought it would look more like a desert. People warned me about CA not being as green as the east coast. So yes, it's not that dark lush green. But you can have that. Lush green means lots of rain and mugginess. I'll take CA green any day.

I have no plans to ever leave this state. I know it has a lot of issues but really every place I've lived has issues. I feel so at home here. I wish I could have gotten here sooner in life but I'll take 40s

Yes, I think some posters are confusing 'lawn watering' with the natural environment including the local hills you speak of. That has nothing to do with where our tap or lawn water come from.

You can easily share photos online through uploading them first to a free photo hosting site such site such as Flickr or Google Photos. Then copy the URL to the photo and paste it in here clicking on the 'photo icon' button above your text. I use Smugmug which also owns Flickr and cost a little for unlimited storage/backup:

https://www.flickr.com/
https://photos.google.com/
https://www.smugmug.com/

Here's an example of our coastal hills in Monterey - no lawn watering required.










Derek

[TheLonelyGoatherd]

Yess!!!! that's what I'm talking about! Nobody is watering that! Thank you for those gorgeous photos.

We were in Malibu and I was just in awe of the beauty of it all. And to think we are only going to get greener going forward as we get into fall and winter.

This gardener and nature lover is happy to finally be "home".

[saibot]

I live in Orange County and spend a lot of time in the hills. Yes, from a distance it can look all "brown," but it's surprising how many green trees and bushes are still out there, and even plants which are flowering though they haven't had any water for many months. Native vegetation can tolerate the dry season--obviously, or it wouldn't be able to survive here at all.

[MtnSurfer]

Originally Posted by saibot

I live in Orange County and spend a lot of time in the hills. Yes, from a distance it can look all "brown," but it's surprising how many green trees and bushes are still out there, and even plants which are flowering though they haven't had any water for many months. Native vegetation can tolerate the dry season--obviously, or it wouldn't be able to survive here at all.

Exactly, some parts do dry up and turn brown. But there are other plants and trees which remain green. In addition, regardless of what people say, we do get seasonal changes such as wildflowers in the spring and color changes in the fall. Here are some oaks in Big Sur from last fall:






And if one drives to the Sierra they will find a whole lot more!





Derek

[TheLonelyGoatherd]

Those are gorgeous fall photos! And that is autumn enough for me.



Here are just a couple from right in my neighborhood. There is no amount of sprinkler or watering that could save plants like these if we were on the east coast with 3 months of no rain. Plants and trees are hardcore in CA!

[MtnSurfer]

Very nice and green, TheLonelyGoatherd! I'm glad you were able to post a shot. While some of those are obviously watered plants in the neighborhood, I can see a lot of green trees in the hills in the background. I've also driven through Thousand Oaks more times than I can count. So I know what you are talking about - lots of nice trees and rolling hills.

Derek

[MtnSurfer]

Here's a nice shot of Thousand Oaks showing the green hills in the winter from Wikimedia commons:




-- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thousand_Oaks,_California

Derek