Free WaterSmart Gardening Classes here in the LBK

So, I was getting situated to read and write this morning when I looked over and noticed a postcard on the board next to me. (When I see "free" and "garden" on the same page, my MH senses tingle.)

mylubbock.us/watersmartclasses

 

With all the rain we've had lately, it'd be easy to get blasé water conservation, but a few back-to-back days at triple-digit temps, and we will be downright crispy again. With a little heat and a little breeze, our evaporation rates will skyrocket. We need to be smart with every drop.

 

Each class lasts from 10am-12pm and is limited to 30 participants. You can sign up and learn more at the web address above. (I'm hoping to attend the August session at the TTU greenhouse - I like succulents and I have looked longingly into the greenhouses as I've admired the Tech horticultural gardens. All is good!

 

 

May we all take advantage of opportunities to learn and make West Texas a little less dry.

700th Post, A Rough Start to Bike to Work Week, and Saving Water

This is Mesquite Hugger Post #700 - I thought I'd celebrate by posting an in-focus pomegranate photo. Enjoy!

 

It's like having Georgia O in the backyard!

 

Lubbock on a Bike

It was my toes or my soles or something that told me. I was about a mile away from the coffee house on a rare (wet & foggy) morning. One foot was slipping on the pedal, the other was firmly staying in place. When I looked down, my problem was pretty obvious:

Yep, one of these things is not like the other.

It's a problem I keep having. My brain was preoccupied with something other than what I was doing. It's a big part of why I have enjoyed things like biking (and scootering, kayaking, motorcycling, etc.). I have terrible coordination, so those things keep my brain fully engaged trying to make hands feet eyes fingers legs arms and everything else work in concert to make it possible for me to ride without catastrophe. There is a great feeling in being fully engaged.

Getting dressed in the morning? Not so much.

But today is the first day of National Bike to Work Week. I biked to work. I am still claiming this one as a win. Now, where exactly is that other pair of unmatched shoes?

Water Conservation

It rained this weekend. (It was awesome!) My yard had taken on a very Captain Crunch feel, but things are much better now. But it did point out the need for me to step it up in the rain collection department. (More on that as I figure out the plan.)

 

The 55-gallon rain barrel was filled in no time at all. I diverted it all to the front yard and captured another 55 gallons right away. I set out every bucket and can I could find and collected another 80 gallons. We have a lot of plants out and hope to be planting more this week, and plants love rainwater.

 

But the goal (for me) is much bigger than just the garden. The real goal is to limit the amount of water we access through the tap in order to stop draining our local water sources. Here in Lubbock, water becomes more and more scarce. Whether you get your water from a municipal pipe or from a well in your backyard, you have access to a very precious resource that we need to conserve.

Want to learn more about rainwater harvesting and water conservation in our area? Check out the High Plains Water District for many great resources, including the brochure below.

One inch = 1,246 gallons - that is awesome!

May you find yourself fully engaged in something worthwhile and enjoyable!

When you gonna ______? (A live better sidestep)

Grizz and I discussed it over coffee yesterday morning. Most of us have that thing to get past. Some of us just skip from one to the next. What's yours right now?

Need some help? Just fill in the blanks.

Is your head swimming now? Mine does when I fill in those blanks. A lot of Mesquite Hugger motivation comes from chasing these statements. It goes something like this:

• I am going to start eating local after I grow some veggies.
• I am going to grow some veggies after I build a greenhouse.
• I am going to build a greenhouse after I trim the trees.
• I am going to trim the trees after I buy a saw.
• I am going to buy a saw after I sell some unused stuff.
• I am going sell some unused stuff after I clean the garage.
• Snagit - when am I going to clean the garage?!!!
• I guess eating local is going to have to wait.
• But wait, there is a five-gallon bucket and a little space on the porch - Honey, we're gonna grow tomatoes!

Mesquite Hugger blog posts often look like this.

Where do we go from here? Maybe it's time to figure out our I am going to statements so that we can figure out how to sidestep them. You don't have to be wealthy to live healthy, smart, or well.

So here's your challenge for this week. Identify one (or several) of your I am going to goals and get creative. Find a detour or a shortcut. If you get stuck, google it. Someone else has been there and may have good advice.

A few Mesquite Hugger suggestions to help with your planning: garden, transportation, energy conservation, compost, water conservation, recycling, xeriscaping, food production, food waste, homelessness, hunger, wildlife preservation, simple living, reducing meat consumption, minimalism, spreading the word, anger reduction. You can tackle the whole big world or a tiny piece of your little slice. Any improvement is a win for all of us.

If I can help, shoot me an email.

As always, thank you for reading! May our little sidesteps lead to huge improvements.

Lubbock Community Garden Party Animals and 10 Tips!

If you find yourself in the vicinity of  21st and Avenue X, you need to check out the Heart of Lubbock Community Garden. If you can't make it by, you can check it out on this video.

The Video (and Gofundme campaign)

 

While I do encourage donating money online for this cool and worthy campaign, I would rather use my money to party and still support the garden. On any other day of the year, that might be tough, but not today...

 

Yep, there is a fundraising party this evening right there at 40th and University. Check out the details on the pic. If you go, wink at Beth, start talking about dwarf seahorses, and then tell her the Mesquite Hugger sent you!

 

For those of you who are feeling jealous that Heart of Lubbock has a community garden and you don't, here is a link to a site that can help you get your own darn garden started.

 

10 Steps to Starting a Community Garden

 

May you and your neighbors grow something great, donate money to people who are trying to do the same, and create a better place for us all!

Lubbock: Remember the Drought?

One of the best parts of being a bicycle commuter is getting a closer look at where you live.

One of the worst parts of being a bicycle commuter is getting a closer look at where you live.

Over the last few weeks I have seen a change in the town - people, businesses, churches, and schools have started watering their yards.

On a bike, that means 1) it's time to install some fenders, 2) you need to be careful to avoid all of the standing water, or 3) you are going to show up at work with a muddy butt. My watery nemesis these days is the southwest corner of 50th and Utica.

In a bigger sense, it means that we (Lubbock) are not scared of drought.
.
I have been following the plight of Californians in this time of drought. Things are getting desperate. A very informative article showed up on Mother Jones this week. As I was reading through it, I realized how many of the same issues they are facing are very present here. The only difference is that we were fortunate enough to get some significant rain in recent times. We were (ever-so-slightly) pulled out of our severe drought. The Californians haven't been so fortunate.

Mother Jones: 7 Key Facts about the Drought

The article highlights drought issues surrounding municipal water use, agricultural water use, and fracking water use. (Sound familiar?) It also includes a pretty terrifying graphic that captures US drought conditions 1 week ago.

Image from the Mother Jones article (with a few additions)

California (of course) shows extreme drought throughout the state. The Texas panhandle has the next-most severe drought area - in the counties just to the north and east of Lubbock.

It's early April. Today's forecast already has us in the 90's.

Lubbock citizens, please actively pursue water conservation.

May we work together for a common good.

¡Ollas! (Oi-uhs!) Oy vey! - PCR Garden Progress

While it's still too early to plant, I snuck in a little more prep work this weekend. In a very short period of time and with very little money invested, I made 4 ollas.

 

Why ollas? They are reputed to be simple, efficient, and effective for watering plants with minimal water waste and consumption. And they are super cheap to build! (And I am super cheap! And I love to conserve water!) So I decided to build a few to try them out. I hear that tomato plants really like ollas.

 

Straight out of wikipedia.org:

Because water seeps through the walls of an unglazed olla, these vessels can be used to irrigate plants. The olla is buried in the ground next to the roots of the plant to be irrigated, with the neck of the olla extending above the soil. The olla is filled with water, which gradually seeps into the soil to water the roots of the plant. It is an efficient method, since little water is lost to evaporation or run-off.^[2]

 

I need to go back and do a little sealing with some silicone - the one I tested leaks a bit. In the bottom photo you see $11 worth of pots.

Two four-inch pots, glue, and a plastic sour cream lid.

I used a cordless drill with a stone to quickly remove casting lips on the drain.

Be sure to cut your lid in a perfect circle like I did! I tried to cover the entire bottom surface so that water would only seep out the sides of the olla. Glue the plastic over the hole in the bottom.

Glue the pots together. I used duct tape to hold the glue in place while it dried.

 

What will I do different next time? I will skip the glue and go straight to a silicon product. I will probably purchase a bigger stone bit to open the hole on top of the olla a bit more so that it will be easier to pour water into the olla. I will keep you posted!

 

May we find simple ways to eat better, healthier, and cheaper.

 

 

Click this line to see last Mesquite Hugger post about ollas and a group in Albuquerque that makes some grogeous ollas to sell.

Personal Carbon Reduction: The Carbon-Munching Garden Monster

Thanks to Greenpeace for the image!

 

With Spring on the way, things are changing around the Mesquite Hugger home. I hope to spend a lot more time outside, and I hope to ecologically clean up my act. That's generally a three-sided proposition for me: conserve water, reduce petroleum use, and cut down on carbon release. It's easy to point fingers at everyone else, but every revolution needs to begin at home.

Conserving water has already been happening - conservative fixtures and the homemade rain barrel have helped a great deal. We'll step it up with some rain gutter additions and another rain barrel or two.

The electric bike, the non-electric bike, and the bike trailer will help with petroleum reduction.

And the carbon thing - well, that's an area where we definitely need to step it up.

On Treehugger today, a great article appeared that explains the impact a garden can have on CO2 levels. And I am feeling pretty inspired in that direction. Check it out for yourself. I hope you find it as inspiring as I have.

Treehugger: Your garden eats carbon (so please feed it well!)

Along these lines, I hope to be posting more carbon reduction and gardening articles. I invite you to join me in gardening and cleaning up our acts this season!

On a more personal note, our family landscape has changed. There's a six-year-old whirlwind moving to town, and I am hoping to turn him into a junior backyard-farmer. I hope to share our adventures with you as well.

May we all chip in to make this world a very liveable place, and may you know peace.

Lubbock - The Local Paper

I am very proud of the local paper lately. If you have been following the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal lately, you may be getting flooded with articles about our ongoing drought, its devastation, and the importance of conservation. Everyone else around here is trying to figure out how to keep their yard green and what ornamentals to plant, but the AJ has been running a series called Tapped: Our Precious Water. The articles have, for the most part, not been sensationalist and slanted or vindictive, (Consider that, Mr. J.) but they have focused on the bleakness of the situation and the need for us to band together as a region and work for the common good.

If you have been following the series and are looking for ways to decrease your own household consumption, check out this video from Water Use It Wisely. (Just ignore the parts where they keep mentioning Arizona.)

May you have plenty.

Two Quick Reminders for this Week: Waste and Rain Barrels

No Waste Wednesday

Don't be a Straw Hog or a Napkin Nipper! 

Wednesday (April 9) is A Day Without Waste.

Rain Barrel Saturday

I was wishing this one had been last Saturday so that I could've caught this weekend's brief but wonderful rain!

The Make and Take Rain Barrel Workshop (Lubbock, 40th and University, 12-3)

May you not wake up on Sunday thinking, "Snagit! I missed it!"

Lubbock Electric Car Spotting - My Dorkdom Conversion is complete!

Woohoo!!! The first one I have seen in person!

So, my first dream car was a 1963 Corvette Coupe. Then I discovered the Italians and the Lamborghini Countach was added to the dream stable. Over the years the dream garage kept getting bigger and bigger, and even odder. Each time I saw a car from the list, my heart leapt.

Well, today it happened again. I went out for lunch and found a Ford C-Max Energi parked next to Lucy. I completely admit it. I have turned into the dad from every dork movie ever made. No fins, no V-12, no auto-sexiness whatsoever. It is a plug-in range-extended Ford that falls into an attainable price range for an average middle-classer. It has the ability to do most of my family's running about on no gasoline whatsoever. It also has the capability to travel long distances without having to stop for charging. And my heart leapt!

Ick. The view from the office next to mine.

On a drier and dirtier note, I am suffering from post-vacation depression. I spent the weekend next to a beautiful lake. There were naturally occurring green plants surrounding me. There were streams with running water. I saw two great blue herons within 100 feet of each other. And there was rain, life-giving glorious rain!

Now I am back home in Lubbock reading articles about surrounding towns that have less than 90 days of water in reserve.

Some West Texas counties could run out of water in 90 days

May your skies be blue and clear, and may there be water for us all.

Roll Out the (Rain) Barrel (Mark Your Calendar)

Happiness is a rain barrel!

(http://www.hoklife.com/tag/rain-barrel/)

A day late and a gallon short, so to speak, I learned that on Tuesday night Brad Lancaster, author of Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond, gave a talk here in Lubbock. You can click on the title and visit his very informative website that is designed for people who live in areas of  very little rainfall to harvest and conserve our most precious natural resource. Snagit!!! Please check out the site.

While you are there, you can also check out a book on a subject that is near and dear to the Mesquite Hugger heart and stomach: Eat Mesquite.

For another local opportunity for you to learn about rainwater harvesting (and to use tools!), mark your calendar for the Make and Take Rain Barrel Workshop Saturday, April 12, 2014 here in Lubbock. If you want a rain barrel but do not have the tools, skills, or place to make one, this is your chance to work with others and make it happen!

I hope to see you there!

May your barrel runneth over!

For You Lubbockites Who Are Concerned About Local Environmental Protection

The Lubbock Chapter of the West Texas Accountability Project meets tonight at the Red Zone Cafe, 3602 Slide Road, at 7pm.

More details on their FB page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/West-Texas-Accountability-Project-Lubbock-Chapter/425994047488560

May you stand up for that which you believe in.

Water Conservation DIY: Rain Barrel Plans and a Local Business

(To see the really cool interactive Nelson Minar map, click here.)

That beautiful, impressive, and downright depressing map shows rivers, streams, and watersheds in mainland USA. Notice that we are right in the center of one of the driest regions on the map. With clean, fresh water becoming one of the most valuable and crucial resources we have in the area (and with us being caught up in one of the most extensive droughts this region has known) it becomes more and more obvious that we have to be better stewards of the water available to us. (And I should probably sell my beloved canoe.)

So, here at Mesquite Hugger, we hope to encourage that stewardship by offering real-world approaches to conserving water. 

If you are blessed to have a roof over your head, you have a very effective tool for capturing moisture. Yes, I know that we do not get much rain, but when we do, a roof has a large amount of surface area to maximize water collection. As we approach spring, this is a great time to look at combining a rain barrel with a rain gutter so that you can take advantage of a free natural resource. (And you won't have as many pesky mud puddles in the backyard for your white greyhound to roll in.)

You know I love Instructables, so here is a link with lots of ideas for creating your own and implementing your own recycled rain barrel system.
Instructables Rain Barrels

You may be asking yourself, "Self, what about the local business he mentioned in the title? How is he going to tie that into saving water locally? Will he ever get to the !@#$% point?!!!"

It's time for you to meet Julie and Jason Hodges at Prairie Workshop. From their website:

Prairie Workshop LLC is a woman-owned professional services firm specializing in the fields of Landscape Architecture, Heritage Planning and Environmental Education.  We partner with respected clients and colleagues to design, plan and promote the development, stewardship and education of landscape values that represent a sustainable natural and cultural heritage.

What this means to this article, is that they can help you landscape your yard in a way that saves water, promotes local heritage and local fauna, and they can help you to learn ways to take better care of the world around you.

And if you would like to see Jason speak and learn about conserving water in our region, get yourself up to Amarillo to attend the Texas Panhandle South Plains Water Conservation Symposium on February 12th.

May your rain barrel fill with water and your heart fill with the joy of taking care of us all.

Fire in Drought and 10 Sustainable Living Tips

On a more personal than usual note for this blogger, I have often written about the drought conditions near my mother's home. The lake is dry and the land surrounding her home is filled with brush. Two days ago, those conditions proved to be just right for a fire. No people were hurt, two beloved dogs, her house, two other houses, and all their contents were completely destroyed.

Only one plastic flamingo succumbed to smoke inhalation!

Please keep brush clear from your home and be prepared with fire alarms, extinguishers, and emergency evacuation plans. It is amazing how quickly fire can spread in these dry conditions.

And, to all of you who have shown support to our family, THANK YOU so very much! We have been amazingly blessed with the caring and generosity of the people and communities around us.

For those of you missing your Mesquite Hugger fix, here is great article outlining ten greener living tips that require little investment in time or money. The article is written by Derek Markham, a New Mexico Treehugger writer who is definitely worth following if you are a follower of this blog.

10 Low-tech tactics for living more sustainably

May God bless and keep you all safe and surrounded by people who care.