Grey Water Goldmine!

Interested in grey water? Check out this phenominal website by Oasis Design, an ecological design company in central California that specializes in grey water system design and other ecologically sound design practices.

The website is full of practical information about grey water and other water saving systems and you can also find a link to several books and dvd's that designer, Art Ludwig, has written on the subject:

http://www.oasisdesign.net/index.htm

For anyone interested in designing/installing a grey water system here in San Diego, you will first need to contact the Co. of SD Department of Environmental Health for information about local regulations:

http://www.sdcounty.ca.gov/deh/water/lu_graywater_systems.html

For more detailed design guidelines from the California Plumbing Code (CPC) check out:

(note: for Grey Water Systems skip to Appendix G (pgs 38-48))

http://www.documents.dgs.ca.gov/bsc/Title_24/documents/2007/2007%20Part%206/2007-CPC-Errata.pdf

Gardening With Natives

The San Diego chapter of the California Native Plant Society has a started a new native gardening committee which is focusing on promoting CA native plants in the landscape. They are providing a host of free information on how to garden with native plants!!

A series of informational brochures are posted in PDF form on their website and can be downloaded for free. New fliers will be added periodically as they are completed. They also have lists of native nurseries, information about invasive species, and a list of public native gardens. http://www.cnpssd.org/horticulture/index.html

They have also begun hosting free 30 minute "Natives for Novices" seminars before their monthly chapter meetings at Balboa Park. The seminars are given by local native gardening experts and cover a range of subjects from plantings for slopes to how to irrigate a drought tolerant/native landscape. Dates and times are posted on the main page of the CNPSSD website. http://www.cnpssd.org/

Where to find succulents and cacti in San Diego county?

This is interesting: I was perusing a financial and economics blog this week, and came across an off-topic (OT) post by one of the members asking if anyone knew of good places to buy succulents and cacti in San Diego.

Maybe because it's a financial forum, their main goal is to save money on their water bill?  Most residents in San Diego don't know this, but 50% of their water bill comes from watering their garden.  Yes, 50%!


Whatever the reason, how cool is it that everywhere we look, we find examples of people searching for information on native plants, and planting climate-appropriate plants?