With water at a premium, it’s time to re-evaluate caring for that lush property.  I recently learned that, on average, 50-70% of home water is used outdoors watering lawns and gardens and nearly 85% of all landscaping problems are due to over watering.  Properly designed yards can reduce water use by up to 20% or more each year.

Located in the desert, (above), there’s not a cactus in sight.  A fresh and green, water-hungry lawn is all I see!  Yet with a little ingenuity (below), we’ve got a modern beauty to behold.

Our word of the day: xeriscape!  It’s a sustainable landscape and gardening method that reduces the need for excess water irrigation.  Let’s greet the warm summer season with smarter and greener (no pun intended) yards and lawns.

Xeriscape to grow and maintain an aesthetically beautiful garden.  In addition to the traditional cactus garden, there are plenty of drought-tolerant plants and gardening methods that are easy to implement with the help of your local nursery or Home Depot, and can save you big bucks on the monthly water bill.

Here are some quick to-do’s for your lawns and yards:

• Use mulch around plants, bushes, and trees to retain moisture and prevent runoff
• Plant in the spring or fall when watering is not needed as much
• Use porous materials for walkways and patios to prevent runoff and to keep water in your yard
• Avoid planting on steep inclines or isolated turfs that may be difficult to irrigate
• When choosing plants, try “drought tolerant plants”, particularly perennials, that grow well with LESS water.

Happy gardening!

The vast power of the ocean’s waves presents both a vast opportunity to create electricity and the daunting design challenge of creating technology that can withstand the pounding waves and relentless abuse the ocean dishes out 24/7.

The recent sinking of the Oceanlinx wave power platform off Port Kemba, Australia demonstrates what happens when extreme conditions surpass design specs.  The 70 ton, 2.5 megawatt MK3 wave power generator, which had been officially launched in March of this year, was always intended to be a short-lived prototype and transitional design – just not this short lived.  A series of huge swells battered the installation against a breakwater, eventually breaking moorings and setting the platform adrift.  The extreme weather conditions prevented efforts to tow the platform to calmer waters.

Unlike the recent demise of BP’s Deep Water Horizon oil rig, the sunken Oceanlinx wave power generator poses no immediate threat to the environment or local ships.

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