This year in the bay area we are on water rationing. I've been covering every bare place in my yard with anything that I could scrounge of plant matter. I've cut back my tall growing irises after they bloomed to use the stems, used the neighbor's cut grass, pulled up any excess of plants that had overgrown their area, added weeds that I pulled up or raked, put down newspaper under them to increase the effect. Since our city has "green bins" for people to put their plant refuse in to recycle into city mulch, my chance at using the neighbor's plant debris has been reduced. But I've found enough from my own yard -- almost.

I know people used to be worried about using plant debris that it might bring in unwanted pests but I've not found it so. I reason that the pests would invade a similar plant and I'm bringing in plant debris to cover a vegetable garden. At any rate, regardless of the theory the practice has shown a pretty healthy garden -- best in memory.

I often interplant mixing up the plantings on the theory that if a disease affects one plant it won't spread rapidly to all the same variety of plants. But this year, for the convenience of mulch, I made rows with all the same variety in each row and a trench between each row filled with plant matter.

I've also been hauling the rinse water from our washing machine to the fruit trees for extra watering. This is more work then many people would be willing to do but since I have not yet figured out how to get JUST the rinse water (and not the rest of the wash with detergent) piped out conveniently because of where are washer and dryer are placed, I just run the hose into a bucket, stop the drain cycle, go out and dump the 5 gallon bucket on a tree, come back and start the drain cycle again til the next bucket is full. . . etc. One wash load rinse water takes 4 buckets - 20 gallons and 4 trips. I may not be willing to continue this all summer but so far I haven't minded. And I use the rinse water in the sink -- the virtually fresh water that otherwise would go down the drain when I rinse a dish or wash my hands -- and carry it out to the plantings in my front yard. That seems to be enough water for the front plantings which are all decorative.

I am still scavanging for yet more plant matter. I'd like to get at least 6 inches deep of mulch. And the mulch keeps matting down to only a few inches once wet. I suppose it would be easier to just find a bale of hay but in the middle of an urban setting it isn't quite as simple as it might sound. For now I'd like to see if I can't make use of all the free plant matter that is "excess" in my yard. all prunings and clippings. Which ammounts to very slow composting on the ground -- in place as it were.