Thinking about saving water for your garden this year?

Here in Pine Cove, many residents like to garden and even grow some of their own food. Now is the time to start thinking about spring projects and what you can do to conserve water in the garden.

If you have an existing garden, there are several things you can do to reduce the amount of water you use in the garden. First, be sure to add compost to your existing garden. Soil that is high in organic matter stays moist longer. Improve your soil by adding a source of organic material such as compost or well rotted manure. If you consistently work to improve your soil each season, the texture and water holding capacity of your soil will increase and your garden will require less water. In order to make this easier for you, we have wonderful compost available to our customers for free!

Once you have freshened your soil with compost, it is time to add some mulch. Mulch aids the garden in several ways. It adds a source of organic material which and will eventually improve the structure and the water holding ability of the soil. Mulch slows surface evaporation so you will water less and it helps to smother weeds, making your gardening easier! As it happens, we also have mulch (Wood Chips) available to our customers for free as well!

One wonderful thing you can do to help keep your garden looking good throughout the summer is harvest rainwater. Rain water is FREE water. Just catch it and store it then use it. You can search for rain water harvesting online and find a ton of helpful information and lots of examples on how to set up rain harvesting system.  By using your roof water you will reap water benefits from even a gentle rain by capturing all of the water that falls onto your roof surface. This can be as simple as a rain barrel under your down spout or shallow trenches to divert the rainwater to the garden.  Adding berms strategically in the garden will keep the water form running off. You can even go so far as to install a large water storage tank either above ground or underground in order to store thousands of gallons of rain water. 

Installing a drip irrigation system will deliver water directly to the plants root zone instead of watering the entire surface of the garden. Although, a drip irrigation system can be expensive initially it will certainly pay off in drastically reduced water use if you intend to grow a  garden year after year. The hoses, emitters, fittings and valves must be laid out to deliver the water to each plant. If you can’t afford to install a drip system,  an easy alternative is to use soaker hoses that allow water to seep through the porous material along their entire length. Soaker hoses are less expensive to install and you can put them under the mulch to prevent evaporation.  Both methods are better alternatives than sprinklers or letting the hose run.

Flu Season and Humidity Protection

Higher the humidity lowers your risk for airborne viruses. Do you run a humidifier in your home during cold an flu season? If you don’t it might be time to consider investing in a humidifier for your home or office to reduce your risk of getting sick. Researchers found raising indoor humidity killed 85% of airborne flu virus within an hour, 100% within 24 hours. In dry air, the virus thrived for days. Increased humidity can also help with other health conditions like Asthma, coughing, snoring and dry skin and hair. According to WebMD, “Changes in humidity in different seasons may also affect how often people get sick. The most common cold viruses survive better outside the body. Also, cold weather may make the lining of your nose drier and more vulnerable to an infection by a virus.”

Our humidity level here in Idyllwild and Pine Cove is notoriously low. With the cold weather running your heater or burning a fire can suck the moisture out of the air. Keeping a cast iron pot or kettle on your wood burning stove while burning a fire can help raise the humidity level as well. Keeping the humidity level up and investing in a humidifier seems like a relatively simple solution to protect your health this time of year.

SNOW-PLAY VISITOR ILLEGAL PARKING & UNSAFE DRIVING?

Rather than helplessly sit by when unsafe or illegal road or parking behavior happens, witnesses can do something about it. CHP officers can’t be everywhere at the same time, but residents are! In addition to phoning, we can now report incident details by email.

It’s a traffic safety campaign the San Gorgonio Pass California Highway Patrol (which covers the Hill) has started that asks our community members to report unsafe and/or illegal driving or problem roads.

Using the license plate, Capt. Mike Alvarez will mail the registered owner a courtesy warning letter. (You remain anonymous.) The warning letter is kept on file at the San Gorgonio Pass CHP office for future reference.

Here’s how to do it. Simply PROVIDE: date, time, location and vehicle license plate (or a passenger’s or dash cam’s photo).

Then EMAIL it to: SanGorgonioPass@chp.ca.gov

When you report a problem, the CHP will log it using data to track the locations via hot-spot mapping so CHP can deploy resources in high-violation areas.

Please call or email the CHP for any driver or road problem you see. It’s the only way our voices, numbers, and problems can be heard!