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The San Francisco Chronicle had a recent article warning that EBMUD might start water rationing
throughout the East Bay, even including Alameda. In past rationing periods the area west of the hills has usually been spared, and those customers east of the hills (where it tends to be a lot hotter, lawns are bigger and water consumption per resident is a lot higher) have born the brunt of the cut backs, resulting on horrible brown lawns.

More and more though, people are finally forsaking their lawns, and going natural.  The use of native plants in landscaping is on the rise, and I am proud to say that our very own Ploughshares Nursery has been playing an important roll in promoting the use of drought tolerant and native plants for landscaping.

Even water rationing and water use is controversial in Alameda. What isn’t controversial in Alameda?  Residents at Bayport who have tried to put in native plant landscaping have been blasted by their green lawn diehard neighbors for planting “weeds”.   A nice native landscape doesn’t have to look like a bunch of weeds though. Just ask some of the folks that have gardens featured in the upcoming Bay Friendly Garden Tour on April 27th and the Bring Back the Natives Tour on May 3rd and 4th.  Alameda gardens and Ploughshares Nursery are featured on both tours, and Ploughshares, along with other nurseries will be having a special sale on native plants.  A great chance to learn from the experts, and turn your garden into a water solution!

Shortly after starting my blog, I took off on vacation to Nepal, thus killing any momentum that didn’t really exist. I will spare you the long drawn out travelogue, except for one observation.  Nepal is going through some incredibly rough times - power is out for 8 hours of every, the wait in lines for gasoline or diesel can take up to 12 hours, they are trying to overcome the trauma of a revolutionary war that killed thousands over the past ten years, and they are gearing up for elections that could dramatically change the government.  The prevailing sentiment was summed up this way “in ten years Nepal will be really wonderful, or really bad.”

Coming back home after 3 weeks, I also found that life wasn’t looking as rosy in Alameda as it was when I left - a perfect storm of budget cuts in education, city financial woes at the golf course and with AP&T, a downturn in housing that threatens to scrap some development projects has made the near and long term future much murkier.   Luckily we are doing without a revolution(so far), but as in Nepal, I think it is now fair to say of Alameda that “in ten years it will be really wonderful, or really bad.”