A COUPLE OF VIEWS ON: DROUGHT TEXAS/KENYA

IT IS DIFFICULT TO accept it, but our world over there and down here is really
out of track. As a gardener with intense critical views, regarding the practice of
landscape management and installations, when I sit down to read about the subject
it is very irritating how in this case what matter is not the drought, the difficulties
it creates to humans, flora and fauna, but the impossibility of making a PROFIT.

An article by Ron Hall, of the leading magazine of the Green Industry, Landscape
Management of September of the current, "A Texas-sized Water Challenge" leaves
no doubts as to the focus and perspective of people in the landscape maintenance
business.

"The visibility of the Green Industry is water use and the the perception it's wasting
water (justified in many instances) guarantee it will be one of the first industries
dramatically altered or sacrificed in the name of conservation".

What is relevant is not that there has been no significant rain for the last three years in Texas, but the need to improve IRRIGATION. That is the position of people in the Green Industry. At this time one can irrigate once a week, however, according to the article, some spaces are so big, that they can not be irrigated in twenty four hours. Believe it or not.

In endemismo my stance has been consistent for some time now. TURF ELIMINATION.
If you practice gardening seriously, It may be necessary to change your views about
the plants chosen for your garden since many will certainly pass away the way
things are going in nature. In my garden, perhaps over fifty percent of my inventory
will die if I stop watering every now and then.

I understand that possibility. Even when I have selected plants resistant to salt breeze, sun and heat. But in times of drought why should I worry when there are flora, fauna, people,
affected to such a degree that many have nothing to eat or water to drink. One thing to consider
in Puerto Rico, is the possibility of similar problems even without such severity, thanks to the broken pipes all over the island leaking millions of gallons of water daily without repairs.

The other view from the NY TIMES, 8 September 2009, an article by Jeffrey Gettleman,
'As Lush land Dries up Hopes wither in Kenya'.

"Even in a good year life here is extremely precarious but this year malnutrition rates among
the Turkama have soared way past emergency thresholds. Turkama children, dressed in little
more than a sheet, are hiking twenty miles for a GALLON of water".

I have taken these two paragraphs to demonstrate that water is not a resource that should be
wasted in lawns or any trivial gardening activity. When one looks at the face of starving people,
or animals in those far away lands, for lack of water, it is very annoying to see
that in our world, with fresh water, the waste and lack of appreciation seems
to be the majority rule.

In the case of Kenya, the incapable government is also responsible for the situation, since every
one in power see the best way to rip off their constituents and the state, without much concern for the affected population.

In USA, housing developers are the culprits creating most of the water usage problems. The habit of planting TURF in every imaginable space seems an unnecessary infatuation without cure. Why would anyone plant turf in deserts Utah or Nevada?

At any rate, the people in Kenya have no choices but to live they way they can. In USA there are
many options. The water waste in those desert areas in USA is very difficult to understand.
It violates logic.

But the reality is there. Drought is killing people, flora and fauna in many geographic areas.
The destruction of flora and fauna is USA is no different. However, too many people are concerned about making a profit with irrigation systems, better irrigation, when the intelligent alternative is to ELIMINATE plants with water needs unable to survive. The time to move towards Xeryscaping, native grasses, plants, trees and bushes tolerant to dry conditions in the private/public sector is now.

I still can not understand why, with a drought such as this, three years without a drop, any
JERK, can come with irrigation as a solution for green areas. TIME to go.....