Let's see, you need 4 things for a CAR infection - 1) galls within 2 miles 2) 3) water on the galls for a period of time I have yet to nail down, that time is temperature dependent for sure. 4) Warm enough temps.. I'm currently observing this year's crop starting to push out the very beginnings of the horns after 24 hrs. at 40 deg. while wet the whole time. From observations in years past, a few hours wetted at 70 deg. will result in a full blown telial horn eruption. This year is bizzare in that we have had 24+ hrs. of sufficient wetting with temps apparently too low for the galls to sprout their horns fully. Beware those galls that slightly sprout their telial horns slightly and then dry up, darned things can have one heck of an eruption later under the right wetting + temp. conditions. Also, in the big cedars around here a light rain may only get the outside hanging and uppermost galls to erupt, don't be fooled into thinking all is safe for the year as a round of heavy rain can then wet those galls deeper in the tree that weren't wetted the first time and you get another round, OH JOY! BTW, a gall that just got started but didn't quite get it's slimy horns out looks kinda like a porcupine covered with needle-like projections. In summary, Observe the cedars carefully and often when it is raining and you'll know for sure what is happening. Good thing Immunox has a Kickback of how many days Hman, 2 or 3?

I just read an article about Californians shaming their neighbors into killing their lawns. I am reminded of the Communist Chinese Red Guard of youths who turned in their parents for anti Mao thoughts. I hope we are not doomed to repeat an episode of turning in our neighbors for wanting to stretch the life of their investments in landscaping. Maybe this year of El Nino the Sierras will hold some snow pack. I have been waiting for months for this question to arise. If you have St Augustine, then the answer is a resounding YES to the question of letting it grow longer. Please tolerate anyone with St Aug letting their grass go unmowed. The drought will end and they might be the only ones left with lawns. I have a house in George West, TX at the edge of the Texas desert. Temps this week are in the low 100s. Here is a picture of a part of my yard which has not been watered since I moved in in Oct 2011. Obviously it has not been mowed, either. My dog is a chow mix but only half-chow size. That grass is 32 inches long if you stretch it out. It sits in the shade of an oak tree on the east side of the house. It never gets direct sun, ever. 2012 and 2013 were drought years, but that grass remained green and alive. I can't say it did not look wilty at times, but once it did rain, it bounced right back. My grass in full sun has needed water, but not nearly as often as my neighbors water. I can go about a month before it really looks like the next step is dead. During the drought of the past few years, and with this scarce watering plan, I have watched the St Augustine expand out into an area which has never had grass before. I now have about 3,000 square feet more grass than I had before I started this. This has been a wet (normal) year for us so it is expanding more and more. I have also been approached by the city to abate the nuisance which is my yard. They used to have a nuisance ordinance stating all weeds and grass had to be kept down to 18 inches. I complied with that using a string trimmer. This year they changed it to 12 inches but they only seem to be enforcing that on my yard and about 2 other seriously nuisance yards (100% weeds). So now I keep it down to 12 inches - or the flopped over appearance of 12 inches. When it's 100 feet away from the road, it looks "manicured." I'm sure they are equally unhappy with 12 inches as they were with 18 inches, but they wrote the ordinance. What I find hilarious is the city council members claim that they don't water either and their mowed yards look great. Uh, no. Their yards look like weeds mowed down to 2 inches. Mine is a monoculture of real turf grass with no weeds. I undertook this project knowing what the outcome would be. I have seen unmowed St Aug survive very serious drought over a 30 year period. What I wanted to do was document it somewhat and track where the grass seemed to excel. This project is coming to a close as I am selling the house and moving to a new job next week. I hope to repeat the tall grass project at another location with worse drought issues. This time I want to get the city water board in on the project from the beginning.

I'd go ahead and replace them this fall. October/November would be a good time frame. If nothing else, remove the existing shrubs now and take the next few months to see if you really need to replace them. If you decide to replace them, make sure you get something that stays as short as you want, a lot of drought tolerant shrubs don't really like being pruned constantly. That would also save you time and effort!

We have mulched everything that can be mulched and I'm eyeing our purely decretive wine barrels ( now used as tables outside) as potential-not-ugly rain barrels. We are supposed to get rain next week! The rain barrels would have been useful for the couple of times it did rain this winter. I am going to leave a couple of the raised beds empty, and top them with compost, and have promised not to go overboard with the tomatoes, artemis78 - Grey water systems can be used for fruit and veggies, just not root veg or for where edibles touch the ground. The Santa Clara valley water district is even offering rebates $$ for setting up a system. For now I may just try for a handout when we list stating how easy it would be to set the house up for a grey water system. The laundry to garden option is inexpensive and easy but I have yet to see a retro fit system that isn't kind of clunky looking. It will be interesting to hear comments regarding water use when we list the house.