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Dry Gardening: Evapotranspiration and the over-watering of the Southern California lawn

Posted by: Maven on June 13, 2009 at 6:17 am

From the Los Angeles Times:

Most of us learn about evapotranspiration in school. Rain or snow falls. As it forms rivers or soaks into the earth, a certain amount of it evaporates into the atmosphere. That’s the “evapo” part. Then the roots of plants also absorb water from the earth and feed it to their leaves. During photosynthesis it is released back into the atmosphere. That’s the “transpiration” part.

How fast evapotranspiration occurs and how much water is involved depends on a place and its plants. Tropical flora, flushed with steady water, grows in a fast, lush and often continuous fashion. Landscape designers would say it has an high ET rate.

Plants in dry Mediterranean climates such as ours use water sparingly. Faced with bone dry summers, Mediterranean plants typically become dormant in late spring through fall to conserve water. These plants have low ET rates.

But in Los Angeles, we tend to use plants with high ET rates in a region naturally suited to plants with low ones. Because the climate is simply too hot for most plants with high ET rates, we are forced to water them at many times over the already high rate they would naturally require.

Read more from the Los Angeles Times by clicking here.

June 13, 2009 · Filed Under Drought Tolerant Landscaping, Southern California

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