LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Clear Lake Trowel and Trellis Garden Club will host a discussion of landscape design on Tuesday, May 19.

Landscape Designer Pat Novotney will speak to the group, which will meet at noon in the Scotts Valley
Women's club house at 2298 Hendricks Road, Lakeport.

It was 1969 when the Shaul Family returned home to Lake County after 22 years serving stints in Southern California and the Bay Area.

They were soon to discover that plentiful fresh water was much more than just a faucet away.

Their new home required drilling a 200-foot hole lined with an 8-inch casing, a 2,000-gallon holding tank, two pumps and a pressure tank.

Since then water depth has dropped from 70 feet to 90 feet and yield from 15 to two gallons per minute.

The drought and many more "straws" sipping away at the aquifer continue to threaten all water systems that depend on ground water.

Everyone can contribute to the solution of this ever-increasing problem by starting to use water wisely in whatever its use and avoid the wastefulness of the past.

Replace lawns with aggregate, rocks and drought-tolerant plants. Install water-conserving irrigation systems, use soil conditioners and mulches to hold water where it is needed and reduce evaporation by as much as 50 percent.

For more information regarding ornamental gardening you're invited to the May 19 garden club meeting and program.

The garden club meets at noon on the third Tuesday of each month – except July and August. A light lunch is served.

For more information please call Marva Brandt at 707-279-1625 or visit www.clttgc.org .

Clear Lake Trowel and Trellis Garden Club is a member of Mendo-Lake District, California Garden Clubs Inc. Pacific Region and National Garden Clubs Inc.

Jerry Shaul is publicity chairman for the Clear Lake Trowel and Trellis Garden Club.