New limits on water test landscapers

Sales are flagging, layoffs and losses are mounting -- and new restrictions loom next week.

Those who rely on their green thumbs for a living say tighter water restrictions may wipe out the business the drought has not already stolen.

Water-conscious customers are hesitating, planting less, and workers in the state's $8.6 billion nursery and landscaping industry are bracing for slower sales. In the Triangle, watering has been banned or restricted in many places; on Tuesday, the Raleigh City Council banned automatic irrigation and watering with a hose beginning Feb. 15. The rules may get still more severe.

Ken Walker, owner of Ken's Produce & Garden Center in Garner, said he and his wife woke up Wednesday wondering: "OK, what are we going to do now?"

Normally, Walker would be in the greenhouse starting his annuals, such as petunias, marigolds and snapdragons. For now, he has held back. He still plans to plant tomatoes, peppers and other vegetables but will probably scale back to a third of what he usually grows.

"There's no need to be investing $100,000 in raising plants and not be able to sell them," Walker said.

Others in the industry are also scrambling as they face mounting losses. In October, about 1,000 companies surveyed by the N.C. Nursery & Landscape Association reported that the drought had reduced sales an average of 38 percent and had caused them to lay off about 15 percent of their workers. The industry employs about 150,000 people across the state, according to the association.

After learning of the new watering restrictions, Norman Rabins spent some time Tuesday afternoon at Atlantic Avenue Orchid & Garden Center investigating a $29.99 water system to capture rain from a downspout and a $179.99 faux-terra-cotta-with-planter rain barrel. Rabins, owner of Garden & Art Landscapes, a Raleigh-based landscaping company, hopes to find more work by turning clients on to such devices and "stuff you don't need to water."

Jeff Adcock, owner of Adcock's Nursery near Fuquay-Varina, said for many years his company, which supplies landscape contractors with plants, concentrated on the Triangle because it was growing so fast. Now, Adcock regrets not having pushed into other markets, such as Maryland or Virginia, where the drought is less severe or the rules are less strict.

"We're finding it was a bad idea not to diversify," Adcock said. "So much of the Triangle is tied to the city of Raleigh."

Raleigh's watering ban will also affect water customers in Garner, Knightdale, Rolesville, Wake Forest, Wendell and Zebulon.

Some gardeners expressed anger at Raleigh's latest restrictions but remained confident water-wise gardening could continue.

"This is going to make such an insignificant difference in water conservation," said Helen Yoest, a field editor for "Better Homes and Gardens. "But gardeners are going to find a way to garden."

Yoest thinks Raleigh leaders made their decision merely to look as though they were conserving water rather than to make a real dent in the water deficit.

When Raleigh banned automatic irrigation altogether in October, the city's water use dropped about 35 percent compared with average summer months, said Ed Buchan, the city's water conservation specialist. The new set of restrictions will probably save only about 1 to 2 million gallons a day, or up to 5 percent, Buchan said.

Raleigh's ordinances target visible activities, Buchan said. That makes it easier to enforce the rules, and it addresses public concerns. A car wash and an average fast food restaurant might use the same amount of water, but it's the activities people can see, such as car washing and plant watering, that drive them bananas, he said.

Larry Isenhour, 50, who works at Atlantic Avenue Orchid & Garden Center, thinks gardeners can get by if they can use traditional methods of watering, such as by bucket. For 20 years, that's the way he's always watered the plants in his personal garden in Franklin County. He can catch problems with his plants earlier than if he just cut on a sprinkler and walked away.

"People just don't know how little water it takes to keep a plant happy," Isenhour said.

Nancy Smith of Raleigh gave up watering with a hose back in August. Instead, she has filled her wheelbarrows with rainwater collected from containers set out in her yard. She dishes water out with a pail onto her hybrid tea roses, young dogwoods and gingko trees.

The drought has already claimed some of her azaleas and two or three rose plants. Her garden is filled with bulbs that were gifts from friends and camellias that memorialize her parents. It's sad when she loses a plant.

"It's kind of a losing battle now," Smith said, but she hasn't surrendered. "I'm going to get a rain barrel," she said.