Prepare Your Garden to Survive Drought During 2027’s La Nina

Droughts and heavy rainfall are more frequent nowadays, which makes it harder to maintain a garden. In addition, NOAA has predicted that a “Super El Nino” will affect our weather at the end of 2026 and into 2027. For us in the southern United States, it means much wetter weather, with more frequent and severe storms. Diane will explain what happens and how it will affect our rainfall. Previous Super El Nino events were immediately followed by strong La Nina events, which are the opposite from El Ninos and for us it will mean switching from too much rain to severe drought and heat. Diane will discuss how to help keep our gardens hydrated during dry periods, and what we can do to manage rainwater to infiltrate into the ground to recharge the water table and into rain totes and barrels to be stored to water plants instead of relying solely on pumped groundwater.

The focus will be on how to figure out where to put rainwater harvesting features to route stormwater away from structures and towards areas of the yard where it can sit and infiltrate to minimize runoff and keep more water onsite. Besides rain barrels and rain gardens, rainwater harvesting features can include:

• using existing shade or creating shade to protect plants from excess heat and sun using buildings, vines, shrubs, trees and shade cloth
• increasing the water holding capacity of your soil by adding organic matter and mulch
• using drain pipes, raised berms, or paved paths to route stormwater to places where it can infiltrate
• using rocks to slow water down to prevent erosion
• setting up rain barrels and/or totes to collect rainwater to use later

Diane Willis was born and raised in St. Petersburg, and worked for almost 40 years as an environmental scientist. She became very familiar with rainfall patterns, soil hydrology, and what plants indicate flooded conditions. She took a Permaculture Design Course (permaculture is a design system based on working with nature) in 2013. In 2017, she became certified as a Water Harvesting Practitioner. Since then, she has converted her yard to a food forest with 3 rain totes, 7 rain barrels, and 3 rain gardens as well as designing and installing paved footpaths to route excess rainwater away from her house. She has given several presentations to the Sustainable Urban Agriculture Coalition in St. Pete, and recently got a grant from the Tampa Bay Estuary Program, which she used to set up a rainwater harvesting demonstration area for Sweetwater Organic Community Farm in Tampa.

Please note: This workshop will be taking place at the Big House at Sweetwater Farm, but you can park at 5521 Hanley Road, Tampa FL 33634 and cross the bridge over the creek to the farm.

General Admission: $20
Low Income/Senior: $10 (limited number)

Although our base price for this course is $20, Sweetwater is a nonprofit that puts on educational programs for elementary schools in the neighborhood and teaches them about food systems and basically where their food comes from. We also host community volunteer days and a farmer’s market every Sunday from November through May. You can donate to Sweetwater in addition to your course fee if you’d like to help us continue our programs. And if you want to get your hands dirty in our gardens you can contribute your time by volunteering Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday mornings from 9-12.