Unless you’ve been living in the bottom of your Olympic-size swimming pool in full scuba gear, you’re aware that California is in a tremendous drought. Unless we change our ways, it will only get worse.

Mariposa Master Gardeners can help you learn to save the most water you can with a free workshop, '10 Principals of Landscape Design for Water Conservation' presented by Regina Hirsch, who has spent decades studying and developing plans to help keep us from going dry.

The workshop will be from 10 a.m. to noon, Saturday, April 11, 2015 at Hacienda de Don Pedro, 5182 Fuentes des Flores, La Grange. To insure enough handouts and to be notified of any changes, register at (209) 966-2417 or click on the link at: cemariposa.ucanr.edu/Master_Gardener.

Hirsch will discuss what conservation methods are best for your topography, including drought-tolerant plants, using greywater, water-saving irrigation techniques, how to save the maximum amount of rainwater, and how to prevent runoff.

Her motto is “Slow it, sink it, spread it.” That can be accomplished with berms, basins, mulching, terraces, check dams, and systems to capture the rain that comes off your roof. She’ll show you examples and talk you through becoming a person who is a water keeper, not a water loser.