Dear Umbra,
Thanks for your good advice about water conservation. You failed to mention the largest (unnecessary) water user in most U.S. homes: outdoor plant watering. While Grist readers may be eco-wise enough not to water their plants, nor even entertain the possibility of managing a green lawn, there may still be a few closet waterers out there. The solution: choose the right plant for the right location; water the plant to get it established; after the first couple seasons, let only the fittest survive. If you're not that ruthless, use a rain barrel to capture what nature supplies and use as needed.
Cindy Shea
Chapel Hill, N.C.
Dearest Cindy,
Right. I completely failed to mention outdoor water use, and in fact have never written about water conservation in the yard. Much to my shock. Rest assured, out of our many readers, a few may be enlightened by your letter.
A little bit should go a long way.
Photo: iStockphoto
As Cindy so accurately noted, much of the water use in yards is unnecessary, and most household water use is in the yard. Yes, a catchy percentile would be good here, but the amount of outdoor water use as a percentage of household use will depend on where you live, ranging from about seven percent to 70 percent. However, a plant-filled yard is still a good thing -- and let me go over the reasons why, because if anyone is inspired to pave their front yard with pink and white bricks to avoid water use, like that house I saw once in California, I wish to deter them.
A plant-filled yard is good because root-filled soil is porous and absorbs rain and runoff, filtering it and participating heartily in the water cycle. Pavement, plastic, roofs, and pink and white bricks are impervious surfaces from which water runs off downhill and joins other runoff, amassing a mass and momentum, becoming emboldened to various delinquent acts such as eroding banks, washing out wildlife habitat, clogging storm drains, causing flooding in agricultural areas. Impervious surfaces are a serious problem, and when we nourish a healthy garden -- even a healthy lawn! -- we help to mitigate the problem our roads and roofs cause. A nice yard will also help cool an urban landscape, whereas a nice pavement will retain and radiate heat.
But if one has such a fabulous thing as a yard, whatever is in the yard is probably watered. Many persons use water to keep grass and other geographically inappropriate plants green during dry months, to nourish young perennial plants while they become "established," and to help their vegetables grow.
Cindy's four-point system is an excellent one, and I have only a few comments. On choosing the right plant for the right location: a plant happy in its location will need less nutritional and aqueous help from its gardener. Although native plants can be a perfect choice, defining "native" can be tricky, and non-native plants can sometimes be appropriate. So, how do we know what plants are right for a location, when landscaping seems like an esoteric mystical art? Cooperative extension! Master gardeners! The library! The newspaper! Experimentation! The neighbors!
Point two: if a plant is a perennial, water it for a few years so it can establish a root structure; then, if you have put a low-water plant in the right location, it should be fine without your hose. Point three -- let the plants die if they can't handle it -- is only for those who are willing to let plants die, and some people are just going to haul out the hose in pity for the plants they love, so I'll tell you how to water properly in a second. But one more point: Reduce your lawn. Slowly take away your lawn if you find you can't bear not watering it, chemically fertilizing it, or using a gas mower. With your leftover lawn, water deeply and less often (again, cooperative extension and master gardeners can give you lawn-watering tips for your area), and do all those lawn-tending tasks like aerating and autumnal top dressing with compost.
Watering is best done in the evening or very early morning. Evaporation is an obvious reason for this. During hot, sunny weather, water evaporates into the air as it shoots out of a hose, even a drip hose, and the water left on the soil surface will also dry quickly. Capillary action may even draw water up out of the soil to be dried on the surface during hot days. Speaking of drip hoses, surface-delivered water is almost always preferable to air-delivered water (sprinklers and hoses), for the same evaporative reasons. Evening and early morning (you know, 3 a.m. type of early) are easy times to water if you have a timer and hose system. If you have no idea about the wide variety of drip irrigation and catchment systems (rain barrels) available for the home gardener, please peruse DripWorks to get yourself started (remember, I'm vendor-agnostic). Happy less watering, everyone.
Parchedly,
Umbra
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IronRinger Posted 5:33 am
30 Apr 2007
Having just spent a day this weekend on my irrigation system (buried soaker hose for my veg garden, a couple of those fun little pinwheel sprinklers - couldn't resist, and a utility hose, all hooked into a switchable manifold so I can go between rain-barrels and tap-water), I'm all jazzed on this subject. So my humble offerings to this forum:
Push-powered lawnmowers combine a bit of a sweat with your lawn-care needs, plus that soothing whirring/clipping sound.
Composting your veg scraps, coffee grounds, shredded bank statements, etc. makes for a decent fertilizer. Of course it takes a year.
Catching your shower warm-up water in a bucket for yard watering (top up the rain-barrel with said bucket) saves a gallon or two, and makes for a fun conversation piece with your neighbours when they spy you lugging a bucket of water out to your yard each day.
:)
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markypark Posted 2:39 pm
30 Apr 2007
Here in New Zealand the replacement of lawns and gardens with impervious surfaces has got the nickname of 'Placemakers Creek' syndrome.
Placemakers is one of the big home handyman stores where all good diy's go on the weekend to get their concrete and cobblestones etc. Seems whole valleys are heading off to buy stuff from Placemeakers to outdo the Jones' driveway etc next door. All of a sudden, before you now it, huge areas of impervious surfaces have developed and mini flash floods occur every time it rains! (well maybe not quite, but you get my drift...)
I think your tip about planting natives plants that have adapted to the local climatic conditions is great, as in the long run they look good, are self maintaining and help preserve local biodiversity (including birdlife).
Enjoying your commentary in NZ! Keep it up
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witmol Posted 9:35 pm
30 Apr 2007
IronRinger's bucket suggestion is one of our favourites (it works for dishwater as well provided you're using an enviro-friendly dishwashing liquid), and you can also wash your car or your dog on the lawn (again with the enviro-friendly washing liquid) if you can do it efficiently.
But the biggest help is mulch, which provides a barrier between the sun and your precious soil to help stop dehydration. Do a bit of research as to the type of mulch suitable for your area. Some types of mulch is as good as companion planting in terms of keeping creepy crawlies away from your edible plants, for example.
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rglater Posted 7:58 am
01 May 2007
This was a neighborhood that loved concrete lawns. (Shudder). We had the only tree in front of our house on the block. When we sold the new owners cut it down. A few blocks away a block got together and planted trees in front of each house. Go figure!
In Marin we used Oasis water, warm up water from showers and kitchen water warm up. We used the grey water for toilet flushing first and white water for indoor plants. Leftover water was for outdoor plants. If a plant couldn't survive on on what I carried to it in buckets then it was allowed to die and was replaced with a native.
Now I live in a house with a lawn. I hate it. I do as little as possible to care for it. If I was healthy I would replace it. Until then I keep it as ugly as possible and try to starve it.
gabh an latha,
Richard Dietzel
Eugene, OR
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Brian Fisher Posted 1:40 pm
01 May 2007
On one occasion we had no rainfall for a month or more. The earth under the hay in our potato patch stayed moist throughout the drought period.
Regularly watering plants is like putting them on drugs. They become addicted to the water and their roots tend to stay closer to the surface. The moment the water stops the plant wilts and can die. An unwatered plant will grow it's roots deeper and become more drought resistant.
Rain water is just right for instant absorption by the plant; while tap water is usually too cold and much will be lost before it gets to the right temperature.
Mulch also insulates the soil and helps even out the temperature in the garden so it stays cooler in the day and warmer at night. Spiders, toads, frogs and snakes also appreciate this environment and stay around more to help control the insect population.
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Pangolin Posted 5:05 pm
01 May 2007
If you put water on dry clay it immedietly swells and can shut the soil underneath from further infiltration. Several 10-minute periods of watering seperated by an hour each are far more effective in getting the water into the soil than a single 30-40 minute soaking. Thing scattered showers.
Mix your lawn with other things for optimal survival. Thyme and yarrow where it is dry, comfrey on the borders, violets where there is shade. Scattering white clover seeds into the lawn before the rainy season will help it self-fertilize.
There are lots of drought resistant plants that can replace a lawn if you don't want to sit or walk on it. Yarrow is the most notable but there are many othes that work. Purslane and hen-and-chicks are tough succulants that spread rapidly. Santa Barbara daisy is also nice with lots of flowers on low growing greens.
Good luck.
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SustainableGreen Posted 3:13 am
03 May 2007
A technique for lawn, ornamental, and landscape gardening that covers many issues is to use only native species. One of the worst phenomena we face is the problem of invasive species, which can start with or be exacerbated by exotic species, by either spreading themselves or attached organisms. Invasives cause great environmental degradation and cost beeellions of dollars, both in losses and control measures.
Regionally native species are far better suited to the area where you live and are therefore more suited to the water regime present. Natives also support native nurseries, which obviously are local, and cut down on transportation costs of exotics. And they are much more likely to survive when you stop watering.
To add to the list of local sources, I would mention Master Naturalists groups in your area. Ask any of them and they can probably name several favorite, native, vigorous species. And when you plant local you also support local insect and avian species, which can help reduce biodiversity impoverishment.
David
Sustainability For LIfe
Messages done with sustainable energy, with Wind and Sun!
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