10 Simple Ideas to Keep Your Garden Green
With Stage 3 water restrictions now in place, there are some practical things you can do to help your garden survive during this dry period.
- Get water to the root zone of your plants.
• Simply make a small depression next to the plant and water into the depression; or
• Fill a bottle with water and place it upside-down with the neck in the ground; or
• Use a drip irrigation system. - Keep moisture in the ground by mulching around the plant to reduce evaporation. A medium mulch like pine bark keeps the ground cool, reduces weeds and should be laid about 3inches deep.
- Check if the soil is damp.
Insert a finger length into the ground and, if the soil is damp, you don’t need to water. Check the long-term weather forecast and, if there’s a forecast for rain you don’t need to water. - Prioritise your plants. Some thirsty plants are not going to make it through January and February and some larger trees won’t survive by hand watering. By deciding early what plants you’re going to try and keep you can save a lot of water.
- You cannot water the lawn. Lawns are surprisingly tough and even if they die off they will usually come back with rainfall. Don’t mow it shorter than 3-5cm. Any kind of shade cloth and windbreak over the lawn will minimise evaporation.
- You can only use a drip irrigation system or a hand-held hose with a trigger nozzle in the early morning (6am-8am) or late evening (8pm-10pm) two days per week. Odd numbered houses – Sunday and Wednesday. Even numbered houses – Saturday and Tuesday. Automatic drip systems can be used between 12am and 4am on the days above.
- Spray irrigation systems need to be converted to drip irrigation systems. There are some simple conversion kits available through hardware stores.
- Gather your pot plants together into one area in the shade and out of the wind and water them all at once. You can put them in containers to catch any runoff. If the soil is too dry it won’t absorb the water and will need a wetting agent which is available from hardware stores.
- Invest in ways to use rainwater and grey water and become independent of water restrictions. There are special rules for using grey water that can be found through the EPA website www.epa.vic.gov.au/
Be careful if you are diverting water from your washing machine. If you try and direct the water through a smaller diameter hose than the one coming from your washing machine it could damage the pump, blow the fitting and flood the laundry. The chemicals in your detergents could also damage your soil and plants. - Stay cheerful. Gardening is a wonderful, creative and a satisfying pastime that is good for you and the environment. There are some beautiful and very alive gardens existing in very low water conditions.
These tips will help you get started and there is a wealth of material about rainwater tanks and grey water advice and products available as well as more detailed advice at http://www.savewater.com.au/.
For more information go to Sustaining Gardens in dry times.