If you’re continually using the garden hose, there’s a chance that you’re doing it wrong. Actively and continuously needing to water your garden is a sign that you may have overlooked some simple but powerful water harvesting techniques. Here are five ways to water your garden and ditch the hose.
1. Plant Your Water Before You Plant Your Garden
Most people design their gardens backyards. They decide where they want to plant and then try to figure out how to get water to it. That’s completely backward. Before putting a seed in the ground:
- observe the landscape
- determined how water interacts with it
- develop strategies for placing the water where you want it
- plant your garden where your water will be
2. Store Your Water In The Ground.
Rain gardens, water barrels, sprinklers, and micro-irrigation are great for storing water to use during dry spells, but they’re far less effective than the water carrying capacity of a healthy layer of top-soil. What’s the key to healthy, water absorbing soil? Organic matter. No gardener has ever complained about having too much organic matter in their soil. If the garden’s too dry? Add organic matter. Too wet? Add organic matter. It’s the great equaliser.
Ex. Swale
Before installing a bed in my front yard, I dug a 100+ foot level trench (swale) that picks up all the water from the downspouts on the East side of my house. Now, instead of pouring out onto the ground, the water enters the trench and spreads out evenly over its entire length. The trench is then mulched over with wood chips and other organic matter before being planted on top of and directly beside. The following picture shows the process from the start (top) to finish (bottom). Nobody will know that there are water harvesting features hidden under your garden.
Urban Swale Using Perforated Pipe
Vegetable Garden Planted On Top Of A Swale
The following is a picture of my vegetable garden the year after installing an urban swale beneath it. This swale picks up water from the house and the garage. The beds are mounds of organic matter with keyholes cut out for access. Once the seeds sprout, this garden doesn’t need any watering.
The combination of steps 1 and 2 are by far the most effective and efficient ways to keep your garden watered. The next three techniques are ways of increasing and maintaining the water carrying capacity of your soil.
3. Mulch
The soil is the best place to store your water, but it’s vulnerable to wind and sunlight. To protect your soil use an organic mulch such as wood chips, straw, or even the plants themselves. Avoid exposing your soil for any length of time. The gardener’s obsession with exposed black earth is the soil’s worst friend.
For a free source of woodchip mulch, check out ChipDrop – an online service that connects local arborists with gardeners. A word of caution, when you request a load of woodchips, you will get a truckload of woodchips.
4. Don’t’ Treat Your Soil Like Dirt
Avoid walking on your soil by creating dedicated paths and building beds that are accessible. The more you step, till, and dig, the less healthy your soil will be over time. You want it to be light, full of organic matter, and moist enough that if you squeezed a handful, you might get a single drop of water.
5. What Comes Out Must Go In
It’s easy to forget that harvesting a one-pound of vegetables removes a pound of water and nutrients from your soil. Over time, this will deplete the organic and nutritional content of the soil, so it’s important to feed it. I keep a compost pile in my hard for all of my organic waste. I also ask all of my neighbours for their unwanted leaves. Each fall, I throw six to 8 inches of leaves on all of my garden beds. In the spring, I add a few inches of compost and sow my seeds directly into it. No tilling necessary.
