Brilliant Water Saving Tips & Advice

Generally when it rains the water runs off the house and yards into the gutter and into pipes or storm drains which feed it into the river, stream or ocean. This conventional approach is problematic in that many of the countries regions are in severe drought. As we expand our population base we will see issues where the growth and water usage far exceed the regional annual rainfalls. This will indeed over tax the water supplies and cause issues with exacerbated droughts and lengthy recoveries. Eventually if kept unchecked we will be in perennial drought in most of our nation.

In Waukesha, Wisconsin a company named Bielinshi Homes has a more conservative approach. The rain water or snow melt running off the home is send into the soil through the surrounding shrubbery and sinks into the ground water table. Using a local swale, prairie or wetland type scenario the water is recaptured and reused as ground water filtered by the soil and taken back out by use of wells. Also of importance in the use of bioswales is that it is cheaper to install than pipes or storm drains with a massive rain gutter system. Landscape maintenance is also reduced to a large degree and the water is retained in the region rather than starting its long journey to the sea.

Bielinski Homes is heavily involved in this new scheme and has over 70% of the master builders developments using this method now. Others in the new housing development business are liking what they see and are following suit. Good water retention policies will be increasingly important in the future as the demand for water continues to climb due to increased population bases. Think on this.

[tags]Conserving water in your home, house water saving tips[/tags]

If you live and have a garden in a dry climate you’ll know doubt be wanting to conserve water for the usual reasons such as the amount of water available to you per annum being severely restricted by the local authority; or water use being metered and very expensive; or you just feel bad about wasting water

The third reason may be the most admirable, but it shares something in common with the other two. They are all negatives. It’s important of course to be aware of undesirable things, but the trouble with focusing on the negative is that we’re liable to do things begrudgingly. “If only we had enough water, we could have acres of lawn”, or “I wish my garden was a tropical paradise, but they won’t let us use enough water”.

Actually, I think there is a very real design reason for dry climate gardeners to make every effort to conserve this precious resource. Let’s think of the “standard” suburban garden, with the lawn taking up most of the space, a thin strip left round the perimeter for a hedge, a flower bed, and a fruit tree or two. Considering the water needs of the grass, there’s no way that water can be conserved. But who says that a garden should look like that anyway? Whether the garden is in Ireland, Thailand or Southern California, it’s just dreadful design, if indeed the term “design” can be applied at all in these cases. I myself choose to look on the lack of water not as a liability to be regretted, but as an opportunity to break the mold, indeed to break the paradigm of the standard garden. The clich is not something to hanker after, but something to be liberated from, and we dry climate gardeners have been blessed with the incentive to stop copying, and to start designing!

So what are the basic principles on which water conserving gardening is based? Obviously, the amount of water consumed is a function of the type of plants grown and the area they take up. For instance, in a typically Mediterranean climate of say 500 mm annual rainfall, with long hot rainless summers, a lawn is going to require at the very least, 700 mm of additional water. That is 700 liters per square meter a year. Add to that fruit trees and annual flowers and we’re talking about a crazy consumption rate.

You’ve been told, no doubt, to “water by drip irrigation” or to “put on the sprinklers at night”, or to plant plants that need “less” water. These instructions should not be confused with principles, for by simply obeying them, either you won’t save significant amounts of water, or you will, and the garden will look extremely poor, unless that is, you have some systematic understanding of the subject, and are then able to apply that understanding to your garden. Here is an approach to water conserving gardening, that if applied correctly makes it possible to have a beautiful garden on the one hand, but one that consumes water within pre-determined limits on the other. These principles can be summed up by the following stages:

* Define in terms of quantity the annual water needs of each group of plants (lawn, shrubs and trees, flowers etc)

* Determine the projected water consumption of the garden. If it’s a garden to be, then the design should take this into account.

* Group plants with similar water needs together (crucial)

* Design and set up an irrigation system that supplies the required water to the plants on the one hand, but at an applied rate, which allows the soil to absorb the water, on the other. The system should allow for independent watering schedules for different plant groups.

Calculate the quantities to be applied for each separate group, and for each separate watering, and then set the irrigation controller, or timer in accordance with the amount calculated.

* The use of techniques which do indeed reduce water consumption, such as organic mulches, or collecting rain water.

Whilst typing this in Australia I am watching the rain fall, yet in the Brisbane area consumers continue to face tightening water restrictions.

For those who live in wetter places in the world you probably have never had to deal with watching plant after plant die. Having a lawn turn brown and having to mow to kept the weeds down as there is no grass left. You can’t help but be depressed. Whilst the media, politicians and others argue about whether it is the worse drought Australia has faced (on an already dry continent) or not the fact it from Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane - the main metropolitan areas - the dams just keep falling. Its not that there is no rain. Its that the rain is not falling in the dam catchment areas. What makes the situation worse it that the all the state governments have failed to invest in building new dams and water infrastructure. So now a race is on to build new pipelines and dams to fix the problem. However plain old common sense says a building a dam in a record dry is a stupid idea. You need dams built when rain is plentiful. So for awhile we might have large areas of land call ‘dams’ that are totally dry! Typical political solution.

In light of this many politicians have looked for the easy answer of using recycled water. It is true that while water from sewage can be cleaned this isn’t always 100% effective. Knowing how other government departments have recently been experienced huge problems that have been very well publicized e.g. health, the average Australian is very skeptical that they can trust a government department with being 100% safe in recycled water processes. They fear they will end up with sewage spills, leaks, missed chemicals or hormones (as experienced in London) or any number of possible stuff ups.

Desalinated water seems to be a better answer and some plants are being built. But the real truth of the matter is the only real solution is rain and lots of it in flood proportions. A couple of wayward cyclones may be the best answer. However even if the rain comes many are starting to become more water wise with better water practices at home and the installation of water tanks to catch roof runoff. Gigalitres of water are lost down the storm drains of Australian cities and this is the first place governments should be looking to answer some of the water problems. But even here the economy is not prepared with a min. three month wait to have a water tank installed.

The simple truth of the drought is this - prepare for the dry when its raining. This is a simple truth in life prepare for the hard times in the good.