As our summers are getting hotter and drier, being mindful of how we use water is more important than ever. Outdoor water use accounts for 25% of Greater Vancouver water use. Find best practices for reducing your water usage below.
Create shade
- Delicate plants don’t like full sun
- Cools the soil
- Allows water to penetrate more deeply, evaporation is not as fast
Plant drought-resistant or tolerant plants
- Group plants with similar water needs together
Incorporate drip irrigation into your garden plan
- Waters the soil deeply, not the plants which also helps with disease prevention
Interplant
- Create shade with a tomato plant and interplant lettuce around. The lettuce shades and covers the soil helping to slow evaporation and preventing the tomato plant from drying out
Cover crop
- Shade the soil with cover crops
- Helps build soil integrity increasing the water retention of the garden
Know your plant water needs
- Over-watering is a much more common issue
- Generally, don’t need to water as much as gardeners think
Build up your soil
- Add compost!
- Apply organic matter twice a year to build up the structure
- Work towards loam soil, good water retention and drainage
- Sandy soil loses water too quickly and clay soil holds onto too much water
- Feed the microbial community in the soil that helps direct water to plant roots
Water in the morning
- Soil is cool, it will be absorbed and not evaporate off
- Allows the plants to be more resilient to a dry day (putting on armour vs bandages if you water afterwards)
- Plants won’t be wet through the night, great for preventing and managing water-born diseases
Infrequent, but deep watering
- Encourages deep root growth making a stronger, healthier plant
- Roots will grow down towards the water
- Frequent, short watering encourages short root growth more susceptible to dry days
Mulch
- Insulates the plant from the heat
- Helps slow evaporation as the soil is covered
Rain barrels
- Collect water in barrels during our rainy days and attach a drip hose to water the garden
- Should be closed barrels with a mesh on top to prevent it from becoming a danger to children and animals
- Use the water frequently so mosquitoes can’t breed in the standing water
Incorporate xeriscaping and native planting
- Designing your garden with plants that require little to no water
- Lavender, rosemary, thyme
- Native plants do better in our climate and are better for our native pollinators!
- If you’re in one of our community gardens, this may not be feasible, but incorporate plants that don’t need too much water with your vegetables