Water Conservation

I grew up in northern Illinois.  Here the summers were hot and muggy and the winters dropped plenty of snow.  Droughts were a rare occurance and flooding was more likely in the spring.  Water conservation wasn't really something that people worried too much about with gardening in that area. 

Now I live in Colorado.  The area that I live in is considered high desert and much of the water used for farming and/or gardening here is piped in via irrigation canals throughout the whole valley.  This area is super dependant on reservoirs and winter snowfall to water their gardens come summertime.  There is so little precipitation in the summer time that sometimes when it looks like it should be pouring buckets, the water evaporates into the air before it ever hits the ground.  Add some strong dry winds and your garden can become a dry, cracked wasteland in a day if you aren't careful.

Most of the farmers out here depend on covering their fields with row upon row of irrigation ditches.  They flood the fields every couple days just to keep the ground from drying out too much.  Last summer water was so scarce that some fields went unplanted because there wouldn't be enough water to keep the plants alive.  Many of the home gardeners I've met out here also use irrigation ditches for thier gardens.  Irrigation ditches are nice in that they require very little effort to water your crops once they are in place - just turn on the water and wait a few hours.  However I imagine that they waste a ton of water by exposing such a large surface area to harsh sunlight and drying winds during the hottest part of the day.  Some people also rely on sprinkler systems to water thier garden.  Again this is a practice that I believe is very wasteful because of evaporation.  Sprinklers don't insure that the roots of the plants are getting an adequate amount of water and some plants are sensitive to having water on their leaves when the sun is shining on them - double whammy in my opinion.

There are several ways to slow evaporation and conserve water in the garden at the same time.  The most basic is to make sure that you water the roots of the plant directly.  Some people use soaker hoses or an underground irrigation system.  I don't have that kind of money, so I just water by hand.  Just after planting I will walk the rows with a watering can just to make sure that only the row is being watered and not everything else (trust me the weeds don't need the help).  When the plants are well established I will water them directly with the hose - but only at the base of the plant, because I don't want to damage the leaves.  In the additions to the original garden I have dabbled with using irrigation ditches around some of the beds, but I still need to work out the kinks in my plan.  I have also heard of planting seedlings in depressions in the ground so that they can make better use of any sort of rainfall or run off than they would being planted level with the ground.  Another way to conserve water is by using a vessel called an olla - which is a porus clay pot that is buried in the center of a mound of plantings and filled as needed to keep the ground adequately moist.  It's like the ancient version of a soaker hose.

 The other thing I do to conserve water is mulch.  There are many different types of mulches you can use: plastic, rocks, newspaper, grass clippings, or straw.  I settled on using straw because it serves many purposes.  First of all it is cheap.  Out here you can buy a bale of straw for $4.00.  One bale will cover several beds.  Secondly it is biodegradable.  Our soil is very hard clay soil so any organic matter that can be added to it will only be beneficial in helping the soil to retain moisture better and drain better at the same time.  Third, straw allows water into the soil, but slows evaporation and maintains humidty at the base of the plant which can be very important for new seedlings.  Another benefit of straw mulch is that it will protect very young, small plants from late frosts.  The only drawback of straw is that it doensn't deter weeds very well and can introduce weeds unless it is allowed to rot for about a year before it is used in the garden.  Overall I think straw is a pretty great mulch because it serves so many purposes for a relatively low cost.

While I realize that not everyone lives is a semi-desert area, water conservation is still an important part of gardening everywhere.  Water is a limited resource on this planet and this is becoming more and more apparent every year that we have droughts across the country.  By using good water conservation practices we can make sure that we will have enough water for our needs in the future.