Environmentally friendly ways to water your lawn and garden to survive long periods of hot dry weather

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Two of the biggest water wasters are;

• Water companies lose 300 million gallons of water a day through leaks. 
• Green-Lawn-Man wastes the same amount of water in one hour as a family of four uses in a week. 

 tips on this page will help your garden and lawn survive long dry spell of hot weather without wasting water 

Greywater harvesting simply means saving and reusing water from your washing machine, bath or shower. There are pumps and diverting attachments available, to harvest Greywater. The best and easiest way is to take a bucket into the shower and tip the water directly onto vegetables. If you can, divert dishwasher and washing machine outlet pipes to empty into containers.

A good soaking of a small area is better than a fine spray over a large dry area. So if you have limited water, but a large planted area you will have to be selective about the stuff you are going to water.

Mulching. 

A great way to keep moisture in your soil is to mulch it. Anything from grass clippings, green kitchen waste and leaves, in fact anything that was once green and alive can be used as a mulch. The sort of stuff I have listed here, how to make compost will help preserve moisture and put nutrients back into the soil. Newspaper, sacking and cardboard also make useful mulches.

Plant choice.

Consider planting drought tolerant plants, these are generally long rooted plants like Jerusalem Artichokes, leeks, parsnips and carrots. Most herbs with woody stems, such as oregano, thyme and rosemary, will also do well in a drought. Check out more plants that will thrive in dry conditions here  plants for sandy soil .If part of your garden is boggy or waterlogged it's fairly easy, providing slopes run the right way, to channel water from the waterlogged area to the dry bit, by digging a shallow trench filled with stone or gravel.

Spacing plants in dry conditions.

Don't overcrowd plants of the same species, its OK to plant different types of plants together, i/e long roots, shallow rooting and herbs.

 Most grass is quite resilient to short-term drought.

Green-lawn-man, out with his hosepipe every time the sun shines. Wastes the same amount of water in one hour as a family of four uses in a week, and is as guilty as the water companies, who leak 300 million gallons each day, off wasting water and bringing on a hosepipe ban.

Keep your lawn green in dry weather without wasting water and risking a hosepipe ban.

We have just had one of the wettest winters on record, but now the water wasters, like green lawn man and the water companies (who can't fix leaks) are fast using up our water reserves, risking a ban on the rest of us watering our plants.

Let's look at environmentally friendly ways to keep lawns green in very dry weather.

• Grass can survive for long periods without water, might go brown, but will quickly recover with the first shower.
• Unless you totally drench the lawn, watering encourages the roots to stay near the surface, thus rendering it less tolerant to dry conditions, needing even more watering.
• In dry spells, raise the blades on your mower so that the lawn is left longer and cut the grass less frequently.
• Mulch and leave the cuttings on the lawn to protect the roots, letting the worms return nutrients to the soil. Instead of spraying chemicals every time you see a worm caste and then chemically feeding the grass.
• Aerate the lawn well to allow the moisture to seep down to the roots. This can be done with a garden fork or this simple  lawn aerating tool 

 Summary. Keep your grass cut to a length of seven cm, it will not need to be watered as much as a lawn that is too short. To much watering to compensate for the loss of leaf surface, may encourage weeds such as crab-grass, and fungus disease and will encourage the roots to stay shallow. Long, deep-rooted grass can survive drought better and needs water only occasionally, in dry conditions leave your grass longer and water in the evening. Mulch your grass clippings and leave them there! They are full of water and nitrogen! Just what your lawn needs!