HOW TO SAVE WATER IN THE GARDEN

Water conservation in a #drought. How to save and preserve water in the garden. Also some thoughts on the most effective application of water to the garden.
Including.
1. Put terracotta pots inside plastic pots to avoid evaporation from the sides.
2. Place pots on your borders so that water which drains through waters the soil beneath and put the puts out of direct sunlight and/or cooling breezes.
3. Choose the right time of day to water. Late evening or early morning so that the earth is cool. Prevents the water evaporating.
4. Apply portion control, give plants enough water but not excess, 'that whick can be measured can be managed' and 'enough is as good as a feast'.
5. Put your hosepipe away, these are indescriminate and wasteful. Use a watering can for spot watering and accuracy and 'cost effective' application.
6. Apply a mulch to the soil to reduce evaporation and supress weeds. weeds steal your plants water and nutrition. Practice chop and drop so that the weeds decompose and feed the the soil.
7. keep on top of weeding so that water is not used by unwelcome weeds, preserving it for the plants you intended.
8. Harvest water, collect it when it is raining to be used when it is not. Any container will do. It doesn't need to be an expensive water butt. Gather water from rooftops from the drainpipes and plunge your watering can in whenever you need some.
9. Bank up the soil around the base of plants so that water will stay at the base and soak in rather than running off.
10. Consider NOT watering for a period of time, or alternate watering around your beds, plants are resilient and often have deep roots, they will let you know when they are in distress.
11. Choose the right plants for the right place, Mediterranean plants for hot sunny exposed well drained sites because these are more drought tolerant.
12. KNOW YOUR PLANT STOCK, some plants may not need water and yet you may be watering liberally simply through lack of knowledge. Indeed some pants suffer from too much water.

[frankholehouse]

Nice video Mark looking forward to the day when you have your own weekly gardening TV show that day will come Mark, I would like to see more major companies sending you products to review which I am sure will happen you are a very good presenter you explain things very well .

[rosiejones]

Ill be raiding my plastic recycling bin in the morning! Last heatwave I used grass cuttings on all of my vegetables (which I grow in containers) made a huge difference and they ALL picked up so much from the nutrients. Thanks Again Mark

[TB-cywt]

Great ideas!! Especially like the plastic bottle cut in half. Going to give that one a try. Like you, I have a large trash can that collects rainwater. I make sure I throw in a mosquito block every month to control the larva.

[asianangie]

Like this video very much. guilty…i run to water every morning after coffee according to the forecast, never see any neighbors doing this.. looking into rain barrel to catch water from downspout. Would like to learn more about winter care and preventative measures from preventing mosquito larvae, since it’s a problem for my backyard. I use water from washing rice. heard you can do the same with pasta water. Only problem wasI was salting my pasta water, which I no longer do. Small things we can all do is better than nothing.

[georgemcnally]

Thanks Mark, liked and subscribed.Some very useful little tips there that I shall be employing forthwith!

[jenenamaughan]

Where I live in Australia my garden is sand & very impoverished so besides adding compost you have to add a wetting agent because it becomes hydrophobic. Also, because water is expensive people supplement it by having a water tank or a bore. In the summer it's very hot & if you have lawn you get allocated two days a week you can put the the sprinkler on it. You can be fined if you don't comply.

[tonymulreid]

Thanks Mark, very practical video. On the rain barrel, do you know if there is any period of time that elapses where this water cannot be used on plants as it might cause disease?

Also have you tried the nettle fertiliser yet? Thanks.