Bring water and thrive. When it comes to planting backyards, they must play a role in restricting water use. Try these seven ways to reduce water usage through diverse efforts in surface catchments and clever planting.
With the current environmental crisis, we are all trying to do a little more. From encouraging biodiversity to supporting local wildlife, these are all small switches that retain the power to create big change.
Reducing water use in your city is another step towards practicing sustainable and regenerative gardening.
For over 25 years, I have lived in Vancouver, British Columbia. It is known for its grey sky and merciless rainy days. During this time I witnessed a dramatic change in the water reserve. The cash isn’t big enough to meet the city’s needs during the summer.
It’s more important than ever that we are playing our part in limiting urban water usage, coupled with the devastated wildfires that plague the summer season.
Today I share seven ways to reduce water usage with storage hacks that work in any garden or garden of any size.
Principles of efficient water use
Before we begin, I thought it might be helpful to review the basics of what we are trying to achieve. These ideas are outlined in my book The Regenerative Garden as the basis for efficient water use.
Step 1: Capture and store rainwater for irrigation in your garden. Step 2: Recycle this water as many times as possible. Step 3: Know your local water budget and stay within it. Do not use anything more than rainfall.
Seven Ways to Reduce Water Urban Urban Water Usage
Reducing urban water usage requires diversifying efforts. A combination of catching, storage, recycling and smart planting can reduce urban water usage to a major extent.
These are some strategies to get you started.
1. Remove thirsty grass
Lawns use truly incredible amounts of water. They have become the norm in most communities, but there are plenty of lawn alternatives that use far less water.
If you don’t need lawns, replace them with low maintenance ground such as microclover or native drought-resistant grass seeds. Many seed companies have ecolone alternatives that you can try.
I’m revamping my lawn in my new home and revamping my lawn with a new alternative lawn mix. Please check below.
2. Plant native and drought-resistant plants
Xeriscape principles, or saving water through landscaping, will go beyond the lawn.
The plants you choose to include in your garden can have a significant impact on your city’s water use.
Choose plants endemic to your area, as they can survive with supplemental watering in natural rain. Choosing drought-resistant plants will help you throughout the summer months when rainfall is reduced.
3. Capture and store rainwater
One of the fundamental principles of sustainable water use is to capture and store rainfall during the dry month.
Rain barrels with overflow pipes directly in the garden are an efficient way to capture rainfall. The barrel can be made from a plastic, metal or wooden drum.
The average rain barrel can hold 50 gallons of rainwater, enough to water an 80-square-foot garden.
4. Redirect the drain
Are there any plants that like extra water? Redirect the drain spout to feed directly into the garden, allowing plants to drain excess water without digging into the city’s water supply.
Please note that not all roof spills are recommended for our garden, depending on the roof material. A roof made of non-porous metal is ideal, but untreated wood gravel roofs are also acceptable.
Avoid roof spills from asphalt, rubber or galvanized zinc roofs.
5. Build a rain garden
The design of the rain garden sounds complicated, but it is surprisingly low maintenance and simple to the concept. These gardens are designed to filter and release rainwater runoff and keep water in soil and streams.
Rain Garden uses water-loving plants that act as biofilters to purify the water, along with drought-resistant plants with deep roots.
These gardens redirect natural water sources through drains, gravel valleys and rock-filled overflow areas, from simplification to detailed.
6. Use OLLA water surface catchment
Self-refueling planters are an efficient way to save time while saving city water usage.
Ollas is one of my favorite self-watering systems. They have been used for thousands of years to provide slow irrigation and deep root watering.
This ancient watering practice teaches plants to reach out to find this water source, limiting the need for supplemental watering.
You can also attach the Ollas to a rain barrel and draw water if necessary.
7. Build a suction bed
Do you want to take your self-watering water supply to the next level? Absorbent beds are essentially huge self-watering containers. It may resemble a classic raised bed, but it is far below the surface.
These beds have reservoirs under the soil, dramatically reducing the need for supplemental watering.
The reservoir is made with impermeable barriers to hold water, gravel for storing gravel, and drainage pipes for water flow. It can be filled manually, by rainfall, or by overflow eruption.
Throughout the hottest summer months, your inhalation bed will require less manual care for the rest of the year and only weekly top-ups.
FAQs on reducing urban water usage
Have more questions about reducing water use in your city? These are the questions I get the most. If you do not answer your question here, please leave it in the comments below.
When you have an acre of space, it’s easy to make a grand plan for water conservation. But when you deal with small city gardens, you may feel more limited.
The good news is that all of these water reduction strategies are designed to work in any space with any garden scale option.
A single rain barrel with a redirected drain is small space-friendly and can make a huge difference in water use.
Planting grass alternatives and native or drought-resistant plants is another useful solution that can be found in gardens of any size.
We recommend choosing plants that live in your area. They use the smallest water, as they are equipped to survive in your particular area.
This will bring you plenty of drought-resistant plants that will make a good addition to your garden. My favourites include Agave, Aster, Columbine, Delphinium, Echinacea, Lavender, Prox, Sedum, Statistics, Sunflower, Yarrow, and Zinnias. Find the full list in this post.
More useful tips on water use
With a city girl who learned to garden, it changed everything. Author, artist, master gardener. A better life through plants.
