An excellent reason for saving water in the garden other than the obvious ones!
If you live and have a garden in a dry climate you'll know doubt be wanting to conserve water for the following reasons.
· The amount of water available to you per annum is severely restricted by the local authority
· Water use is metered and very expensive
· You feel bad about wasting water
The third reason may be the most admirable, but it shares something in common with the other two. They are all negatives. It's important of course to be aware of undesirable things, but the trouble with focusing on the negative is that we're liable to do things begrudgingly. "If only we had enough water, we could have acres of lawn", or "I wish my garden was a tropical paradise, but they won't let us use enough water".
Obviously, the amount of water consumed is a function of the type of plants grown and the area they take up. For instance, in a typically Mediterranean climate of say
500 mm annual rainfall, with long hot rainless summers, a lawn is going to require at the very least, 700 mm of additional water. That is 700 liters per square meter. per year. Add to that fruit trees and annual flowers and we're talking about a crazy consumption rate.
Now think of the "standard" suburban garden. With the lawn taking up most of the space, a thin strip is left round the perimeter for a hedge, a flower bed, and a fruit tree or two. Considering the water needs of the grass, there's no way that water can be conserved. But who says that a garden should look like that anyway? Whether the garden is in Ireland, Thailand or Southern California, it's just dreadful design, if indeed the term "design" can be applied at all in these cases.
I myself choose to look on the lack of water not as a liability to be regretted, but as an opportunity to break the mold, indeed to break the paradigm of the standard garden. The cliché is not something to hanker after, but something to be liberated from, and we dry climate gardeners have been blessed with the incentive to stop copying, and to start designing!
Jonathan Ya'akobi
About Me:
· I've been a professional gardener in Israel for nearly 25 years
· I am the former head gardener of the Jerusalem Botanical Garden
· I now design and create gardens for private home owners
· And now:
I am the owner of a web site dedicated to the home gardener in a dry climate
See you at www.dryclimategardening.com
· The amount of water available to you per annum is severely restricted by the local authority
· Water use is metered and very expensive
· You feel bad about wasting water
The third reason may be the most admirable, but it shares something in common with the other two. They are all negatives. It's important of course to be aware of undesirable things, but the trouble with focusing on the negative is that we're liable to do things begrudgingly. "If only we had enough water, we could have acres of lawn", or "I wish my garden was a tropical paradise, but they won't let us use enough water".
Obviously, the amount of water consumed is a function of the type of plants grown and the area they take up. For instance, in a typically Mediterranean climate of say
500 mm annual rainfall, with long hot rainless summers, a lawn is going to require at the very least, 700 mm of additional water. That is 700 liters per square meter. per year. Add to that fruit trees and annual flowers and we're talking about a crazy consumption rate.
Now think of the "standard" suburban garden. With the lawn taking up most of the space, a thin strip is left round the perimeter for a hedge, a flower bed, and a fruit tree or two. Considering the water needs of the grass, there's no way that water can be conserved. But who says that a garden should look like that anyway? Whether the garden is in Ireland, Thailand or Southern California, it's just dreadful design, if indeed the term "design" can be applied at all in these cases.
I myself choose to look on the lack of water not as a liability to be regretted, but as an opportunity to break the mold, indeed to break the paradigm of the standard garden. The cliché is not something to hanker after, but something to be liberated from, and we dry climate gardeners have been blessed with the incentive to stop copying, and to start designing!
Jonathan Ya'akobi
About Me:
· I've been a professional gardener in Israel for nearly 25 years
· I am the former head gardener of the Jerusalem Botanical Garden
· I now design and create gardens for private home owners
· And now:
I am the owner of a web site dedicated to the home gardener in a dry climate
See you at www.dryclimategardening.com
posted by Jonathan at 6:17 AM
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