Garden water saving tips
Maximum water saving requires an extra measure of sensitivity to your garden's needs, such as:
- Landscape with fewer, stronger plants with room for healthy growth. Grow more succulents and hardy natives. Ground cover plants prevent evaporation.
- Prune back and thin out plants with heavy foliage. Fewer, more healthy leaves means less water loss due to transpiration.
- Weed your garden. You don't want weeds competing for the available water
- During summer remover the catcher from your mower and let the cut grass act as a mulch on the lawn.
- Use your soil type to select the right watering plan for your lawn and garden. For example, where the soil type is sandy, too much water will percolate wastefully below the root zone. Clay soils hold water longer, but can promote runoff if watered too quickly
- If you don't have a compost heap, start one with lawn clippings, leaves, garden rubbish and food scraps. As you keep adding to it, the 'mulch' can be used to save up to 73% of the water lost by evaporation in your garden
- Maintain good shelter around your garden - strong winds dry out the soil.