Did you know at present, South Africa is classified as a water-stressed country as we have less than 1 700 cubic metres of water for each person per year?
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National Water Week takes place from March 15 until March 23 and to celebrate this important event, we offer some great tips on how to be a water smart gardener.
Experts say that if we don't learn how to use our limited supplies wisely, we will move into a water-scarcity category of less than 1000 cubic metres per person per year by 2025. Some parts of the country may have had plenty of rain this past summer, but we can still do our bit to make sure we use water wisely in our gardens.
Follow these water smart practices and make your garden into a water wise haven:
Water at the right time
- Avoid watering on windy days, as evaporation rates are higher than on a calm day.
- Water at a cool time of the day to reduce evaporation - early morning or evening is best. Watering in the morning decreases the chance of mildew.
- When good rains fall, stop watering for a few days, except where structures, such as a roof overhang, have prevented plants from benefiting from the rain.
Water deeply but less often
- Deep soakings encourage roots to utilise moisture deep in the ground and enable plants to thrive between watering.
- Up to 70% of light and fine droplet water applications will simply evaporate. Rather use coarse droplet sprayers that spray near to the ground.
- Water that lands on leaves is wasted as it generally just evaporates.
Mulch
- Mulch your soil to keep it cool and moist.
- Mulch is one of the quickest, easiest and most cost effective ways to save water in your garden.
- Organic mulches eventually breakdown into the soil, so they need to be replaced periodically.
- They have the added benefit of improving and nourishing the soil.
- Branches with leaves can be used to give dappled shade relief to sensitive plants during heat waves.
Zone your garden
- Have high, medium and low-to-no watering areas, and choose your plants accordingly.
- This will enable you to have a beautiful garden with touches of glamour in the right places.
Group annuals together
- Avoid planting lines of annuals under your shrubs.
- Rather group them in a prominent place in their own bed were they can make a good show, because annuals are shallow rooting and shrubs are deep rooting.
- Annuals prefer frequent, light waterings, but this will cause your shrubs to become shallow rooting and poach water away from your annuals.
Check moisture levels
- When you are in doubt about how much moisture is in the soil, open it up with a spade.
- The health of the plant roots and the moisture in the profile will tell you exactly how you are doing.
- Soil should never leave a muddy mark in your hand, it should just be moist to the touch.
- Overwatering plants is often more harmful than underwatering them.
Know your soil type
How much water is actually needed depends not only on the plants' requirements, but also on soil type.
What type of soil do you have?
- Sandy soil: Give short but frequent waterings. This solves the problem of water simply draining straight past the root zone.
- Loam soil: Water moderately but less often than for sandy soils.
- Clay soil: Water less often but heavily and slowly, giving water time to soak into the soil.
Water wise beauties
Choose from these water wise plants:
- Alstroemeria
- Swan river daisy (Brachycome multiflora)
- Pinks (Dianthus plumarius, D. deltoides, D. gratianopolitanus)
- Gazania*
- Day lilies (Hemerocallis.)
- Rribbon bush (Hypoestes aristata)* for shady positions
- Rred hot pokers*
- Osteospermum*
- Salvia farinacea
- Aagapanthus*
- Sea pink (Armeria maritima)
- Erigeron daisy (Erigeron karvinskianus)
- Gaura
- Blue statice (Limonium perezzii)
- Evening primrose
- Pelargonium peltatum*
- Sedum (Sedum spectabile)
- Wwild garlic (Tulbaghia fragrans)*
- Wild iris (Dietes spp.)*
- Californian poppies
- Ggypsophila
* = indigenous plants
