Can we be using water more efficiently in our gardens?
With hotter, drier summers predicted, and demand for water in the South East set to increase, the question really should be HOW can we be using water more efficiently in our gardens?
Just like humans and animals, plants need water to survive. Did you know that the average UK gardener spends 45 hours (15 minutes every day during spring and summer) watering plants and flowers in their lifetime? Now imagine if those 45 hours of watering were spent using water efficiently!
Instead of running the tap or hosepipe, we could be using rainwater collected from a water butt in the garden. Perhaps us gardeners would be filling up our watering cans using leftover water from boiling vegetables, or water used after washing fruit in a bowl? We could even be using water that we’ve collected in a bucket while we’re waiting for the shower to heat up, or leftover water from the kettle. And for those of us with a larger lawn, the brilliant gardener @joesgarden.official advises not to water a brown lawn and instead to wait until it rains for the grass to turn green again.
Imagine the litres of water that could be reused, rather than fresh water coming out of our taps. This is water (and by extension, money) that otherwise would have gone to waste. It makes perfect sense to reuse this precious resource in your garden, for your plants that need water all year round. And it’s not just us that think so - @tanyahomeinspo encourages her 2 million followers to wash fruit and veg in a bowl, rather than under a running tap, and to use the leftover water for watering plants.
For extra efficiency, we could put mulch (like wood chips or straw) on garden beds - this helps keep the soil moist, so it needs less water. Flowers and plants that need the same amount of water can be planted together, to avoid over-watering, and using drip irrigation systems can waste less water too, as they deliver water right to the roots of the plants.
It looks like we’re due a few more days of sun this summer, so our plants will need a drink. The challenge is to make these simple changes at home, and keep our gardens watered by reusing water that is vital to us all.
You can find lots more handy garden tips at affinitywater.co.uk/tips