Reminder to be water wise

Horsham Spring Garden Festival always provides us with a timely reminder about approaching warmer weather and a need to establish the best ways to be water wise without sacrificing our backyards.

Gardens for many play an important social role in providing places to relax and unwind and also to retreat from the pressures of everyday life.

But gardens need water. If we learnt anything from the millennium drought it was that gardens could quickly deteriorate if we do not have appropriate low-water management measures in place.

Gardens obviously boom with an abundance of water but they can survive and sometimes flourish on relatively sparse amounts of the precious liquid.

Gwmwater often provides updates on the best ways to save water in gardens, without sacrificing too much.

Perhaps the corporation’s best tip is to always consider hardy or drought-proof plants to make up a large percentage of your backyard greenery, regardless of weather circumstances at the time.

This far from limits what you use. The days of being limited to a narrow selection of woody and unattractive plants are long gone.

The array of water-wise exotic as well as native plants, many of them wonderful flowering specimens, is extensive these days.

Another important tip is using a ‘cruel to be kind’ watering method.

This involves watering the garden thoroughly, rather than often. This promotes resilience in many plants, including lawns, to extremes in weather.

Drip watering in shade or watering at night, when the sting has gone out of the day, is the best time to achieve results.

While on lawns, perhaps the thirstiest of traditional garden plants, perennial and creeping varieties of grasses are often the toughest and promoting root penetration into the soil and avoiding over-cutting are keys.

We hear much about use of mulch and apart from helping generate a healthy soil profile, this works strongly in preserving moisture levels in garden beds.

Mulch, which can be made from weed-free organic material and sometimes types of gravel, needs to be thick enough to suppress thirsty weeds and form a barrier against the elements. But it also needs to allow any moisture that becomes available to penetrate into the soil.

Gwmwater also provides some obvious tips that can also help with water conservation. These include using a leak-free trigger nozzle on hoses and remembering to turn off taps properly.

Restricting watering to plants and garden beds, instead of footpaths also makes sense. And when cleaning something such as buckets, utensils or even a car with water and benign soaps, it can be a good idea to do it on the lawn.

Exhibitors at this weekend’s festival are sure to have others ideas and products that can help maintain healthy gardens regardless of what this summer presents.