Tips to Use Less Water in your Thriving Organic Food Garden

Water is arguably our most precious resource. All living things need water to survive. But we don’t just want our productive organic food gardens to survive, we want them to thrive! And a growing plant uses a lot more water than one that is just surviving. Every part of the plant growing process uses water.
When plants start to become dehydrated they stop photosynthesising, close their stomata, stop taking in nutrients and stop growing. It can take a few days for some plants to recover even if there has been no tissue damage. So it is vitally important not to let your plants become dehydrated (just like yourself).
Not enough water can kill or stunt your plants. Sometimes mild water stress can be a good thing, as it encourages plants to send their roots down deeper into the soil, making them more drought tolerant. The aim is to use as little water as possible without causing stress.

Ways to use less water

1. Create soils that are made up of humus and organic matter. These soils can hold lots of water and plants can easily draw it up. It has great water-holding capacity as well as having a high nutrient content.

2. Mulch the soil surface. This reduces evaporation, keeping the underlying soil moist for longer. Any mulch is better than no mulch, even if it’s underfelt (the older kinds are safer) or newspaper. This also prevents soil erosion.

3. Use drip irrigation – preferably under the mulch or soil surface. There are purpose made recycled hoses available now that are perfect for the job. You can save up to 90% by using drip irrigation rather than a sprinkler.

4. Only water when it is needed and as much as is needed. If you’re not sure, try the finger test. Yes – poke your finger into the soil to see if it is moist or dry. Make sure the water penetrates as deep as the roots, but it’s a waste to water any deeper than that.

5. If you live where summers are really hot, plant crops under partial shade. It could be shade from a pergola or tall plants such as sweet corn.

These are simple methods to reduce your water consumption. You could also consider collecting your own water. If we all had rain-water tanks attached to our houses it would not only give us clean, free water, but would reduce the amount of water that ends up in our storm water drains. It is also much better for food gardens as mains water is often high in salts, chlorine and fluoride.
Re-use of “grey” water is also another way to reduce how much water we consume. It can be used on lawns and other plants in the garden that are not for food production.