Gardening with Less Water: Low-Tech, Low-Cost Techniques; Use up to 90% Less Water in Your Garden

129 Pages·2015·18.48 MB·English

by  David A. Bainbridge

GARDENING
WITH LESS WATER
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GARDENING
WITH LESS WATER
USE UP TO 90% LESS WATER IN YOUR GARDEN
DAVID A. BAINBRIDGE
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GARDENING
WITH LESS WATER
Low-Tech, Low-Cost Techniques
USE UP TO 90% LESS WATER IN YOUR GARDEN
DAVID A. BAINBRIDGE
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The mission of Storey Publishing is to serve our customers by
publishing practical information that encourages
personal independence in harmony with the environment.
Edited by Hannah Fries and Carleen Madigan
Art direction and cover design by Mary Winkelman Velgos
Indexed by Samantha Miller
Cover illustrations by © Wendy Hollander (front) and © John Burgoyne (back)
Interior illustrations by © John Burgoyne, except for © Wendy Hollander, 5, 6, 128;
Photography courtesy of David Bainbridge, 15, 19, 21 (bottom), 25, 27, 33, 34, 36, 38, 42,
44, 48, 58, 62 (bottom), 72 (top), 74 (right), 75, 80, 90, 98, 119;
© Steve Gunther, 16, 20, 31, 37, 41, 46, 53, 60, 62 (top), 65, 72 (bottom)
Additional photography by © Andreas von Einsiedel/Alamy, 79 (right); © Available Light/
iStockphoto.com, 81; © Barbara Harper, 89; © Blue Schools Program, International
Rainwater Harvesting Alliance, 115; © Brant Cheetam/GrowOya.com, 21 (top & middle);
© David White, 88; © Diana Kersey, www.kerseyceramics.com, 24; © Dr. Altaf Ali Siyal, 68,
69; © Edmond Hien, Institut de recherche pour le développement, https://en.ird.fr, 94;
© GrowOya.com, 18; © Hannele Lahti/Getty Images, 9; © Joe31600/Wikimedia Commons,
74 (left); © Jill Lorenzini, 99 (bottom); © Laurie Lippitt, 83; © Lenny Librizzi, www.grownyc
.org, 116; © Mark Winwood/GAP Photos Ltd., 50; Courtesy of Matt Daring, Burnley-Moran
Elementary School, 114; © Phil Roullard, 79 (left); © Practical Action, www.practicalaction
.org/Barbara Bryant, 70; © Shelley L. Dennis/BV Images/iStockphoto.com, 22;
© www.gjhikes.com, 99 (top); © ZUMA Press/Alamy, 57
© 2015 by David A. Bainbridge
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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA ON FILE

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This book is dedicated to
Dr. M. H. Marigowda,
considered by many to be the
father of horticulture for India.
Among his many great
achievements are his techniques
for dryland orchards that gave
good yields but also served as
“progeny orchards,” containing
many varieties of a single fruit or
crop to protect the gene pool.
To conserve water and irrigate
crops, he explored many
traditional systems and promoted
both wick and buried clay pot
irrigation. He found that fruit tree
saplings would grow healthily
for nearly a fortnight
on just one buried clay pot
full of water!
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CONTENTS
Introduction: Running Out of Water 7
PART 1 Super-Efficient Irrigation Systems 13
1 Buried Clay Pots 18
2 Porous Capsules 32
3 Deep Pipes 43
4 Wicks 50
5 Porous Hose 59
6 Buried Clay Pipe 67
7 Tree Shelters 73
PART 2 Taking It to the Next Level 77
8 Water-Wise Gardening Tips 78
9 Rainwater Harvesting 82
1 0 Landscaping for Water Catchment 90
11 Developing a Plan
for Your Patio, Garden, Home, or Farm 100
12 Our Water Future 111
Appendix 121
Acknowledgments 122
Suppliers 123
Index 125
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INTRODUCTION: RUNNING OUT OF WATER
We are running short on water in many parts of the world. Droughts are
becoming more common and severe, and the costs of water and food are
going up. Farmers and gardeners urgently need to produce more with less
water while minimizing the time required to irrigate and weed their gardens
or felds. Despite the need for low-cost, simple, improved irrigation sys-
tems, scientifc research and international development programs largely
neglected this challenge until almost the turn of the twenty-frst century.
7
My own research in super-efcient irrigation began in the 1980s. I was
working at the Dry Lands Research Institute at the University of California,
Riverside, when I frst read about buried clay pot irrigation in a book
written 2,000 years ago by Fan Shengzhi. Shengzhi had been hired by
the emperor of China to help increase the yields of farmers who had
too little land and too little water. I was intrigued, and soon, after giving it
a try myself, I was hooked.
The super-efcient irrigation systems described in this book address
the three most critical problems that gardeners, homeowners, and small
land-holders face: water, weeds, and time. Learning from the past is critical
to improving irrigation performance, reducing water use, and improving
land management. These simple, proven techniques have been adapted
from the best traditional practices and augmented and improved with
modern materials and research. With them, you can double, quadruple, or
even further increase your water-use efciency.
Many people worldwide and throughout history have faced the same
problems and developed systems that enabled them to establish stable,
healthful, and enjoyable livelihoods in areas with as little as three inches
of rain. No one has done it better than the Nabateans, an ancient Semitic
people of the Middle East. Rainwater harvesting and foodwater farming
enabled the Nabateans to support fourishing cities and a strong economy in
the dry Negev Desert. By learning from them and other people of the past
and present, we can do the same with well-planned rainwater collection and
management, super-efcient irrigation, careful selection and care of crops,
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and thoughtful design and construc- inadequate water supplies. These
tion of buildings and facilities. growers face difculties in locations
My goal from the beginning has where the climate is moderate but
been to develop super-efcient, low- rainfall is seasonal, and they face
cost irrigation systems that will work almost impossible challenges in arid
with low-quality or slightly salty and semi-arid regions.
water and can be made and installed Climate change, including
by unskilled or non-technical work- increased climate variability and
ers using local resources. These more severe droughts, is expected
practices can provide a sustainable to worsen the problems these farm-
living almost anywhere in the world, ers and gardeners face. The recent
whether the climate is exceptionally drought in the western United States
8
dry or more temperate. Most of my and the severe 2011–12 drought
work has been done in the western in Mexico suggest what’s likely to
part of the Sonoran desert where come. Lake Mead, a reservoir that
annual rainfall is only 3 inches and provides water for 25 million people,
temperatures can soar above 100°F reached its lowest point ever in 2015,
in any month. Because we were and some projections for its future
working in remote areas, we usually are very grim. The global predictions
had to bring water in by truck, and for future droughts are even more
some sites required four-wheel drive. sobering.
Every drop had to count. Continuing research in super-
Improving water use is impor- efcient irrigation will help us bet-
tant in the United States but critical ter prepare for this future. These
for the one billion resource-limited systems can also reduce the cost
farmers around the world who strug- and improve the success of envi-
gle to grow sufcient crops with ronmental restoration, landscaping,
and revegetation projects, bringing
Super-efcient irrigation critically needed trees and shrubs
back to degraded watersheds and
practices can provide a
denuded landscapes. The word is
sustainable living almost getting out, and enterprising peo-
ple are bringing these systems to
anywhere in the world,
market. Many opportunities exist for
whether the climate is start-up companies in super-efcient
irrigation and rainwater harvesting.
exceptionally dry or more
Teachers, students, gardeners,
temperate. farmers, and extension agents can
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9
Lake Mead’s “bathtub ring” clearly shows the efects of drought on the reservoir.
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