Massachusetts is suffering from drought, as expected with climate change, and it’s getting to be a problem for gardeners. As of today, we’ve had just 16.25 inches of precipitation this year, approximately 70 percent of normal.
Coming soon to the Northeast? Photo
Coming off last year’s bountiful summer rain, the spring started with lush growth. A lot of my plants are long-established, and they were able to last through some dry weeks without trouble. Now, as the summer drags on without rain, signs of drought are more evident. The 30-plus-year-old European wild ginger (Asarum europaeum) is curling and wilting. New leaves on a clematis I transplanted last year have turned brown and look ready to drop. Container plants droop between waterings.
I’m running the sprinkler system to water the areas of the garden where plants aren’t well established. It turns on automatically two nights per week, unless its rain gauge tells it not to. That hasn’t happened often this summer.
Can't you just see the water evaporating? Not ideal.
Irrigation keeps the vegetable garden and new perennials alive. It doesn’t give me a great feeling, though, because I know that using tap water for irrigation has a carbon cost for the energy that goes into purification. Three percent of energy produced in the US goes to water utilities.
There are long-term steps to minimize the impact of drought, and I’m working on all of them. First, I reorganized the irrigation schedule to leave out established trees and shrubs. They should be able to survive even a prolonged dry spell without supplemental water. If I had a lawn, I’d let it go brown, but there’s so little lawn left in my yard that not watering it hardly makes a difference. The wood chips that replaced the lawn grass torn up by thundering dog feet help keep the underlying soil from drying out, so that’s a plus.
Wood chips and vestigial lawn in June
Along with those wood chips, I’ve let fall leaves lie on some beds and spread chopped leaf mulch on others. Those reduce the need for watering by keeping soil cool and slowing evaporation. Adding organic material to the soil with precious wheelbarrow loads of compost helps our sandy soil retain water too.
Compost adds organic matter to soil
My last water conservation measure is a water barrel at one of the downspouts from the house’s gutters. When it rains, the barrel fills and gradually feeds water into a soaker hose that irrigates shrubs at the front of the house.
Storing rainwater is a good idea, but it has to rain
Drought reveals this plan’s weak point: when it doesn’t rain, the water barrel doesn’t fill up. If I ever build a new house, I’ll insist on a gray water system that collects water from the showers, dishwasher and clothes washer for use in the garden. Las Vegas has a well-developed system for reusing gray water that, with other adaptations, allows the city to survive in the desert.
In the meantime, I might start collecting rinse water in the kitchen sink or keeping a bucket in the shower to catch a few gallons for use outdoors. Desperate times call for desperate measures.
