WATERING THE GARDEN

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In a row garden, one of the easiest ways to cut water demand is to plant three to five rows close together and thereby reduce wasted (and watered) pathway space. Of course, gardening in raised beds will save even more space. Since such beds incorporate a greater depth of loosened soil, they also absorb water better than row plantings do. In addition, raised bed gardening frequently incorporates the art of spacing plants so that their mature leaves just touch—thus creating a "living mulch" that further blocks evaporation and conserves moisture.

Combine raised beds, living mulch, and double-digging (to loosen the soil as deep as possible), and you'll have a highly efficient water-conserving garden. John Jeavons' Ecology Action group in Willitts, California, has obtained excellent yields of vegetables using these biodynamic/French intensive techniques and one-eighth the water of conventional gardening!

While you obviously want to establish your garden away from the drip line of trees (their roots practically inhale water), those large plants do have their place as windbreaks. Much more water is lost to evaporation from wind than most of us realize. So you'd do well to utilize any available trees, houses, hedges, or fences to slow down the drying effects of hot summer breezes.

Mulching with dry materials such as hay, straw, wood chips, or even black-and-white newspaper pages most definitely helps protect bare soil from evaporative water loss. Keep in mind, though, that you shouldn't mulch too early in the growing year, or the covering will retard the warming of your soil. Also, carbonladen mulches do tie up nitrogen while they're decomposing, so you should be sure that heavily mulched soil has ample nitrogen. (Fish emulsion, blood meal, cottonseed meal, and well-aged manure are some good nitrogen supplements.)

THE FUNDAMENTAL POINT

Finally, always remember that while expensive irrigation systems or "waterpinching" strategies will help you save water, the most significant way to conserve moisture in a garden is to make soil improvement your top priority. A humus-rich soil-created by using lots of compost and cover crops-will hold the water it gets, while still allowing for aeration. Indeed, the soil should be our first concern in all aspects of farming and gardening . . . because the proper nurturing of the diverse life it sustains is the strongest step we can take toward growing healthy plants.

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