Water Shortage In 2012 And What It Means For Garden Design

Todays news is rife with reports of imminent hosepipe bans across various UK regions

and its not even May yet! But garden designers and landscape gardeners are putting paid to the predictions, with confident reports that water useage (and, whats more, garden design featuring water useage) will ride the storm.

There is no doubt that most on the minds of garden landscaping professionals right now are issues surrounding water, whether its the use of water or the cleaning of water. And this is very much the case worldwide too. In fact, much can be learnt from landscape garden professionals abroad who battle these problems in dryer and hotter climates.

In light of recent droughts in US states such as Georgia, Texas and the Carolinas for example, US citizens are trying to use the water that they DO have more frugally. People are making sure that they are watering responsibly, choosing plants that are not water hogs and even putting rain sensors on their irrigation systems. American gardeners and garden designers are also focusing on making sure their irrigation systems are monitored so that they are not watering their driveways and pathways!

If we can adopt these more responsible gardening attitudes, then we may well be able to weather the water shortage storm in the UK too! But of course even the mere rumour of water shortage will effect the disciplines of garden design and landscape design enormously.

Landscape designers and garden designers such as Tom Stuart Smith, Andy Sturgeon, Randle Siddeley and Arabella Lennox-Boyd are all predicting that the Mediterranean style of garden will be a huge trend this year.

Randle Siddeley explains that Mediterranean landscape design often features open and airy courtyards, light-coloured, textured hardscaping such as mosaic walls, gravel beds or unglazed terracotta pots, as well as low-growing, drought-tolerant plants, hedges, topiary trees and vines (such as olive, bay and lemon trees, lavender and grasses). And of course, the vivid colours of these kinds of planting combinations make for a winning style of landscape garden. So expect to see them in garden design near you soon!

Then there is the subject of cleaning water for our gardens, especially storm water - which may carry pollutants such as fertilisers into local waterways. A fairly recent development in garden design is the evolution of rain gardens. These shallow depressions in the landscape are designed to be filled with deep-rooted native plants and grasses that not only thrive when flooded with water but that dont mind being dry either. A win win garden design scenario.

And of course you dont have to be a seasoned professional garden designer to know that catching your own rainwater in water butts, and cleaning or recycling grey water (wastewater from domestic activities like laundry, dishwashing and bathing), is a wise gardening move. In fact, as much as our household recycling habits have become mandatory, so too might our water recycling habits before too long! You may even find your local council checking up on your water useage if youre not careful!

by: david james

POST COMMENT

Notter School Of Pastry Arts And A Professional Pastry Program The Gripping And Exquisite Preparations Of Kerala Wedding Planners Importance Of Fruits And Vegetables There Are Probable Advantages And Disadvantages To Using Daily Offers. Get A Taxi To Mysore And Coorg For Hire From Bangalore Attend Animal Workshop To Learn Animal Welfare And Healing Ethics Piles Symptoms And Types Know When To See Your Doctor For Home-sewers And Hobby Tailors Pattern Making Today Custom Fit Clothing Patterns For Everyone. Risk Management And Its Diverse Usage 05 Days Travel To Cairo And Luxor Holiday Lifestyle Choices And The Need For Cancer Insurance 12 Days Sightseeing And Leisure Holiday 12 Days Cultural And Leisure Holiday