The water crisis in Australia, are veggie gardens a good idea? What are people doing? Any suggestions?

Question

As most people know if we don't get enough rain by July in the Murray Darling basin irrigation will be banned, this will be catostrophic (sp?) as there will be less food for us with less crops. A few months back I planted vegetables so I wouldn't need to buy as many and it would use less water/egergy in the long run. Have other people done this?

I'm also annoyed at the people wasting water just to have their gardens all pretty, sure it looks ice but this does not comapre to having no water or food at all... maybe we should replace our flowers with vegetables and fruits. These can be very nice to look at too and it is rewarding when you can eat the food you have grown yourself!

Answer 1

You may find the following websites helpful:

www.cheapskates.com.au/

www.motherearthnews.com/

Both will give you information on using grey water.

All the best!

Answer 2

I live in the US and a lot of places in the drier parts of the country are using grey water for outdoor gardening, etc.  Also a lot of communities are putting bans on improper use of water like watering lawns during the day.  Good on you for being so environmentally conscious!

Answer 3

i agree when it is critical only grow what is really usefull.

here is a note on water use,

EFFICIENT WATER USE

IN THE HOUSE

one can connect the sink straight to the toilet sistern and so use the water twice ,first to have a shave and then to flush the toilet

also if you bend the ball valve you can regulate the level of the sistern

and always have your grey water and black water seperate

so that the sink and shower water goes directly into the garden saving on irregation and at the same time ,making the sewage smaller and easier to deal with ,this also goes and iregates the garden but via a sitern of two compartments and a french drain ,on which you plant trees,

ON THE LAND

economic systems of irregation like drip irregation

and design using a lot of stone walls ,that condense water in the night

and planting leafy plants for the same purpose

building wind breaks ,to counter act the drying effects of the wind and farm towards agro forestal ,using as many trees as posible to limit evaporation .using shade nets before we have tree cover

and use MULCH

by cutting down the weeds before they produce seeds and leave them where they fall,they will cover the ground and put even more organic matter on top,you can use saw dust,leaves green or dry,and when you plant make a little space and plant in the mulch.this is the easiest quickest and by far most benificial way(for the quality of you soil)to prepare the land for planting

to prevent weeds from coming all you have to do it turn out the lights,you can even use cardboard or black plastic(this is good for strawberries because they will rot if they touch humid ground,and the bugs can get to them).

mulch is the same principal as compost but it includes the whole garden surface

the top part of the soil where the topsoil is being produced houses a world or microbiotic life.

Mulch is organic material green or dry that covers the ground,the thicker the better the composting process will turn it in to black topsoil

the humidity is preserved underneath and promotes the devellopment of worms(their exists no better compost than their excrements)and a variety of micro biotic life which together with the mulch produce more topsoil.

the mulch also keeps the ground temperature even and guards against the impact of the rain ,which would other wise brings salt to the surfave if on unprotected land

Mulch also prevents the soil from drying out because of the sun and,

WATERHARVESTING

the natural way of nature is to evaporate moisture for clouds and this gets blown to places with less water any way ,what obstruct the clouds from getting to deserts ,tend to be mountains that are in the way,

but generally speaking ,the normal weather patterns spread rain evenly over the planet to balance out the temperatures and humidity.

As far as catching rain is concerned ,we do this all the time ,and have done so already since Babylonian times,and is a part of the more advanced Agriculture,that existed with the Egyptians,Central ,and south American indigenous peoples,and many others ,today we call this water harvesting.

In Permaculture the rule is to harvest water to the point of Zero runoff.

this means that all of the rain that falls on an area is absorbed by the terrain and not a drop leaves it.

by building dams,ponds or swales, with interconecting ditches,

if there are enough of these ;the places ,where before the rain water ran over the ground into the rivers and on to the sea ,(in a matter of hours or days),It now runs into absorbant dams or swales and saturates the ground and eventually reaches subteranean water deposits ,taking many months to do so.

Or it fills up ponds that can be used for Aquaculture.

And so a convex situation that repels water is transformed in a concave ,absorbant one and turning the area in to a sponge.

in Spain and Portugal ,which still display many examples of the conquering Moorish influence,One can find many remnants of Waterharvesting,such as aquaducts and tanks underneath the patios ,which collect the rain water from the roofs ,to be used in dryer times.

in Arabia ,on a large scale ,land has been shaped to catch and lead,rain water into sandy areas or to agricultural lands.sand is almost as good as dams because it absorbs water and holds it.

to find out more about Water harvesting I recomend:

the designers manual by Bil Mollison,which cost about 40 dollars.

and is the best all round book you can get.(tagiari publishing, [e-mail])

some other writers that are on the internet are

david Holmgren

Larry Santoyo

Kirk Hanson

Masanobu Fukuaka has written ,

One-Straw Revolution

The Road Back to Nature

The Natural Way of Farming

http://www.context.org/iclib/ic14/fukuok...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/masanobu_fu...

Simon Henderson

and Bill Molisson.

a representitive of the concept in USA is

Dan Hemenway at [e-mail]

[e-mail]

http://barkingfrogspc.tripod.com/frames....

http://csf.colorado.edu/perma/ypc_catalo... Source(s) I am a permaculture consultant for the department of Ecology for the regional government of Guerrero in Mexico

http://spaces.msn.com/byderule

Answer 4

i think u can find help in

http://www.gadwood.com/index1.html

i hope this can help

Answer 5

veggie gardens are good idea. However many backyards are higly polluted with heavy metals and other rubbish. Councils in australia are still obsessed with the british paradigm of having storm water collect ion gutters and then get piped out to sea, whereas in Africa and Philippines there are no gutters so your rain goes in your garden wherer it belongs. Water tanks should be compulsory and re-sue of greay water (shower, washing machine and sink) mandatory