Gardening in a time of drought

This year gardening at Towerwater was constantly overshadowed by the threat of a serious drought in the Western Cape. One had to look at the garden and make a priority list of what to stop watering when the serious water restrictions were implemented and there was only enough water left for drinking.

My list for withdrawing the water would follow in order commencing with the lawn, the herbaceous border, the herb garden, the vegetable garden, the rosarium and the orchard. That is basically in order of importance to us. The time and money that it takes to establish each part of the garden was the big influence on deciding in what order the watering will stop for each part of the garden.

We were spared that decision to date but it is still a real threat until we start receiving substantial rain in the dam catchment areas.

We have always been conscious of saving water. We changed from the open furrow and flood irrigation system many years ago and piped the water to the areas where it is needed.  We did this instead of allowing most of the valuable water to evaporate, or ending up in places where it is not needed, like pathways and so on.

The result was that we never used our full water allocation. We were satisfied that we always had more than enough to turn the garden into an oasis. In a countryside where water is worth more than gold and water rights a constant source of conflict, our approach must have seemed very strange at the time.

The charm of watering the garden the old fashioned way was never a consideration for us even though one could feel like a ten year-old again, chasing water in furrows and guiding it all over the garden. Letting the mud curl through ones toes as you run behind the water with a spade building obstructions to let the water flow to where one needs it.

With the possibility of severe water restrictions in the valley, where we will not have access to irrigation water for the garden, we have to think about everything that we plant. The seasonal vegetable garden is the one part of the garden that is foremost on my mind. The other parts of the garden are established and only need maintenance.

Every bed that becomes vacant opens up the debate. Do I plant for winter and risk losing the seeds if it does not rain, or do I leave the beds vacant and lose a whole season if it does rain?

I made up my mind to keep sowing and hope that nature plays along and brings the rain in time. This year, I have to plan around our extended visit to Europe. Everything that was going to ripen during this period in a normal season has to be planted four weeks later to avoid the possibility of vegetables not being able to be harvested during our absence.

The pruning of the roses and fruit trees will have to be delayed by two weeks this year. But I am sure that it will not impact too much on the fruit and flower season at the end of the year.

The garlic, spinach and onion plants should be okay. I might miss the best of my black carrots and yellow beetroot, but I hope to harvest some before we leave for Europe to experience the novelty of the new varieties.

Gardening, negotiating the possibility of an extended drought and international travel is a new combined experience that will shape my approach to gardening in the future. Hopefully I will learn from this year and worry and agonise less when faced with the same challenges in years to come.