The Strathcona Community Garden is an oasis in the city. The garden's David Tracey says it is also a water conscious community. The plants are lush and healthy.
"If you water deeply once or twice a week it's usually enough," Tracey said.
The grass is going brown -- because watering a lawn is a waste of water. It'll go green again in the fall.
The garden has 300 species of apples --preserving some centuries old varieties.
But even they don't get unlimited watering.
"We used to have overhead sprinklers here that would water the whole thing -- waste a lot of water," Tracey said.
Now it uses drip irrigation --only for the roots --and the apple trees are thriving. Your plants will tell you if they need water -- if you see drooping give it water. Same for trees: drooping leaves - water; leaves that are firm and shiny -no watering necessary. You can also check the effectiveness of your watering by doing a finger test -- if it's damp - -you don't need watering.
"Now in a container it's a different story you might have to water every day in those because it's such a small area to keep that water in when that dries up and there is no more coming in those roots can get critical really fast." Tracey said.
Remember, don't water the leaves. That causes them to dry out, because water acts like a magnifier to the suns rays burning the leaf.
Another way to conserve water is to change your thinking. Getting rid of the lawn and replacing it with plants native to out area -- plants that are well adapted to our climate.
You have to say the conversion is beautiful -- and after native plants get established in your yard -- usually about 4 years -- they take much less maintenance too.
"Once it's established I have ones that I haven't put water on at all and they look beautiful," said Tracey.
The more water we waste the sooner we have to spend billions on new dams, new larger pipes, and new pumping stations. And that means your taxes are going to go up.
With a report from CTV British Columbia's Chris Olsen
