Brian Minter: It's critical to install supplemental water supply for gardens

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Water availability for our gardens is going to be in short supply this year for most of the province. It’s already late to be dealing with this critical issue, but there are many things we can do to help mitigate the restricted supply issue.

Soil preparation is one of the most important factors. We need to not only prepare larger planting spaces for shrubs, trees, small fruits and perennials, but we must also add more moisture retaining materials into our soils. Well-rotted manures, like mushroom compost, as well as rich, well broken-down compost with lots of leaf mould, and pre-bagged materials like Sea Soil will all help immediately. The long term benefits of these amendments will be evident as we get into our warmer and drier summer weather.

Even our lawns should be aerated now and sand added to help grass roots go deeper into our soils. This will also help lawn grasses get through the summer when less water is available. It’s important to remember that lawn green spaces help cool our neighbourhoods, produce oxygen, and provide a home for so many worms and beneficial insects and micro-organisms in our soils. A lawn with good soil depth should be able to stay green with about one inch of water per week during summer.

Knowing the summer restrictions we face annually with city water supplies, and the concern this causes, I’ve really appreciated many folks emailing me regarding the issue of securing another source of water, especially for our trees and food gardens.

Rain barrels are certainly important, but they really do not provide enough water for