Water at Le nouveau printemps

Blog L'eau: dessin par Julien

32 days without rain, a record in France. It happened this winter, right after the second driest year in history. This situation means soils are unusually dry at the end of winter and ground water is worryingly low. 60% of aquifers are below the usual fill rate.

 

Water is the most essential resource on Earth. We need to prepare for another severe drought in 2023. It is a priority for us. But how to prepare for it? In permaculture we observe Nature and try to mimic (we also read books and watch YouTube to speed up things). Nature manages water by catching it, slowing it down, distribute it and store it, using soil and plants. So, we are creating a landscape which does exactly this.

 

Catching rainwater

‘If you just do one thing in your garden, catch rainwater.’

 

It is simple, efficient and it does not have to cost a lot of money. We installed several collecting points at different places on the property: a second-hand 1.000L cubitainer to collect water from the roof close to the house and few barrels next to the old chicken shed. One constraint though, you need to make sure they are not too much exposed to the sun to avoid bacteria growth.

 

Luckily there is a spring on top of our land, which is connected to a 10.000L reservoir from the beginning of the 20th century. We are reviving the reservoir to its original function as it was not storing water anymore. As it is close to the forest, it might be useful to firemen in case of forest fire (risk was already very high last summer). We can use it of course for the garden and the overflow pipe can even supply a small fountain down the street to share with neighbours and hikers passing by. We hope to have good stocks of water soon.

Capter et stocker l’eau - blog L'eau

Slowing down water and storing it in the soil

Our land is on a slope and that means that water can easily run off to the lower part of the garden. In order to slow it down we dug 2 swales on contour (following the contours of the landscape) with 12 meters between them. A swale is a shallow ditch with a bump on the lower side. The runoff water and rain water will be collected here, spread evenly on the length of the ditch (since it is horizontal) and infiltrate slowly into the ground. The amount of water in the soil, which is kept moist will increase over the years. We also planted trees and bushes on the downside as their roots will retain water and evenly distribute it. Geoff Lawton has an excellent video about it.

 

To store water efficiently, the soil need to contain a fair amount of humus and organic matter in general. It will build up with time with the leaves falling from the trees we planted. However, at the beginning, we need to bring external organic matter (like cow dung, hay for mulch or woodchips – all from neighbouring farms) to accelerate the improvement of soil rettention capacity.

 

Using plants to harvest water

Another step will be to use plants which have the ability to harvest moist contained in the atmosphere and collect as liquid water. Such magic is achieved best by ivy, vines and hop. How does it work ? The bottom surface of the dark  leaves of the ivy is cooler than the air temprerature. The dew condensate there like steam on the mirror of your bathroom. The Ivy will absorb the water from the bottom face of the leaves and this water will go down to the roots via the elaborated sap and then be distributed to surrounding plants via the fungi network.

 

We also make sure there are deep rooted plants among shallow rooted plants. Deep rooted plants like trees, vines or comfrey will pump water and nutrients deep and bring it to the surface. We need to think of having roots at different level in the ground to work as a ladder for water and nutrients.

 

Mulching

One basic is too keep the ground covered at all time. We apply a thick layer of mulch, mostly hay, at the foot of young trees and in the vegetable patch. We use lignous material such as crushed branches and woodships on the foothpaths because of their good water retentation capacity. In addition, when wood decompose, it releases slowly water.

 

Limiting direct water usage…

To limit water usage inside the house, we installed a compost toilet, and we mostly wash ourselves at the sink instead of taking shower. Of course there is no bathtub in the house, flushing toilets and body hygiene represent 60% of the 146L of direct consumption per person in France.

 

…and indirect water footprint

We removed meat from our diet and lowered our consumption of goods to the bare minimum. Why does it have an impact on our water footprint? 96% of our water consumption is invisible and is linked to the products and food we buy. For instance, the production of 1kg of beef requires in average 15.000L of water and the production of pair of jean requires 4.000L. These incredible numbers encompass the full life cycle of the product. For the pair of jeans, 70% of the water impact comes from the culture of cotton.

 

Permaculture extends beyond the garden and include all aspects of life. We try to understand and minimize our impact as well as looking for pathways to regenerate local water cycle. We design our consumption habits, our house, our garden and what we do for a living in a consistent way.

 

If you want to get started with understanding your personal water footprint, you can use this water footprint calculator.

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