Correct Water Usage Tips 01

   Water has always been an essential and defining element of our landscapes and gardens. It's a symbol of wealth and power, personified in the great European houses of le Notre's Versailles and Vaux le Vicomte and the great English parks such as Lord Carlisle's heroic Castle Howard. It's an expression of the art of garden design seen in the 20th Century modernism of Thomas Church in California and Louis Barragan in Brazil. And it's a defining feature of architecture that so often sets a building in the context of the landscape. Aesthetically water creates reflection; it often calms the spirit but can also create dramatic force and vitality.

     It brings stillness and movement, cooling and focus to a space. It is essential to the life of a garden, for plants and wildlife.But for much of the past 100 years we have taken the availability of a ready supply of water for granted, particularly in the western world where we have become increasingly detached from where our resources come from. This is particularly true of the supply of fresh water and food. In our gardens we have had a ready supply of water with only moderate climatic changes that cause a little discomfort. Why worry about a brown lawn when there is a ready supply of irrigated water to keep it green? Indeed we have become so complacent about water that the 'water feature' has become a derided element of the contemporary garden.In modern times our relationship with water, as individuals, communities and nations, is changing quite dramatically. We are quite rapidly moving from an emphasis on the aesthetic nature of water to a concentration on the practical power of water. Biodiversity has become a watchword in the future battle to save the planet from the destructive way in which we live our lives. Crucially it has been identified that the five major ecosystems; forest, coastal, agricultural, grassland and fresh water are all seriously threatened and leading thinkers and bodies believe that the single issue of water will increase the likelihood of global conflict between countries.


     Water demand in the majority of European cities is now exceeding the rate at which it can be replenished. Major cities such as Mexico City, Bangkok, Manila and Shanghai are all reported to be at potential risk of major supply challenges and it has been predicted that by 2025 two out of every three people on the planet will live in water-stressed areas.Most importantly we are starting to understand this on an individual level because we are experiencing the impacts of climate change on our own lives. In the past 10 years climate change is characterised for most of us by extreme weather. As a garden designer with offices in the UK, Mediterranean and the Caribbean I am experiencing these rapid, diverse changes in weather and water supply everywhere. In the UK we have moved from a drought in 2006 where hosepipes were banned in the south of England to one of the wettest winters on record in 2007. At the same time we are battling to establish plants and trees in Cyprus because there has been no rain for 12 months.