If you like to read during the winter months like I do. I have a great book review for you. Gardening with less water, low-tech, low-cost techniques use up to 90% less water in your garden. by David A. Bainbridge. Since I live in North Texas the title of this book intrigued me. I want to know of any type of watering for my garden that uses less water and is low-tech!

Super-Efficient Irrigation Systems

The first part of this book goes over different irrigation systems. He talks about buried clay pots and porous containers. Something I learned about are ollas. These are porous clay pots that you bury in your garden beds. Then they are filled with water and the pots hold the water until the soil is dry then the water seeps out at root level. It is said that the water lasts for a longer time.

It also talks about deep pipes. These are also made out of pvc pipe with holes drilled into it. You can bury the pipes up to a couple of feet. When watering the trees you water down the pipes so that the water gets to the roots of the trees. We have used these pipes with the fruit trees we have planted and they seem to work well.

He does go over some other irrigation systems and they all seem like great systems and what I like about all of them is that they are easy to implement.

Taking it to the second level

The second half of the book goes over how to be water wise. This was probably my favorite part of the book. It talks about rainwater harvesting, grey water usage, and water catchments.

And then it discusses in the last chapter of the book about our water future. The importance of being water wise in our immediate homes, in our communities, educating ourselves and others throughout the world.

I hope that this was of interest to you especially if you garden in extremely hot weather. I enjoyed the book and refer back to it as we are getting ready to put systems in place. You can check out a video I did about the book here.

Here is to your homesteading dreams,

Shawn

Disclosure: Some of the links above are affiliate links. This means that, at zero cost to you, I will earn an affiliate commission if you click through the link and finalize a purchase.