How to save water when gardening this spring

(NC)—You might not know that the way you plant your garden at home can have a significant impact on helping protect and conserve water in your town or city.

Smartly-planted gardens can help ensure that rainwater is channeled, circulated and recycled, rather than flowing across the garden onto pavement and into storm sewers. Rain gardens are designed to provide opportunities for moisture to be stored within the garden.

“The idea is for gardens to soak up water like a giant sponge before it gets in the drainage system,” says Dr. Nigel Dunnett, British author and horticulture specialist at the University of Sheffield. “Water-sensitive design is something anybody can do. You can do it in your own front or back yard or even on a balcony of an apartment – something that's very small-scale, very intimate.”

Here are three ways to help protect water in your community and have a beautiful, water-smart garden at the same time:

• Minimize paved surface areas, which don't allow water to drain into the soil. By using interlocking brick or other water-permeable surfaces, rainwater will be absorbed where it lands, rather than being channeled off into the nearest storm sewer.

• Incorporate bioswales into your garden design. Bioswales are gently sloped landscape elements designed to remove silt and pollution from surface runoff water

• Use organic lawn-care products.

This spring, the RBC Blue Water Project has commissioned Dr Nigel Dunnett to create the RBC Blue Water Roof Garden to showcase effective urban water management at the prestigious RHS Chelsea Flower Show in London, England. It will be the Show's first example of a full 'living roof' that demonstrates how biodiversity and sustainable water management can be achieved on an urban rooftop.

For further information, please visit rbc.com/bluewater

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How to save water when gardening this spring

Springtime means one thing to many Canadians: it's gardening time again!