Water is a natural resource that is becoming more scarce all the time. There are simple steps you can take in your lawn and garden that will save water.

These simple steps will result in a more attractive lawn and garden.

The main things to remember about saving water:

• capture as much rainfall as possible- this can be in a pond or allowing it to soak slowly into a planter or lawn.
• reuse water as much as possible - use runoff from watering plants soak into your lawn, make a small pond to capture runoff from watering lawns
• grow plants that use available water - local plants will be adapted to your conditions, it is difficult to grow rainforest plants in the desert or a cactus outdoors in Seattle.

If you are building a new house or a large garden consider a large garden pond as a feature in your garden.

A garden pond on your property has a variety of benefits:

• A garden pond is an efficient way to store water for watering your lawn and garden.
• A garden pond will capture runnoff from watering your lawn and garden and let you reuse the fertilizer instead of turning it into pollution.
• A the larger the garden pond the less lawn there is to mow. A one acre garden pond will save at least $700 and 40 hours of labor per year compared with a similar sized lawn area.
• A garden pond can double as a geothermal pond. A geothermal heat pump system is the most cost effective way to heat and cool a home. A geothermal pond type geothermal heat pump system is the least expensive method of all. This results in a huge savings over the life of the home.

A garden pond conserves water by capturing runoff from all the impervious surfaces on your property. Efficient, low voltage pumps can then pump the water to planters or for lawn watering.

With the increased development of our suburbs has come more frequent and pronounced flooding. This not only results in erosion, stream pollution, and destruction of aquatic habitat, but tremendous property damage and loss of human lives. Through several attractive, compelling, and sensible gardening/landscape practices we can help to reduce flooding and reuse a precious natural resource.

Of course, not every property is suitable for a garden pond. Here are some other things you can do almost anywhere.

• Use rain gardens and rain barrels
• Reduce impervious surfaces
• Use green roofs

Rain gardens and rain barrels

Rather than allowing rainwater runoff to flow down your driveway or into storm sewers, capture this resource for later reuse or at least allow it to gradually soak into the ground and recharge the groundwater. One way is to divert water from your downspouts into a french drain (a rock/gravel filled infiltration basin), a grassy swale, or a rain garden (a shallow depression planted with plants tolerating "wet feet"). These should be at least 10 feet from buildings to avoid wet basements. Another option is to install rain barrels below your downspouts; these should have a hose connection, overflow spout, and a lid to keep out mosquitos. Currently, there are some municipalities where disconnecting downspouts from storm sewers is still illegal, so check first. For more information on rain gardens, click on the stormwater management fact sheet on "on-lot treatment" at the Stormwater Center's web site.

Reducing impervious surfaces

Impervious surfaces, such as roofs, driveways and concrete patios, don't allow rainwater to filter back into the soil. This can contribute to dropping water tables, dry wells, and insufficient stream flows as natural streams dry up. Fortunately, there are better alternatives.

* Except where recreation or handicapped accessibility is an issue, then consider porous asphalt paving.

Green roofs

Green roofs are vegetated roofs. They are specially designed with extra support and special membranes to be covered with soil or special planting medium and plants. Their purpose is to absorb and slowly release excess rainwater and provide greatly increased insulation value. While initially more expensive to construct, this is offset by a much greater life expectancy for the roof and reduced energy needs for heating and cooling the building.