Healing Appalachia: Sustainable Living through Appropriate Technology

30. Irrigation and Water Conservation

We hear the sound of laughing waters from our home in the mountains year around. That sound is pure joy and the water is cool and refreshing. Fresh mountain spring water is such a gift and blessing to our lives. When the power goes off, we continue to have free flowing water to drink, wash, and bathe, thanks to our gravity-fed spring water system. We use it to water our solar greenhouses, gardens, herbs, flowers, and berries. In dry weather the sound of running water becomes more gentle and quiet, but the stream never stops flowing. Fresh, pure water is a limited resource and we feel compelled to use it responsibly. We use a passive solar composting toilet to conserve precious water resources, consuming less than one-half the amount of water used by a typical family. We wash our dishes by hand—no dishwasher needed, thus conserving water and energy. In our home we know that conservation extends to all of creation and we try to be a living example of conservation through our everyday water use and practices. Pat Gallimore, Long Branch Environmental Education Center In normal years central Appalachia is blessed with about 47 or more inches of rainfall, ample for most domestic and commercial needs in the region. However, the people of Appalachia descend from pioneers who labored to carry buckets of precious CHAPTER 30 Irrigation and Water Conservation drinking and washing water from a spring or hand pumped their water from a cistern. The pioneers’ offspring may easily forget water conservation, however, when a slight twisting of the tap can initiate a plentiful supply of municipal water. If we are committed to being Earth-friendly, we must act as though conserving water is good discipline; water conservation shows respect for resources; saves energy required to pump, store, deliver, and restore water; and reduces the quantity of wastewater. It also makes higher quality water available for other purposes. Often the home owner during severe drought is reduced to a triage system of watering taken from battlefield medical practice , where the wounded were divided into those critical but recoverable, the maybes, and those who were dying and would not respond to emergency treatment. Garden triage means watering the most sensitive plants, such as recently planted seedlings or those like melons that need water most urgently, then tending to longer-lived plants that can survive on less water, and leaving out the rugged or already-bearing types (okra, onions, mint, and Jerusalem artichokes). SIMPLE IRRIGATION The more water for crops that is available, the better the chance that gardens will yield good, wholesome produce. Late summers and autumns are often drier times, but experience has taught us to be prepared to water crops throughout the growing season. The elaborate water delivery systems of the water-limited Great Plains and Far West are normally not found in Appalachia. Here the problem for gardeners is to get water to points needed from available sources—cisterns, ponds, streams, creeks, groundwater (wells and springs), and municipal water systems. The delivery system is often a good bucket and a strong back to keep the recently planted fruit tree alive or the flowers fresh. The speed at which a vase of wildflowers sucks up water is a lesson 362 ❖ Healing Appalachia Irrigation and Water Conservation ❖ 363 to us in how much it takes in nature to keep plants from wilting and dying during summer’s heat. Gardeners should have sufficient sources of water, a handy delivery system, and application methods that minimize the quantity of water . A single dry spell will convince many that native plants usually endure a drought far better than most exotic varieties. During dry times, lawns of exotic grasses and planted flowers are some of the first to wilt. In most places, when the water supply gets low, the first thing mandated by local governments is to stop the watering of lawns. A better approach is to select plants in the initial stages of landscape design that are native and require less additional watering in the initial stages of landscape design. Water needs are reduced further by mulching both native and exotic plants. Placing a layer of the mulch around the base of the plants suppresses weed competition, stimulates earthworm activity, and can help to reduce the loss of moisture through evaporation. Watering certain areas by hand is the main practice of choice in...