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Gardening, Drought and Prepping

Sep 18, 2015 | Disaster Preparedness | 0 comments

Gardening, Drought and Prepping

water purificationNowadays, droughts are big news.  With the drought in California and elsewhere, Preppers need to be when and if your water runs out. So, the question needs to be asked what would you do in case of drought?

How Bad Is The Drought?
Unfortunately, the water shortage problems aren’t going away.  And it’s the water scarcity crisis is among the worse the USA has had.  For example, in California:

The current drought, which started in 2012, is the worst in more than a century, the scientists wrote.

“Temperatures are breaking records and the region is down a year’s worth of rainfall,” their essay says.

Economic losses amounted to $2.2 billion last year with more than 17,000 jobs lost, mainly in poorer, rural communities. About 12 million trees have died, and the drought is having “cascading impacts” on wildlife, according to the scientists.

 Credits: California’s Long-Term Water Problem to Get Worse, Scientists Warn – Patch.com

And this drought just isnt happening in overpopulated California.  It is also occuring in Oklahoma.
With another week of little rain across southern Oklahoma, the drought levels saw another increase a second week in a row. Click the image above to see the current drought levels across Oklahoma, courtesy of the U.S. Drought Monitor. Credits: Drought continues to expand across Oklahoma – KOCO Oklahoma City
So, What Should a Prepper/Gardener? 
First of all you need to protect your garden from lack of water.   Homestead and Prepper has an eight step checklist for doing just that.  Some of these steps entail water collection, such as, using rain barrells.  Water barrel water collection is useful for Preppers that are dependent upon a government water supply.

RAIN BARRELS

Fortunately, there are only a handful of counties that prohibit the use of rain barrels. Do yourself a favor and capture as much rain as you can during the wet spring season. You can buy rain barrels or make your own. Those 50-gallon garbage cans with lids are perfect for storing rainwater captured from your roof with the help of a gutter. Credits: Protect Your Garden From Drought Using These Simple Tips …

This article also advises that you should mulch your garden and use hoses for watering your garden instead of sprinklers.

Conserving Water

     You will always need to conserve water in times of water shortage. You need to do this even if you have a well and cut off from any government water supply.  So, Here are some commonsense measures that need to taken concerning your garden:

. . .  most people over-water their vegetable gardens; a once a week soaking on dry weeks should be ample. For thirstier plants, hand watering individually is the most economical approach. I watch the farmers here in the valley and they do not water very frequently. Again, the addition of compost to the soil and using compost as a mulch will help retain moisture around plant roots. Credits: Drought Tolerant Garden | Watson’s

Conclusion

     Droughts are happening, and they aren’t likely to be getting better anytime soon.  So, this means that you need to have alternative sources of water collection (like rain barrels) and also preserve water whenever possible.