With acute water shortages hitting the urban areas during the summer months, it becomes very difficult maintaining a garden or a lush green lawn. The civic authorities put restrictions on water usage for gardening. People then started drawing out ground water using bore wells and hand pumps. As a result ground water table started falling rapidly.This is the time you have to seriously think of making your garden more water efficient. In this manner you will not only make your garden lush green in summers but also help the society in conserving the precious resource as water. There are several techniques, which if incorporated in your garden could help in saving and conserving water.

Some soils do not retain sufficient water. Most of the water percolates down into the earth below. As a result the top soil dries up very soon, and you have to water the plants frequently, which ultimately results in water wastage. In order to sort out this problem, you may add lots of compost to the soil, before putting it in the beds.. This will not only prevent water from escaping, but will also make the plants more healthy, as the compost is a natural manure without any harmful chemicals.

You could try out positioning the plants according to their water requirement. The plants requiring maximum water could be placed at one end, and those with the minimum water requirement at the other end. In this manner you could save a lot of precious water.

Drip Irrigation is another way to conserve water. In this method, a maze of water pipelines is laid all over the garden with outlets in the flower or plant beds. The water drips drop by drop directly on the roots of the plants or wherever it is required. In this way every drop of water is utilized and absorbed by the plants, and not a drop gets wasted. In the traditional watering systems, lots of water gets wasted flowing down the drain. As the excess water remains stagnant, it leads to rotting of roots of the delicate plants. The method of drip irrigation takes care of all these problems effectively.

If inspite of taking the above steps, the water requirement of your garden does not come down, then its the time to replace the plants themselves with the ones which require lesser water. You can consider one of such drought resistant shrubs known as Heavenly Bamboo. It not only consumes lesser water resources, but is a beautiful decorative adornment in your garden. You could also think of planting herbs like rosemary, which could be a delicious seasoning for your meals.

If you wish to set up a flower garden, which whould bloom in its full glory and consuming lesser water, go in for penstemon varieties such as midnight, apple blossom, garnet, moonbeam etc. Some varieties like yarrow and cosmos are effective in attracting butterflies and humming birds. Although these drought resistant plants look dainty and delicate, they definitely are not so. In fact they are quite rugged and can easily survive harsh summers with minimal water. Your garden will give a picture postcard look even in harshest summers with acute water shortages and would be a treat to watch.

Lavender Plant is another variety of drought resistant plants. A group of Lavender plants grown together in a bed would give a lovely gorgeous look to your garden. It requires very little water to survive the harsh summers and drought like conditions. Or you could go in for a shrub known as pineapple sage, which could attract the humming birds. It gives off a sweet aroma of pineapple, and could be a good additive to your herbal drinks.

So if you live in urban areas, where water shortages and rationing are a norm of the day in the harsh summer months, and you have a plot of land to spare where you could set up a garden, do give a thought to the above suggestions and set up a garden which could be an envy to whole of your neighborhood.