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Waterwise Garden

How a H&G reader transformed his garden in response to the water crisis

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By Houseandgarden.co.za | January 10, 2018 | Gardens

House & Garden reader Craig Sassman was forced to come up with an alternative when dealing with the Western Cape drought crisis. Now he has transformed his garden into a water-wise oasis.

Here’s his story…

“We live in a security complex in Muizenberg, Cape Town, and it is mandatory to have a lawn in front of your property which extends all the way to the curb.

This has become problematic over the past two years because of water restrictions. All of the lawns are looking brown and unappealing.

 

 

As a result, we applied for permission from the trustees and municipality to build a boundary wall and then be able to remove the lawn on the inside and replace it with paving.

The initial paving left a little lawn patch in the centre but even this proved too difficult to maintain at times. So we removed the lawn and replaced it with stick fencing and decorative stones.

 

 

We now only have 7 potted plants and one tree to water. This we manage to water easily with grey water caught in the shower. We have managed to reduce our water usage to about 60 litres per person, per day.”

 

Before transforming his back garden, Craig had left a small patch of grass, but even that proved too much to maintain.

 

Photography

Supplied

 

* What are you doing to conserve water in your garden? Tag us on social media with your ingenious tips and we’ll share it

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