Guides to water wisely
Understanding water restrictions and watering less: drought levels, wells, rainwater, mulching, ollas, drought-resistant plants and holidays.
- Mulching: keeping the soil moist for longer
Why and how to mulch your garden and vegetable patch, which materials to choose and which mistakes to avoid to water less.
- Ollas: slow watering with a terracotta pot
How ollas (or oyas) work, how to make one at home with two terracotta pots, and how to use them to water less and better.
- Watch, alert, crisis: understanding water restriction levels
What the four water restriction levels mean during a drought in France, who decides them and what they change for watering your garden and vegetable patch.
- Wells, boreholes, rivers: do water restrictions apply?
Watering with water from a well, a borehole or a river during a drought in France, which restriction level applies, the exemptions and the owner's obligations.
- When and how to water: less often, but better
The right time to water, watering at the foot rather than on the leaves, less often but deeply, and what each plant needs, to save water in the garden.
- Collecting rainwater: the tank, its rules and restrictions
How much water a roof can provide, how to install a rainwater tank, what French law says and whether you can water with rainwater during a drought.
- Drip irrigation and soaker hoses: watering at the foot, without waste
How drip irrigation and soaker hoses work, how to install them, connect them to a rainwater tank, set them up and what French restriction decrees say about them.
- Drought-resistant plants and lawns: a garden that is less thirsty
Recognising plants that cope with drought, planting them at the right time for your region, which ones to choose in France and how to make a lawn more resistant, with or without clover.
- Watering while on holiday: pots, vegetable garden and restrictions
How to keep your garden going while you are away in summer, who waters and what comes first, pots, vegetable garden, automatic watering, and how to follow restrictions when you are not there.