how to organize the shared gardens of Toulouse?
It’s official. The month of July 2022 is the driest month ever recorded since the start of Météo-France surveys in 1959. Faced with such a situation, the risk of running out of water is high. In response, the Haute-Garonne department has implemented a battery of measures aimed at saving this precious commodity, water. One of them faces prohibit the watering of vegetable gardens between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. A habit which is known to have already been practiced by “Les Jardiniers de Tournefeuille” in times of strong heat.
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A logical measure
“It’s something we were already doing because it is not recommended to water your plantations in the middle of the day during very hot weather. Between 11 a.m. and 7 p.m., there was no one in the gardens long before this restriction” , comments Dominique Dupouy, vice-president of the association “Les Jardiniers de Tournefeuille”.
Since the start of the heat wave, gardeners have already been applying this practice, inspired by southern countries. In addition, the Tournefeuille family gardens have been using the mulching technique for several years. It consists of using straw to cover the land of the various plantations. Straw nourishes and protects the soil, which limits the frequency of watering.
Thanks to mulching, we don’t need to water a lot, especially for long-established plantations such as tomatoes, peppers, squash, etc. These vegetables tolerate the high heat well”, specifies Dominique Dupouy.
Straw is strewn on the ground of the plantations to protect them. © Camélia Balistro/The Independent Opinion
She continues: “Regarding the measures of the department, we are especially afraid of having a total watering ban. In this case, the survival of the plantations would have been logically compromised.”
A water retention system
Within the shared gardens of Tournefeuille, near Toulouse, the irrigation system is based on a water retention basin. “With our system, the water reserves are transposed every night. Each gardener therefore receives the same quantity of water, around 500 litres, every morning, in order to water his plot”, explains the vice-president of the association, interviewed by The Independent Opinion. A pump runs every night and fills each grower’s water supply.
The basin empties a little for lack of rain, we actually notice it. However, we have calculated the basin based on a period of 4 months without water, provided that all gardeners water every day. Which is not why the case. The gardeners do not actually water their plot daily thanks to mulching” explains Dominique.
In addition, the vice-president underlines that the situation of the water tables of the department is rather reassuring. “The water table located at a depth of 3 meters is still very functional for the moment in Upper Garonne, as there has been a lot of snow this winter in the Pyrenees. This is why we had a late drought alert at the level of watering”, argues the Toulousaine.
Good harvests in sight despite the drought
At present, the balance sheet seems approved according to the vice-president of the association. “We don’t encounter too many problems with watering, so the harvests should be similar to previous years”, summarizes Dominique. Some vegetables burn slightly in the sun, but gardeners have plenty of tricks to limit losses. Some of them set up sails above the tomato plantations, others mulch their plot of land thanks to the courses and workshops set up by the association.
There is also a lot of mutual aid between the gardeners. They give each other advice on how to best manage their vegetable garden and sometimes, some farmers will water the land of their neighbor in case of absence”, says Dominique Dupouy.
From now on, amateur gardeners are impatiently awaiting a rainy episode, which is also scheduled for this Sunday, August 14 Meteo France.