It's Water-Wise Wednesdays with Frannie the Fish! {Mulch}

Evaporation happens when water is heated enough to turn into a gas and expand into the atmosphere.  When Frannie is gardening, she wants to make sure that her plants get enough water but that it’s not wasted by evaporating in the hot summer sun.

In the past, she learned the best times of the day to water are dawn and dusk when it isn’t so hot.  But there’s another common and inexpensive option that she’d like to share with you: Mulch.

Mulch is a material that you use to cover the soil around your plants. Many people use it in landscaping because it comes in a variety of colors and textures, but it also does several important things to help keep your plants healthy and strong.

1. Evaporation Prevention. This is one of the most important purposes mulch serves in this hot weather. Mulch absorbs the heat from the sun and prevents it from reaching the soil that the plant is growing in. Because the soil is cooler, it is able to take in and retain more moisture than it would were it exposed.
2. Weed Prevention. No one likes weeds.  They take up all the water and good nutrients in the soil that we want for our own flowers and food.  Mulch, by stopping the sunlight from reaching the ground, starves out weeds and they are unable to grow in that area. It also stops any new seeds from landing in your garden.
3. Soil Improvement. Ok, so we know that the soil in our garden is cooler with more moisture and fewer weeds, but it also builds up the soil.  All types of mulch prevent the wind from eroding the soil but organic or natural mulch can go one step further by enhancing the soil with nutrients as they decompose.  An area mulched with pine needles, for example, becomes acidic as the mulch decomposes and becomes suited for acid-loving plants like azaleas. 
   

Try using mulch this summer and let us know how it goes on our Facebook, Twitter, or send us an email. Happy Gardening!

BLOG: Resolving Water Issues

By Steve Mossman, Groundwater Foundation Board Member

As Secretary of The Groundwater Foundation's board of directors and a lawyer with an active water law practice, I read with great interest a recent article in the Washington Post about the historic heat wave currently ravaging the Middle East.  The article noted the probability of extreme water scarcity caused by saltier groundwater due to rising sea levels.  Importantly, the article noted the role of water scarcity in causing conflicts among human beings including the recent Syrian civil war and refugee crisis. 

Here in the United States, we are blessed with the opportunity to resolve our water issues with legislation, collaboration, negotiation, and if all else fails, litigation.  While all of these processes involve countless meetings and stressful hours, they beat the alternative methods of actual fighting over the most precious natural resource – water – which may continue to be a part of the unfortunate global reality. 

Here at The Groundwater Foundation we are doing our part.  At recent Board Strategic Planning sessions, we reviewed our Mission Statement to “educate people and inspire action to ensure sustainable, clean groundwater for future generations.”  In this mission, we want and, need, those precious community partners to ally with us to avoid the intractable problems that plague other nations over a resource that can’t be seen.  And, we define community broadly to encompass, well, everyone.  Whether you are an elected city official, a business leader or a parent concerned about the health and future or your children, you can join with us. 

To that end, please visit The Groundwater Foundation’s website at www.groundwater.org and learn about our programs including our flagship Groundwater Guardianprogram.  Please join The Groundwater Foundation and help us collaboratively protect our most precious natural resource.

Let’s work together on the important mission of The Groundwater Foundation.  

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Steve Mossman is an attorney with Mattson Rickets law firm in Lincoln, Nebraska specializing in the areas of natural resources and environmental law, solid waste law, water law, and agricultural law. He also serves as Secretary for The Groundwater Foundation's board of directors.

The views expressed in this blog are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the view of The Groundwater Foundation, its board of directors, or individual members.