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Water

Water decides what survives. The goal is to keep rain on the land long enough for plants and soil to use it, rather than letting it run off with the topsoil. Once soil dries out it repels water: in Germany's record-dry spring of 2025, heavy downpours contributed virtually nothing to groundwater (dry soil sheds heavy rain ✓, news). Healthy soil is itself the biggest reservoir you have.

Non-negotiables​

  • Match plants to the water actually available, especially in summer.
  • Slow, spread, and sink runoff; keep water on site.
  • Respect water rights and quality; plan for the dry season before planting.

Options & pathways​

  • Earthworks (swales, keyline, ponds) — slow and sink runoff, recharge groundwater, feed streams; needs design and earth-moving. Modelling in dry Brandenburg found that steering surplus stream water into small basins to seep away raised local groundwater by up to 2 m and lifted flow in connected streams by up to 15% (basins recharge groundwater ✓, study). Ponds pay back in wildlife too: one restored dew pond in the South Downs recorded over 200 species (restored dew ponds ✓, news).
  • Rainwater harvesting and storage — reliable water for establishment and living; tanks cost money and upkeep. Harvesting methods keep improving, including biomimetic designs drawn from desert animals (lizard-inspired water harvesting, news).
  • Soil as reservoir — always, alongside the rest; organic matter and cover hold water in the ground.
  • Drought-adapted design — in Mediterranean and drying climates; fewer losses, narrower species choice. Scarcity is increasingly managed at community level (Algarve communities and water ✓, news). Plan for the swings between years, not just the average: El Niño/La Niña cycles bring runs of drought and flood years, and it is the dry extreme that kills plantings — size storage and species for it (ENSO drives multi-year drought and flood, reference).

A storage pond can buffer irrigation through the dry season, but open water loses a lot to evaporation in summer. Shading it helps, and floating solar does that while adding power (floating solar over water, news). Strips of deep-rooted perennials inside cropland hold rain where it falls (perennial buffer strips, study).

Where peat or wetland is present, rewetting stores both water and carbon and is worth protecting (peat restoration, news; restoring peat for carbon and flood control, news). Restored wetlands and rivers returned to their natural course act as sponges: on the Holnicote estate in Somerset they stayed green through five summer heatwaves while the surrounding land turned brown (rewilded land stays green in drought ✓, news).