Native Plants
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Ask Mr. Smarty Plants
Ask Mr. Smarty Plants is a free service provided by the staff and volunteers at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.
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Sunday - December 16, 2012
From: Toronto, ON
Region: Canada
Topic: Watering
Title: Water use rate calculations from Toronto ON
Answered by: Barbara Medford
QUESTION:
Can the high medium and low water use categories be quantified into a rate, say volume of water required by square foot of planted area? How are the water use categories established?ANSWER:
This is a little out of our area of expertise. The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, home of Mr. Smarty Plants, is dedicated to the growth, propagation and protection of plants native to North America which, of course, includes Canada. In Texas, where we live, the consumption of water is a constant subject of discussion, because of our continuing drought. Watering is often restricted to certain hours and/or certain days, so we are always recommending plants requiring low water use for gardeners in our area.
We were unable to locate any sites online that had specific information on what your soils and rainfall were like in order to help you decide. We did find one site that might be of service from Washington State University Garden Math.
Since we are gardeners and not hydrologists, we tend to go with experience. We would suggest you contact the Toronto Water Meter Program to see if they have material on this problem.
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