Climate Watch - A Better Way to Go With the Flow

Beautiful surroundings keep us healthy and happy

For most of us in Canada, water has always seemed abundant. We turn on the tap and expect it to be there. And most of the time it is! But increasingly erratic weather is changing the way we need to think about water. Long dry stretches can be followed by sudden heavy rain — sometimes so much, so quickly, that instead of soaking into the ground, it rushes away.

How do we work with the water that comes our way — whether there is too much or too little?

The answer to that depends very much on where we live.

If you live in a city apartment

Living several floors above the ground doesn't mean you have no part to play.

If you have a balcony, start by choosing plants that actually suit its conditions. A hot, sunny, windswept balcony loses water very quickly, so drought-tolerant plants such as thyme, oregano, sage, lavender, sedum and many ornamental grasses can make much more sense than plants that need constant watering. A shadier balcony might support mint, parsley, chives, leafy greens or begonias. The idea isn't necessarily to choose plants that use the least water; it is to choose plants that are comfortable where you put them. A plant growing in the conditions it prefers generally needs less intervention from us.

Containers matter too. Larger pots hold moisture longer than tiny ones, and a layer of mulch on top of the soil helps reduce evaporation. Grouping pots together can provide some mutual shelter from drying wind and sun.

And then there is the rain itself.

Rain falling directly onto a balcony can be caught in a clean container or watering can rather than allowed to disappear down the drain. Even a small amount can be saved and used later to water balcony plants. The important thing is not to block drains or collect runoff from roofs, gutters or neighbouring balconies.

Indoors, we can "catch" water too. Keep a bowl in the sink while washing fruit and vegetables and use that water on houseplants. Catch the cold water that runs while you're waiting for the tap or shower to become warm. Cooled, unsalted cooking water can sometimes be put to a second use as well.

None of these actions is enormous by itself. That's not really the point.

It is a change in the way we think about water: before we let it disappear down the drain, we ask whether it has another job it could do first.

If you live in a suburban neighbourhood

A suburban property can be a surprisingly important little piece of the water puzzle.

Let’s start with where the rain goes.

If water from the roof is rushing straight into the driveway, street, or storm drain, can some of it be redirected into the garden instead? A rain barrel attached to a downspout can hold water for later use on flowers, vegetables, and shrubs. If one barrel fills quickly, an overflow hose can direct the extra water toward a garden bed, tree, or planted area where it can soak into the ground.

The garden itself can help manage both extremes.

Adding compost and other organic matter helps the soil absorb heavy rain and hold moisture longer during dry spells. Mulch protects the surface from pounding rain and reduces evaporation when the weather turns hot and dry. Trees, shrubs, and groundcovers provide shade, slow runoff, and help keep the soil cooler.

We can also look at the amount of hard surface around our homes. Driveways, patios, and walkways shed water quickly. Where practical, replacing some solid paving with gravel, stepping stones, permeable pavers, or planted areas allows rain to soak in somewhere rather than sending it immediately into the drainage system.

Low spots in the yard can sometimes become an advantage too. Instead of filling every depression, a shallow rain garden planted with species that can tolerate both wet and dry conditions—such as blue flag iris, swamp milkweed, Joe-Pye weed, asters, and native grasses—can temporarily hold runoff after a storm and allow it to soak gradually into the soil.

And then there is the lawn.

A lawn cut very short and watered frequently tends to need more help from us. Allowing grass to grow a little longer encourages deeper roots and shades the soil. Some homeowners may choose to replace part of the lawn with clover, native plants, shrubs, vegetable beds, or other mixed plantings that are better able to cope with changing conditions.

Again, the goal isn't to create a perfect landscape.

It is simply to ask: Can we slow the water down when there is too much, and keep more of it available when there is too little?

A suburban yard gives us plenty of opportunities to do both.

If you live in a rural area

Rural living gives us a little more room to work with nature—and a little more responsibility to notice what the land is telling us.

One of the simplest things we can do is watch what happens when it rains.

Where does the water naturally collect? Where does it rush away? Which parts of the property stay green longest during a dry spell? Which areas seem to dry out almost immediately?

The land is already giving us clues.

Healthy soil acts like a reservoir. The more organic matter it contains, the better able it is to absorb a downpour and hold onto some of that moisture for later. Keeping soil covered, growing deep-rooted plants, and avoiding unnecessary compaction all help that process along.

Trees, shrubs, and hedgerows do far more than make a property look beautiful. They provide shade, slow drying winds, protect the soil, and help interrupt the rush of water across open ground.

And sometimes what we don't do matters just as much.

We don't necessarily need to drain every damp corner, mow every edge, or tidy away every patch of wild growth. A low wet area, a stand of grasses, an old hedgerow, or a naturally soggy corner may be doing exactly what we need it to do — catching water when there is too much and holding moisture in the landscape for when there is too little.

On larger properties, we can take that idea a little further with ponds, shallow swales, contour planting, or areas deliberately left to absorb runoff.

Perhaps rural water management begins less with asking, “How do we control this?” and more with asking, “What is already working here — and how can we help it?”

Because sometimes the most resilient landscape isn't the most controlled one.

It is the one that has been given room to find its own balance.

Finding the Balance

Whether we live in an apartment, a suburban neighbourhood or on a rural property, the question is really the same:

How do we work with the water that comes our way — whether there is too much or too little?

We can slow it down. Give it somewhere to go. Help the soil hold onto it. Save some for later. And perhaps most importantly, notice how water already wants to move through the places where we live.

None of us can control the weather.

But we can make choices that help soften the extremes.

A bowl of saved water in an apartment kitchen. A rain barrel beside a suburban home. A wet corner left undisturbed on a rural property.

Small things, perhaps.

But together, they help us move from reacting to floods and drought toward something much more hopeful: learning a way to live in better balance with water.