Bores are not the best solution to watering issues.

Groundwater is a finite recource.
I find it really annoying when people talk about continuing to use bores and add more bores to Perth's shallow groundwater aquifers for watering gardens as though the water is going to magically keep replenishing itself.

The Perth Basin is an unconfined aquifer, meaning it is open to the air, showing up above ground as wetlands and lakes. Decreasing rainfall over many years and land use change as bushland is cleared and surfaces across the suburbs have been paved reduces the infiltration of rain water back into the   recharge areas of the Perth Basin metropolitan aquifers. Water is being taken form these area much much faster that it can be replaced by natural rainfall.

Guage pool in the hills near Perth.  The rate of flow into Perth dams has reduced dramatically in the last 30 years.

Yet more and more people have installed bores over the years and they are allowed to water more often each week than scheme water users. I believe this allows bore users to continue to ignore the efforts of the Water Corp and Dept of Water to wean us off our European strength water use even more than the general population. Sadly the Water Crop and Dept of Water seems to waste just as much as anybody.

A huge amount of water gets lost through leaks in the system, from dripping taps and leaking toilets to large scale leaks along water supply lines so we all need to do our bit to preserve the precious resource.

One of Perth's dams, showing the low water level.

The third source of water in the Perth area, after dams and aquifers is from the desalination plant. This water costs a lot of money to produce so it too needs to be used more prudently into the future.

Problems of using too much bore water.
Saltwater intrusion can occur where too much fresh water is removed by bores, allowing the salty water below to replace the fresh.

High nutrient levels in some aquifers due to fertiliser over use on the soil above them has enriched the groundwater to the point that bore water is feeding plants as well as watering (and no, this isn't really a great thing). I've had two quite trustworthy sources tell me this but haven't read a report on it.

Rainwater collection
Watertanks are brilliant, however with useful Perth rainfall generally only falling during the winter months, to get the maximum use out of a reasonable sized water tank it should be plumbed into the house for laundry and toilet use so it can be used instead of scheme water throughout the rainy months.

Collecting rainwater to water your garden in winter is not going to make a lot of difference, as the water can end up being stored for a while until the rain stops, unlike if the tank is plumbed to the house, where it gets to empty and refill regularly, making better use of the available ongoing rainfall throughout the season.


Waterwise gardens
The waterwise message in garden is slowly getting through and other water saving technologies are being used, such as greywater systems and low pressure sprinklers that make large droplets and therefore avoid misting which wastes a lot of water to evaporation.

We live in a dry city on a dry continent and must look for better ways to reduce our water use. Itn's not vey energy efficient to turn salt water into fresh, so we'd be better not to pollute or waste what little we have. Turning off taps properly and fixing leaks makes a huge difference over time.

waterwise help for you

Soils underlie a great deal of our lives and lifestyle.

Without soil we wouldn't eat (and no smart comments from aquaponic people).  Billions of people get fed because soil provides the nutrients and space for food to be grown. As time goes by there are more and more people moving away from rural areas and into the urban fringe. Farmers are abandoning their land in increasing numbers as water scarcity and the cost of fertilisers increase.
Who is going to keep growing food for the bilions of people on the planet and how can we keep doing it if we don't look after the soil properly?

Soil scientists are looking at these questions and hoping that through technology and a certain amount of common sense that increasing numbers of people can be fed on ever decreasing viable farmland. Coupled with a peak phosphorus event sometime in the next decades, there will need to be a lot of changes in the way soils are treated and improved. Some of the solutions lie in going back to traditional farming, such as no-till and use of cover crops. Some solutions lie in the use of technology to increase precision agriculture, using  satellite imagery to determine what areas in paddocks need a particular nutrient or water. Precision farming allows farmers to only use mininal amounts of fertilisers when they are needed and gives the farmer more time to do other things.

There are many techniques to grow food and provide for the people on the planet but we need to stop making so many people and stop wasting so much food.

Summertime is tough in Perth

Just a few of the things going on in the garden. It's hot and dry out there at this time of year. We've given up in certain parts of the garden but the potted orchard and a few other favourite things are still going well.

Strawberry guava, with ridiculous amounts of fruit forming.

Grevillea Robin Hood, to hide neighbours and attract birds.

Dragon fruit flower

Yummy figs, picked before the rats get to them.

Caper bush. Tough plant that takes lots of sun and loves limestone.It has pretty flowers too.

A botanical park would be a good thing to start...

...I thought to myself recently. We have a large collection of plants and I am a total plant fiend. I don't just love one sort of plant, there are all sorts of wonders out there. Ah, so a little thought but with a lot going for it in the long run for biodiversity and as a demonstration of what can be grown in dryland areas.
We need land. This is of course the hard bit to do. Dryland is fine but we'll find something we like, and we will get there.

Pictures of public gardens such as Huntington Gardens in Southern California, especially the desert section really inspire how I'd like a garden to look. Of course, you then need sections for Banksia and Hakeas, the dryland sustainable agriculture/permaculture section, an arboretum of useful and edible trees... and 200 years to see it mature. sigh.

Cape lilac caterpillar control using least toxic methods

 Cape Lilac/White cedar Caterpillar

Cape lilacs are a beautiful, tough deciduous tree that grows fairly commonly around Perth as a woody weed. Parrots often disperse the seed and the trees have become increasingly important food sources for the endangered forest red-tailed black cockatoos that are now having to include urban trees of the Swan Coastal Plain in their diets as more of their forest habitats are destroyed.

http://anpsa.org.au/m-aze.html. Tony Cavanagh.

One drawback of the cape lilac is that they have their very own pest species, the cape lilac moth (Lepoctneria reducta) which lays hundreds of eggs, usually around autumn. Once the larvae form they invade homes, garages and sheds and crawl everywhere, horrifying and disgusting people that encounter them. The initial response of many people at this stage is to want to remove the tree or use highly toxic pesticides to control the pests. A single tree may have hundreds of caterpillars; these creatures crawl up the tree in the evening to feed and then retreat down to ground level to hide out during the day. It is this habit of climbing back down which gives us the opportunity for the least toxic way of trapping them.
Tie a piece of hessian or other thick soft material around the trunk of the tree. As the caterpillras crawl down the tree they will gather among the cloth to hide from the heat and light of the day. Simply gather up the cloth after sunrise and shake it over a tub of soapy water, maybe stirring it to ensure the caterpillars sink. Repeat the process for a few mornings and numbers will be rapidly reduced. Keep an eye on the tree's pest numbers from time to time by shining a torch into the canopy to see if there are problematic amounts present.

There are pictures here of all the life stages of Lepoctneria reducta, as cleverly compiled by these people at the Butterfly House. Thanks.

Hairy caterpillars are hard to control with sprays as the hairs protect them. Natural predators can be encouraged to help reduce numbers of cape lilac caterpillars. Paper wasps can control larvae, as can micro bats. 

Microbats live throughout the Perth region, living in holes in trees, under bark and in some wooden houses where there are good gaps. You can also build and instal a bat box. http://gobatty.com.au has some designs and info on bats.  This page from Perth Zoo also has some good information about Perth's micro bats. 

Cape lilac trees are a fantastic shade tree and it is quite easy to keep the numbers of cape lilac moth under control by using some simple measures that need no poisonous pesticides. Any tree that can help support the red-tailed blackcockatoos are pretty important too.

http://www.bayswater.wa.gov.au/3/63/1/pest_control_.pm

http://www.agric.wa.gov.au/objtwr/imported_assets/content/pw/gard/gn2003_001.pdf