Our mission: Garden by garden, landscape by landscape, grow a network of habitat for songbirds and pollinators across the Rocky Mountain region and beyond, while saving water for our streams and rivers, and restoring our joy in seeing nature every day. Join Audubon Rockies, Plant Select® and High Country Gardens in promoting wildscaping. Be a Habitat Hero.

The Watering Can Campaign #canit4lessh2o

It's spring, when all gardeners' thoughts turn to... planting and watering. Perfect timing, we at Hab Hero central thought, to have some fun and remind us all to conserve water.

Hence our May watering can campaign! Here to introduce it is Jim Ray, one of the original Habitat Heroes from the Colorado Wildscapes book. We brought Jim back because he exemplifies what this campaign is all about: a can-do spirit. (Okay, we couldn't resist the pun.)

Jim waters his Habitat-Hero-Award-winning garden in Beulah, above Pueblo, Colorado, entirely by hand, using a collection of watering cans.

Why Water By Hand?

Why? Because as Jim said in a post we wrote about his garden, “Watering with a can allows me to look at each plant and see how it’s doing, and if it really needs water.”

Jim's water comes from a well, so he's acutely aware of how much he has. When we can just turn on a faucet, or rely on an automatic sprinkler system, it's harder to remember how precious water is, especially here in the West.

Wildscaping & Water Conservation 

One of the principles of wildscaping, landscaping for wildlife, is conserving water. Conservation means using only what you need, and saying aware of how much you use.

What better way to know how much water your landscaping needs and to use it wisely than watering by hand? And what better symbol of watering by hand than a watering can?

The Habitat Hero Watering Can Campaign

Help us spread the word about water conservation and wildscaping in our watering can campaign.

Show us your favorite watering cans and how you conserve water in your garden, and you could win a copy of Colorado Wildscapes or an award-winning Habitat Hero Birdwatchers Pre-planned Garden designed by renowned plantswoman Lauren Springer Ogden.

Here's how it works:

Post a photo of your favorite watering can(s) on our Facebook page. Use the hashtag #canit4lessh2o (That's "can it 4 less h 2 o"--the last letter is an "o," not a zero.)

Tell us briefly--in a few sentences how you use watering cans in your wildscape, and how you conserve water. If you have a favorite watering can story, include that too.

Each week, we'll pick an outstanding watering can/story to receive a copy of Colorado Wildscapes. At the end of the campaign in June, we'll pick an outstanding watering can/wildscape story to receive a Habitat Hero Birdwatcher's Garden. (Or, if the winner lives outside the Rocky Mountain region, a gift certificate to High Country Gardens.)

Together, we #canit4lessh2o: conserve water, have fun, and restore habitat!

Join us. Be a Habitat Hero.