My Ugly Water-Saving Garden Solution
May 11, 2009 Gardening
We’ve been saving the gallon jugs from the apple juice we buy for about a year now. These containers are now being used to water our garden.
No, they aren’t pretty. But it’s the same principle as the Aqua Globes
They’re working pretty well, although we don’t have quite enough bottles saved up for the whole garden yet. As you can see in the picture, they’re not that far apart, maybe a foot, foot and a half at most.
The nice thing is that the water is going right into the soil. No water sprayed into the air. Since we’re looking at a Stage 2 drought and mandatory water conservation coming up at the start of June, we’re trying to figure out how best to keep our garden alive with a minimum of water. Oh, and a minimum of budget. We don’t really have the finances for installing drip irrigation
I have given some thought to the BPA in plastic issue with this, but I suspect it’s not that different from the yard’s sprinkler system, which I believe is installed using PVC plastic anyhow. The bottles are a #5 plastic. They’re not supposed to leech anything harmful… then again they are in the heat of the sun every day so who knows. Not exactly how they were meant to be used.
On the other hand, a lot of recyclers don’t take anything other than #1 or 2 plastics, which I think is true in my area. That means we’re keeping these out of the landfill for a while. I’m not too happy as a rule about buying things in plastic, but it’s hard to entirely avoid. Finding a new use for the plastic is the next best thing.
Tags: Gardening, saving water
How Green Are the Lawns in Your Area?
Jul 16, 2008 Gardening
I’ve been noticing a trend in my area. Lawns are looking a little browner than they do most summers in my area. Seems like a lot of people are watering them less.
Not a bad start, if you ask me.
Better, of course, is to do something useful with the land, or at least xeriscape so that the yard is not completely unattractive. But it’s nice to see that more people in my area seem to be more willing to deal with a less than perfect lawn right now.
In my area, that’s a very rational decision. We’re facing a huge water shortage and they’re trying hard to get us to cut back on our water usage. I’m determined to keep the garden alive, but the lawn? Only enough for the kids to play on. And they delight in dandelions and other weeds just as much as they enjoy the grass.
Quite frankly, if we owned this house rather than just rented, the front lawn would be long gone. There’d also be a much bigger garden in the back yard, which might make up for any water savings, but at least the water would be used productively.
We’d probably also be looking at installing water barrels
Fresh, clean water is something that is just going to become more valuable throughout much of the world, and it’s time for people to start understanding that. Using less even when you could have more isn’t a bad habit to establish at all.
Tags: lawns, saving water
