About conserving water....

Hi garden friends!

On my Texas homesteader's Yahoo group, we've been talking about rainwater collection systems. My husband and I had a large catchment system at our old house (gotta find those pics!) that stored 17,000 gallons. We now have city water here in town, but still wanted to collect some rainwater for use in the garden.

We bought two 55-gallon barrels from Eco-Wise in Austin, put metal gutters on the house, and WHEN IT RAINS they fill up fairly rapidly. But after using it on the garden, I realized that we need more, especially in times of drought....like we're in now.

So I've come up with a few ideas for saving water inside the house. Nothing new, really, but maybe a few ideas you haven't thought about.

Here's the thing. Big systems cost money, and you have to have space for the tanks. We don't all have to rush out and spend a fortune on big systems, though. There are little things we can do. I remember my grandmother's garden, and how wonderful it was, and how she ALWAYS saved her dish water and dumped it on there. She didn't have a dishwasher. She had two little plastic pans in the bottom of her sink and washed and rinsed her dishes from those.

So, I saw a cool plastic dish pan thingy at Lowe's, made by Rubbermaid, and it has handles and a stopper in the bottom! I bought one and used it last night when I washed off the cutting board. I caught all the water from that. We had just chopped veggies, so it was OK; wouldn't do it if it was greasy or meat. Husband washed off some peaches this morning, and used it. That was HALF A GALLON of water! You don't think you're using that much until you actually see how much would have gone down the drain.

So, I have the little dishpan thing, and I have two empty gallon milk jugs with a funnel. I collect water, little bit at a time, in those, then when they're full, go dump them on my 'maters, fruit trees and bamboo plant. You'd be amazed at how much water I've collected over the last week, just from rinsing out glasses, old cat water that I used to dump out when getting them fresh, etc. I don't store it in the house, maybe overnight. It pretty much goes outside immediately.

I expect that those of you with critters could collect a TON of "used" water that you could at least use on landscape plants, or fruit trees. So what if the cats or dog or goats slobbered in it? LOL!

Yes, it takes a little more work, but it adds up.

It's like the whole energy thing. People think we need to drill more, add more coal plants, etc. but they never talk about cutting back in the first place, or saving or conserving what we already have. That just gripes me! LOL

Dig it!

bobbi c.

Catch some rain!

The Earthly Gardener by Bobbi A. Chukran
March 2, 2007

Dear friends,

We haven’t had rain for months here, and we desperately need some. Not only for our garden and landscaping, but also because we drink rainwater! Yep, that’s right….we collect rainwater and use it for ALL our water needs…we cook with it, bathe with it, wash our clothes in it, AND drink it. It’s filtered out the wazoo and treated with UV light, so it’s safer than the local city water or well water out here.

Rainwater is great for plants because it’s pH neutral…not too acidic, not too alkaline. To catch rainwater, you don’t have to have two humongous fiberglass tanks like we do, holding 17,000 gallons. You can buy yourself a cool galvanized bucket (I love that galvanized stuff!) and plop it outdoors next time it rains. Store it covered so that insects don’t get in and use it for a breeding ground. Next time you need to water a houseplant, dip into it and give that green baby a drink! Use it to water seedlings; they’ll appreciate the clean water. There are also larger systems that you can buy from online garden suppliers to collect rain from the gutters of your house, etc. if you want to tackle it on a larger scale.

Start small, see how well your plants do when they get to drink rainwater. (And ya know, it’s GREAT for human hair, too!)

dig it!

bobbi c.
Copyright ©2007 by bobbi a. chukran.

Don't count your chickens, but don't give up...

The Earthly Gardener by Bobbi A. Chukran
March 12, 2007

Dear friends,

I was annoyed to find that some of the seedlings I’m growing here in my office succumbed to some kind of withering disease. Maybe damping off, which is a sort of fungus. A good cure for that is to water them with chamomile tea. Also, two of the tomato plants I bought at a nearby garden center withered and fell over practically overnight. I suspect that the plants might have been carriers of some sort of virus that spread to the seedlings.

Lesson learned. I had already thought about all the salsas, homemade sauces and sundried tomatoes I would make from the fruit of those seedlings. In other words, I was “counting my chickens before they hatched”, as we say down here.

But, as we also say, never give up. I seem to have a stubborn Gardener Gene passed along to me from my paternal grandmother, and her parents who were farmers and share croppers, and my maternal AND paternal great-grandparents, who were avid gardeners. So I suppose I couldn’t give up on gardening if I even wanted to!

I’ll replant more tomato seeds, make a trip to the garden center with withered plants in hand and demand that they exchange them for something else.

We had a violent storm last night with almost 4-inches of rainfall. Many areas around here are flooded, but we’re up on a hill so that’s not a problem for us. The house shook with the thunder, and the lightning was fierce and so bright I could have read from the front porch if I’d wanted to. We needed the rain, but we didn’t need it all at once! On the bright side, our rainwater collection tanks are full. Since we are frugal with our water, that will last us for quite some time.

I was reluctant to peek outside this morning, fearing storm damage, but everything seems to be intact…even the nectarine and peach blossoms. Man, I’m already tasting the jelly I’ll make from those! LOL

dig it!

bobbi c.

copyright©2007 by bobbi a. chukran. all rights reserved.