What are you doing to become water efficient?

[ChicksnMore]

My first question, how does soap in the water affect your plants? I would think that watering the plants with soap/laundry detergent water might be toxic to the plants. Do you use any kind of environmentally friendly soap that does not harm plants?

I use the soap water on plants we don't eat and it actually has benefits. Just as soap loosens the soil in clothes, dishes, our skin etc...it actually loosens the soil in the ground as well and helps it to absorb water. Where we are that's a definite plus. Our soil bakes so dry it begins to repel water...soap can actually fix this. I've never had it harm plants in anyway. Though I imagine it could cause salt build ups...I'm only guessing there...but since the soap water goes into rainwater catch basins...it naturally gets flushed out annually.

I would encourage people to look into using Sub-Irrigated Planters (SIP) with built in water reservoirs, and also into using the Hügelkultur method of making raised garden beds.

I do both . My main gardening method is a combination of both. One bed is a keyhole garden with old buckets filled with wood in the base. More wood added around and on top, then soil above that. The buckets create a SIP environment and the wood wicks the water into the soil above...the wood is also just plain good for your soil and plants. It helps with water, aerates the soil and hosts all kinds of plant friendly stuff. This is also what I do when I'm using a regular planter with bottom drainage...I add a coffee can full of wood chips to the bottom, top it and surround it with more wood...then put the soil on top. It turns any planter into a cheap, easy SIP planter. My other beds are actually made to water livestock. Some come with drainage plugs at the base...remove the plug, fill it half full of wood, top with good soil and you have an instant SIP planting bed. Some of them have no drain plugs...so I drill holes a couple inches from the base, add my wood, top with soil and plant. Sometimes I add a pipe from the surface dirt to the water reservoir...sometimes I don't...both ways work just as well.

Is it time to reconsider what crops are worth the precious water we have available for use?

Absolutely!

In a macro sense, why do so many people insist on living out in the middle of a dessert?

I would never choose to live where I am. If I chose my home based on environment... I'd live somewhere lush, green, with plenty of water, rain, and the regular four seasons. College brought me here and works kept me here. There's a lot to be said in favor of a good job with great co-workers. There are jobs just as good in better places...even jobs with better pay and benefits...but a known happy work environment carries a lot of weight. I'm guessing most of us in places like this can boil their reasons down to people. Family, friends or both.

 

[Sally PB]

I’ve been using the condensate from the A/C to water

Right now, our basement is very humid, so we're running the dehumidifier down there. The water in the collection tub will be used to water something.

I fill empty Cholula and Tabasco bottles with water and put them in the pots upside down.

Another way to do this is to put some small holes in the bottom of a gallon or half gallon jug, like a milk jug. Fill with water, put the top on, but not fully tight. The water will leak out the bottom, for a slow drip waterer.

 

[arizona_chicken_noob]

@gtaus great questions!

For the laundry-to-landscape (letting your washing machine drain out in the yard) the recommendation is indeed to use potassium based soap rather than sodium. This is because in Arizona at least, our water naturally is high in salt and that is bad for plants.

A recommended brand is Oasis but I don't even know where you can buy it in person, so I've not had the pleasure. So far I just buy the most eco-friendly looking bottle on the store shelf and use a rather scant amount. (It's basically all SLS in the store)

On the A/C Condensate, water is a byproduct of the air conditioner running. It has its own little hose to drain away from the unit, and you divert that into a bucket. Kinda like how your refrigerator diverts water into a little pan in the back I think. (Water vapor condenses on the coils)

As to why we let agriculture use up so much water, that is question a lot of people are demanding answers to right now actually. I just read that the entire Phoenix Metro population could vanish --- poof! --- and Arizona would still run out of water. That's wild. Wait til you hear about how we export things like alfalfa to Saudi Arabia, and how those farms are on unmetered water.

 

[gtaus]

For the laundry-to-landscape (letting your washing machine drain out in the yard) the recommendation is indeed to use potassium based soap rather than sodium.

I was thinking some special soap would be better for the plants. What that is, I don't know. There must be some eco-friendly brands. But I'm pretty sure that the detergent that Dear Wife buys in the big jugs would not be good to put on the plants. I certainly would not put it on plants growing food for us to eat.

On the A/C Condensate, water is a byproduct of the air conditioner running. It has its own little hose to drain away from the unit, and you divert that into a bucket. Kinda like how your refrigerator diverts water into a little pan in the back I think. (Water vapor condenses on the coils)

We have a central air conditioner, and there is no condensate hose or anything like that. Maybe A/C units are built differently. I think our A/C unit has a big fan that just blows the coils dry.

I just read that the entire Phoenix Metro population could vanish --- poof! --- and Arizona would still run out of water. That's wild.

I know the YouTube video updates I have been watching on the Colorado River water reservoir levels dropping is quite concerning. Lots of water lost and hydro electric power no longer being produced. A double whammy that I'm sure the local residents will have to pay for in higher charges.

After having lived in Naples, Italy, where water could be cut off at any moment, I never wanted to live through that again. Maybe that's why I now live on a lake here in Minnesota (Land of 10,000 Lakes) and have unlimited water for my personal use.

 

[gtaus]

I'd live somewhere lush, green, with plenty of water, rain, and the regular four seasons.

You should consider living in Minnesota. In northern Minnesota, where I live, we have all four seasons - winter, June, July, and August!

I'm guessing most of us in places like this can boil their reasons down to people. Family, friends or both.

I think that is about right. I have lived all over the world when I was in the Navy but chose to come back to where my family is. If you can survive our cold winter months, the remainder of the 3 months in the year are pretty nice!

Well, anyway, we don't have any water rationing to worry about. That is a big plus.

 

[igorsMistress]

I live in the PNW in Salem OR. You'd think we'd be set on water and I'll admit I'm not as water conscious as my Arizonan father in law. But I try to conserve water. our water costs are increasing compared to when we first moved in six years ago and any little bit helps.

I bring a couple low and wide buckets into the shower with me, and stand in them while I wash up. I only shower twice a week because it's bad for my skin and scalp to overwash, so when it comes to my sparse showers it's more about my health haha.
These buckets are then poured on the strawberries. I also dump my coffee grounds in the berries because the slugs can be real buttheads around here, lil berry theives that they are

I set up an irrigation drip line and a timer for the vegetable garden.

We use our grass clippings, the neighbors leaves in the fall, free wood chips, shed dog fur and dryer lint to make a layer of free mulch and then in the front garden we put another layer of "pretty" mulch on top of that.

We rent, but I'd route the laundry machine into an outdoor tank if I could.

We are allowed a limited amount of rain collection, but can't have over a certain size barrel. I haven't gone that route yet but plan to.

For my container gardening, I fill empty Cholula and Tabasco bottles with water and put them in the pots upside down. It's a slow release of water instead of dumping a whole bunch on top. I find pouring a watercan or running a hose on a pot causes the water to run straight through it. Its that narrow opening on hot sauce bottles that slows the flow. Works pretty well. If I had more bottles I would do it next to my more water consuming in ground plants.

Something I want to try is burying natural sponges near my plants that are along the sidewalk out front. That area is baked hard and solid every summer. Don't know if the sponges would work but It just might help retain moisture.

I'm not perfect on the water preservation! I have a lot of areas I definitely could work on. I forget to turn off the sink when I rinse dishes sometimes. My kids like to fill a leaky kiddie pool and I haven't replaced it yet. (Partly because if it drains, then I don't have to worry about my little one going outside and accidentally drowning in it)

I don't have sprayers on the ends of my hoses because the ends are cut off (one hose got a leak and I cut it below the hole, the other hose was ran over and that smashed the metal end shut. I had to cut that off too). This means I have water running while I walk over to the spigot to turn it off. Usually I stick the hose in a bucket, the dogs water, or one of the chicken waterers, but I often forget to do that too.

Our laundry washing is insane, because my husband gets dirty at work, my kids and I get dirty at home, and my youngest is still learning the bedtime potty training. So she causes a lot of laundry we would otherwise not be washing if she was trained, but that is a temporary season that will pass.

We are all a work in progress when it comes to water conservancy I imagine. I like the buckets in the shower idea but hubs needs new knees and would probably kill himself falling if I did that

Have you considered those water absorbing polymer crystals in your soil instead of sponges? They last a long while and are available specifically for gardening. Really though, some compost and mulch would help your soil more and feed the plants at the same time.

I have five people living in my home so I know what you mean by laundry! We bought new machines and the washer is water efficient so that helps a lot!

 

[igorsMistress]

I live on a lake in northern Minnesota, so I don't have the water concerns expressed by so many in this thread. Most of my water conservation measures are more in line with reducing my labor, without really thinking about saving the water itself. Also, since I have my own water well and septic system, all the water that I flush down the toilet or into the drains gets automatically cleaned and recycled back into the ground water.

Having said that, I have some questions on previous posts and maybe some thoughts to help others who are working hard to conserve water (I did not always live on a lake).

First question relates to reusing soap/laundry detergent water....









My first question, how does soap in the water affect your plants? I would think that watering the plants with soap/laundry detergent water might be toxic to the plants. Do you use any kind of environmentally friendly soap that does not harm plants?

Second thought related to planter types...







I would encourage people to look into using Sub-Irrigated Planters (SIP) with built in water reservoirs, and also into using the Hügelkultur method of making raised garden beds. Although I don't normally have a problem with lack of water, I use both those methods to drastically reduce my labor in watering my plants.

The SIP planters I have only need to be refilled maybe 2 times per month where I live, in normal rainfall years, and the plants only drink what they need. Much better system then using planters with drainage holes that need to be watered almost every day. My 2X4 SIP planter on the deck filled with beans grows much more food than an 8X8 plot outside in the ground garden bed.

I have a number of larger hügelkultur raised beds in the garden and around the house. The hügelkultur wood base in the raised beds acts like a giant sponge, soaking up lots of rain water, and slowly releasing it to the plants when needed. Last summer we had a terrible drought year with no rain. My main garden does not have running water. Most of my plants dried up and died, but not the plants in my hügelkultur raised beds. Yes, I live on a lake, but without rain, I was not able to tote enough water to the main garden to keep the plants alive. The hügelkultur raised beds just retained whatever water I could feed them much better as compared to my regular raised beds that dried out.

Something I have been thinking about lately...



Why do we continue to pour all that water into crops like almonds, which require gallons and gallons of water to produce a very small number of nuts? Is it time to reconsider what crops are worth the precious water we have available for use? I heard, somewhere, that the agriculture use of water is as much as 97% of water use, and yet we have people afraid to flush their toilets to save a cupful of water! IF I lived in the region where the Colorado River is drying up, I would be asking those questions.

As to a few posts about garden hoses...





I use hose timers on my garden sprinklers. In my case, it's not so much to conserve water, as it is to regulate how much/how long I want to water the plants and for the fact that I just set it and don't have to go back to faucet to turn it off. Hose timers are not all that expensive, and if you pay high costs for water, then a hose timer would probably pay for itself in no time.

As to garden hose with ends cut off... they can be repaired with replacement ends for a few dollars. I have repaired many hose ends over the years and/or splicing hoses with holes that are leaking. If you don't want to repair the hose ending, then you could easily fold the hose back onto itself and clamp it down with spring clamp to shut off the water until you can turn the faucet off. You can get a strong spring clamp from Home Depot for 99 cents.

View attachment 3201785

Another thought...



At one time I was stationed in Naples, Italy, where fresh water was not guaranteed to be coming out of the faucet. We had to buy bottled water for almost everything except bathroom needs. It's a lot of work toting clean water for daily living use. When I returned to the USA, I decided to live on a fresh water lake with my own fresh water well.

In a macro sense, why do so many people insist on living out in the middle of a dessert?

I would like to hear more about this system...





While reading all the posts about people living in hot climates and using A/C, I was wondering if it was possible to collect A/C condensate for use as fresh water for plants, etc... Sounds like you have such a system. And, wholly cow, you are filling up a 5 gallon bucket every 24 hours!? That could feed lots of SIP and hügelkultur raised beds to grow people food.

Thanks to OP for posting this interesting thread and for all the comments that followed. Enjoyed reading it even though I personally don't have to (thankfully) conserve my water
like so many others. I am very glad that I no longer live in an area that uses the water from the Lake Mead reservoir which is at historic low levels and getting worse. The situation looks very bad and I hope you guys get some relief.

We all need to conserve water. Right now Nestle is taking our water here in the US, bottling it and sending it to other countries where water is even more scarce. It’s a finite resource and if we don’t all pitch in people will move to where the water is, putting more stress on resources in those areas.

I haven’t used the condensate for people food and it’s not really enough to water crops. Being in the desert we get max five to ten gallons a day depending on humidity, and only during monsoon season. By the time the ornamentals and pollinator friendly shrubs are watered throughout the week it’s time to start the cycle again.

 

[gtaus]

We all need to conserve water.

I don't know if I can agree with that statement. I think it may depend on where you live.

I live on a lake, have my own fresh water well, and a septic system for the property. I don't feel guilty about watering the gardens and lawn as much, and as often, as I want to keep them green and growing. I figure all the water ends up back into the ground water level and is just recycled that way. Also, other than paying for electricity for pumping the water, I don't have any metered water bill. It makes much more sense for me to water the gardens as much as needed to increase the food produced to be eaten.

Even the septic system, which traps the solid waste in the holding tanks but pumps out the liquid wastewater into a drainage field returns most of our wastewater back into the ground. I can freely flush the commode anytime I want without feeling guilty about wasting water.

Having said that, I do practice a number of water conservation measures. I top off my gardens with mulch/compost/wood chips etc... to increase the water retention value of my soil. But, that is just so I don't have to waste my time watering the plants every other day.

All my new raised beds are using the hügelkultur method where the wood in the base of the bed soaks up water like a giant sponge. I find that the plants just grow better in my hügelkultur beds because they have stored water when they need it, instead of having to water my "regular" raised beds which allow the water just to drain through and the soil will dry out very fast.

My best growing system is my elevated sub-irrigated planters (SIP), which store about 15 gallons of water in my 2X4 planter. There, the water reservoir is sitting under about 12 inches of soil. The water wicks up and feeds the plants as needed. I don't lose any water to evaporation. And my plants are much more productive because the roots grow long and deep down to reach the water supply. I know I could just have a regular elevated planter, with drainage, but that would require almost daily watering to keep the plants healthy. With the built-in reservoir in the SIP, I only have to refill it maybe 2X per month. That is a big-time saver for me.

In short, all my "water conservation" measures are really just labor-saving measures in my case. However, I would encourage anyone living in areas with water rationing to consider building SIP systems, or at least hügelkultur beds. They have proven to need less water and produce more food than in-ground planting or regular raised beds that drain out and dry out fast. I would think drip irrigation and/or soaker hoses might work, but still you are watering the top of the soil where everything gets evaporated faster.

The only disadvantage to building a SIP system is that initially it will cost more money to setup. The waterproof liner and 4 inch drain pipes can be expensive, but they should last a lifetime. Because of the initial cost of a SIP, I usually build hügelkultur raised beds, which work almost as good, but cost very little money to setup.

 

[gtaus]

I'm wondering if anyone has built in systems to collect grey water from their household use, is able to filter or clean it up, and reuse it again?

I was thinking that most of our home water usage is from showers, bathing, laundry, and washing dishes. Instead of sending all that grey water down the drain, I wonder if anyone has or uses a grey water collection and purification system. Other than a small amount of soap or detergent used, most of that wastewater should be able to be used again.

Are the typical soaps and detergents we buy at the big box stores toxic to the immediate environment? I think maybe not, based on the fact that I have a septic system and our drainage field is probably the greenest part of the lawn in the hottest time of the summer. We don't buy any special soap or detergents.

I get our solid waste septic tanks pumped out about every 4 years. Last time I asked the septic guy where all that solid waste goes. He told me that they have a farmer's field where they spray out all the waste. The farmer has to leave the land untouched for a few years, then he can put livestock on the field for a few years, and after that he can plant crops again. Evidently, it works out for the farmer as he initially gets paid for allowing his field to be used for dumping the solid septic waste, and in a few years, he ends up with more a productive field for crops.

Just wondering if anyone has or knows of a grey water collection system for the home that is able to recycle wastewater?

 

[Sally PB]

I just googled "greywater recycling system" and there are lots of links to various products/info/articles.