Our grass looks like hay! But so do most of our neighbors’s lawns. Do you have any water saving tips? Please share! We’ll be plucking a winning tip out of the comments. Winner receives a signed book!
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When water is short, even the smallest amount helps. 🙂
My mother-in-law, in a similar situation, found a small tub the same size and one side of her double sink. That way she can wash in the one side and when she rinses, she uses water in the tub on the other side. When she is done washing she takes the rinse water and waters her pot plants and/or shrubs around the house. Folks asked her about the soak residue and hurting the plants but seems that the very minimal amount of any soap is actually beneficial to the plant because it’s an insect repellent.
These are some ideas I have heard from other people plug your shower and use the water to water plants and gardens. Limit shower time to 10 minutes. Drink bottled water and cook with it too.
I let God take care of whether or not my lawn grows. I don’t fertilize it because then I would have to water it and then that would mean more mowing. Mowing once every week or two is about all I can handle. I also don’t wash our vehicles other than an occasional trip through a car wash if the weather has been bad and the highways had to be treated with chemicals. I just wait for the rains to wash away the pollen. I’m not lazy but I have lots of other things to do. I discovered years ago that I always missed spots when I washed my car. It was so frustrating that I simply chose to stop doing it myself.
We were looking at a drought year (very little snow, no rain all winter long) until a month ago. We had a blizzard Mother’s Day weekend! And it’s been raining every couple day since then. Now we’re dealing with floods wink emoticon
But here are my drought tips:
Let your lawn go dormant during the drought. It will take a couple years to recover when the rain comes again, but when I weigh a green lawn against all the other things we need water for, the lawn always loses.
Keep watering your other plants, though, especially if you have a garden. Water early in the morning, and use a hose attachment that isn’t a spray. And then don’t water the plants, just the ground at the roots.
When my husband empties his cooler after work we do in the yard to help the yard. Don’t run water before you get into the shower sometimes we do that to long. Use dishwasher without washing dishes first. Let the Lord water grass, you water only the flowers
We have been in a drought for several years. One thing we have had was water restrictions. We could only water our lawns 1 day a week for 2 hours for a while. One of the things I have done is on the rare occasions we would get a little rain is I collect what rain water I can. Instead of draining the dish water down the sink, my grandmother would water her plants. Another thing I try to do but often forget is when cooking pasta, save the water and use on plants.
Only wash full loads in the washer and dishwasher. Try to get an extra wear out of certain clothes. Jeans don’t need to be washed after every use. We shower before bed, so we can get 2-3 wears out of our p.j.’s.
When I need to run water in the sink (bathroom or kitchen), waiting for it to get warm, I run it into a plastic gallon0size milk carton. Then I use that water to water my plants outside.
Cut back on water use. Watering lawns , flowers , check all faucets for leaking and repair. Shower every other day if possible. Cut back water use where ever possible. I live on lake front property . People here have pumps where they can use lake water to water lawn or flowers. Some people save rain water if they are lucky enough to get rain. They can hook up water hose to a faucet on the barrel to use water for the outdoor needs.
When you brush your teeth, don’t let the water run.
Some simple things we do. Put a bucket under your air conditioner drip. It can be used to water plants. Actually we stopped that because it now waters our raspberries plants. Also, if you do have a few plants out like tomatoes, put an empty coffee size can with 1 nail hole in the bottom, with the hole close to the plant. Putting the water in the can, concentrates the water by the root. When we need to do that, we usually fill it twice a day. Then use grass clippings to mulch around it to help conserve the moisture that is there. That works well with flower beds also. It has a added benefit in that as it decomposses, it adds nuturients to your soil.
We are only watering 2 days a week and we have our flowerbeds set up with drips so we don’t waste water. We try to limit our showers to 15mins or less and don’t leave the water running while brushing teeth. We get our car washed at a car wash instead of doing it at home. We only run full loads of laundry and dishes.