Making Water Economies

On our return from Devon, and the realisation of how dry it has been here in the south of the UK and London for months now, OH has started feeling more and more concerned about climate change. I think when you're a gardener or grow food, you become more aware than most about the amount of water it takes to grow things successfully.

We got to brainstorming about what we could do to cut down our ecological footprint.  We live quite frugally and try to be resourceful and make things last. We already have a hybrid car, although a fully electric one would be good, but super expensive. Solar panels would be great too, but we have a butterfly roof, which doesn't lend itself so well, we'd have to build some sort of frame to put them on. Getting rid of our gas central heating would be better too, but a big undertaking.

Having thought about all of the above, we settled on trying to be more economical with water, especially living in drought conditions at the moment.  We decided that there were ways we could harvest water for the garden that wouldn't involve too much effort either.

We decided that we'd start to use a washing up bowl again for the first time in over 20 years. I have to admit, that neither of us have liked washing up bowls.  We just found them surplus to requirements when you've got a sink, so did away with them years ago. However, now we have come to appreciate that they can have some benefits.

I had a washing up bowl, that I bought to soak my feet, but never use, so I dug it out and we are now using it to harvest water from the kitchen sink to put on the garden. 

It's amazing how much clean or virtually clean water just goes right down the plughole from everyday use. Washing hands with eco handwash after going to the toilet harvest clean enough water for plants in the borders, as does water left over from washing fruit and vegetables from the supermarket or the allotment. Even leaving the tap to run cold when you want a glass of water harvests some clean water or rinsing off dishes before putting them in the dishwasher. We've been amazed at how much water we're collecting.

This morning, I tried something else. Inspired by Kezzie on a recent blog post, I put a trug in the bath with me as I showered. I collected a couple of inches of water just waiting for the shower to run hot. Then, whilst I soaped up and waited for the shampoo on my hair to do it's work, I stood aside from the shower and put the trug underneath to collect the water. It almost filled the tru, and it was quite a big trug. Normally, I would remain under the running water, just letting it wash off my back.  It felt a little less comfortable than normal, but in the heat of summer it was okay. Not sure I'll do it in the middle of winter.

This did, of course, produce a problem, the trug, filled with water, was way too heavy to carry downstairs to the garden, so, I used a jug to: 

1) fill the sink for me to wash my face (it was clean, hot water afterall), 

2) re-fill the sink and add bathroom cleaner to wash the sink, 

3) put the remainder of the water into the bath with some bathroom detergent to clean the bath. 

I would normally have used at least an extra trug load of water to do these things, so it just shows how much water you can save by making simple changes.

Buoyed by our success at harvesting water from our daily uses, we are going to continue to try to do so and hopefully we should save a bit of money too, as we are metered for the water we use.

Do you have any ways you save or harvest water for the garden or other uses? Now that our summers seem to be hotting up, I'd be really interested to know.