• Home
  • Plant This Forum

eco - welcome

water scrooge

 Back to Forum
Posted by UNKNOWN 29 Oct 2009 - 1:04:00 PM

I was raised near lots of water and I feel rather deprived in very dry places, which is mostly where I've since gardened for many years. I love the cactus and succulent plants, even desert landscapes, dry, rocky canyons and windswept fields, but my soul also craves spots of deep green and lush pockets of growth.
With water more scarce I began to cut back more and more. I discovered that I had been over watering any number of plants. One struggling stand of nearly leafless trees that came with our house and had resisted all my efforts at proper watering, but was sorely needed for shade, revived quickly when we installed drainage and drip watering. It took some work, mostly digging, but very little cost, and now uses about 1/3 as much water as before. The trees look young again.

Comments (3)

Re: NORM 14 Nov 2009 - 7:22:00 AM

It's amazing how much water you can recycle in your home for gardening use.
I have a bucket near kitchen taps and the shower for filling when waiting for water to warm up.
I'm always surprised how much water would normally go straight down the drain.
Not in my home.... it goes to the garden and means I don't have that guilty feeling when watering my plants.

Re: Re: UNKNOWN 1 Feb 2010 - 11:21:00 AM

Little by little we are reducing water even more. Our pot plants will often wilt in a day without water, but those on drip systems sip water instead of guzzling. Every drop gets to the roots.

Re: UNKNOWN 10 Mar 2010 - 1:55:00 PM

We have to refresh the birdbath water regularly where we are to reduce mosquito populations but it sits in an area that is not irrigated so we tip it onto the plants there.
We have a “garden sink�? that I use for potting plants and cleanups with soap and water, though not detergent, and a buried plastic pipe carries the grey water out to a dry area on the side of the house.
Rain barrels aren't practical here. We don't get that much rain and installed French drains in most of the yard, which was more of a digging job than a plumbing job. This insures that none of our rainwater runs off taking top soil and nutrients with it and instead filters down to plant roots. What comes off the roof goes down gutters with small flexible connectors at the bottom to join gutters and drains.

Tell our Plant Selector what you want & like and we'll search thousands of plant profiles for compatible matches

Special Offers

Plant of the Day

Desert Chinese Lantern

Plant type: evergreen shrub
H: 1m W: 1m
Sunlight: hot overhead sun

Find out more

Member's Tip

Fast plant facts

Leanne, Puckapunyal VIC
I have found polystyrene fruit boxes are excellent for growing vegies in. I currently have dwarf beans, strawberries & some white queen squash growing.

Recently added articles

Most viewed articles

Forum Topics

Palmetto

Palmetto Soft Leaf Buffalo is ideally suited as a lawn in many applications.



More products

Get the Plant Selector's full features plus news, forums & competitions. Sign up, it's free.
Click here for more