Come home, sweet rain!

[the_last_muse]

It seems that, while I was in Prague and the lakes finally disappeared, someone out there finally admitted that we are, indeed, in a drought...and that perhaps water conservation efforts should be kicked up a notch.  Sigh.  I was born in San Francisco- we had a hell of a drought in the 1980's ("If it's yellow, let it mellow, if it's brown, flush it

Comments

[katesmash]

One look at our yard will tell you we share your sentiment.

One thing we've been doing (not on purpose at first, but now it seems to be working in our favor) is collecting the condensation from our A/C unit (and there is A LOT of it) and using it to water our 150 year old live oak in the back yard and the handful of plants in our yard that we care a lot about (like our climbing honeysuckle we planted on our first anniversary, the mango we planted when Max was born along with his placenta, etc). Ordinarily this would just go down a drain. Now we're grateful for it.

Our neighbors all have relatively lovely yards, but they only water every now and then at night - they've also got much shadier yards than we do.

[the_last_muse]

OH, I wish I had talked to you sooner! Beaux just realized today that we could use our AC condensation- we have a bucket in place now. Sigh.

I had a friend that hooked up her washing machine to a large collection tank- she'd only water from that (there are a couple detergents that apparently wont fry your plants, yay!). Reason 4,398,622 I hate that I'm renting.

[fulguritus]

Can you tell me what detergents won't fry your plants?
We're intent on making grey water collection here.

[heatherthegreat]

Here is a fantastic website on graywater collection: http://www.greywaterguerrillas.com/greywater.html

Seventh Generation claims they are safe for plants.

There's also this website about detergents specifically: http://www.harvestingrainwater.com/greywater-harvesting/greywater-and-your-detergent/

[fulguritus]

Oh thanks!

[the_last_muse]

Thanks Heather!

[mutantgarage]

We use Costco laundry and dish detergents, been dumping graywater for years now into the back yard (collapsed foundation pipe) and the grass, plants and trees are doing fine.

[fulguritus]

Cool!

[the_last_muse]

I was told that the "off brands" were for some reason pretty good- I have never done the research I should, but it's good to know that costco now even more handy! ;)

OH, I've also heard that fire ants and some other nasty bugs (sadly, probably the good ones to, but again, research needed) can't stand graywater, but plant life seems to thrive- have you noticed less bugs?

[katesmash]

We don't have any fire ants but we do have lots of lizards and geckos, so they must be finding stuff to eat. Wasps too :( Wish the lizards would eat them. Plenty of big texas roaches too. The wet outside seems to be keeping them from coming in looking for moisture. We still get a few, but since we don't have pets or kids, there's not much easy food inside.

[the_last_muse]

Sweet- good to know, good to know...

My cats are my roach killers, I highly encourage having cats in Texas for this reason. ;)