Water Recycling by Reusing Plant Water

This is a guest post by diyNatural reader Alicia, thanks for the great tips Alicia!

My husband did something this week that got my attention. He is usually the one to take care of our outdoor plants and vegetable garden. I will water on occasion, but outside of that he is the farmer in this dell. My main job is to compliment and keep our six year old from picking pre-ripened vegetables.

We live in the suburbs of Dallas, TX so our acreage is somewhat minimal you could say. My house and entire yard sits on a mere ¼ acre plot of once upon a time country field. I’m surrounded by houses, and could literally walk outside – and if I was the spitting type – could probably hit my neighbor’s house, but I’m a southern belle and would never do such a thing.

We were outside this morning; I was drinking my coffee trying to wake up while he was already at work taking care of his prize suburbia oasis. We have these hanging baskets that are screwed into the posts that hold up our privacy fence, three to be exact and another that is screwed into the brick of the house at our back door. These are the metal baskets you typically find at any garden nursery that are lined with the coconut liners. Our area is surrounded by a lake so it’s not all cityscapes. I buy flowers every year for the baskets that specifically say they attract certain birds, mostly hummingbirds, they are my favorite.

As I lay down on our lounger to continue drinking my coffee I noticed for the first time how he waters the baskets. He took the watering can and a five gallon bucket with him and sat the bucket underneath the basket and proceeded to water. After the plant has soaked up what it can, water starts to drain through the liner and into the bucket underneath preserving all the water and nutrients that would typically just go back into the ground. He reused it over and over in each of our 4 baskets. I must say that I was amazed as visions of sustainability danced through my head.

I grew up on a forty plus acre cattle farm in Louisiana with my grandparents. We had a vegetable garden that was over an acre itself and my grandmother had a bounty of lush flower gardens surrounding her home and I’d never seen them reuse water, so this was a first for me. We seem to have grown up “not knowing” how to conserve, so something so small as my husband catching water in a five gallon bucket to reuse in our other flowers does make me smile and feel good.

I realize that people are finally thinking – including yours truly – about different ways to do our part, and that doing so will help simplify our lives and actually make us healthier. I took a photo of the hanging basket at my back door with a clear plastic container catching the water so you can see for yourself how this works. I simply reused the water in another planter of flowers I have on my patio.

I love passing on great ideas and hope this small tidbit inspires you to try it for yourself.

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