I'm A Lawn, Not A Lake

I live in a little city outside of Dallas. It's beautiful, well organized and highly regulated. It's highly policed, too, but the copious speed traps are another story.

There are strict rules about when to water your lawn - typically, it's not permitted 10am - 6pm. Sometimes, watering is even more scheduled than that. As in: houses with street addresses ending with even numbers can water on Mondays and Thursdays, odd numbers can water on Tuesdays and Fridays.  Fines for violating water regulation can be very high - up to thousands of dollars.  And if there's water running off your lawn into the street, you might get a visit from a regulator when they patrol (which they do - often).

Some might find this kind of oversight a little too 1984. While that might be true in some instances, if the city bolsters its budget through violators of water regulation, I'm okay with that. Texas is DRY in summer.   No one has any business wasting water.

As my sons and I took our weekly visit to the public library today, I saw the above sign posted in the Town Hall.

It's a good thing to keep in mind. If you've got water running down your driveway and into the street when you water your lawn, there are things you can do to make your watering more efficient.  For instance, if you've got a programmable watering system, try running all heads through a few five minute cycles instead of running each for 15 minutes straight.  The ground will absorb the water better, wasting less down the storm drain.  Also, put a rain sensor on that programmable watering system.  There's no sense in watering in the rain.

10 Ways to Reuse and Reduce

The Three R's: REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE

I've written many times before about recycling (you can see my many posts here), but I think not enough attention is paid to the topics of reduce and reuse.  So expect more posts from me on these two topics.

To kick things off, let me give you some ideas on ways you can reuse and reduce:

REUSE

1. If you've got things you don't need or want, you can pass them along to other people who might be able to use them instead.  Do not underestimate others' abilities to reuse things you think are worthless.  You can sell things through eBay, craigslist or yard sales (see my tutorial on yard sales here).  Or you can give them away through Freecycle, Goodwill or any number of other local programs.  Subscribing to your local freecycle email list can also be a great source of entertainment.  It's pretty funny to see what some people list.  For example, one request was recently posted to my local group for a male peacock to join a female peacock someone had living wild in their backyard.
2. Source or buy items used via the vehicles I mentioned above, or via pawn shops, antique shops, second hand stores or flea markets (what an awful name for something so fun).    For instance, my husband mentioned to me the other day that he saw a whole lot of great garden tools at a second hand store near us.  Why buy brand new tools when you can buy gently used ones cheaper?  They're going to get dirty and dinged up by you anyway!

REDUCE

1. Use cloth instead of paper towels.  In my house, we use cheap bar towels I picked up in bulk at Costco.  I have one bunch of them dedicated to cleaning my house.  I have another bunch dedicated to my kitchen.  I also cut up old bath towels and use them for cleaning.
2. Choose cast iron.  Did your Teflon pans get scratched and you need to buy new ones?  Cast iron cookware is healthier, cheaper and far more durable, and it's easier to care for than you imagine.
3. Make your own household cleaners.  The end product is cheaper and reduces the world's production of plastic in the process.  See my recipes and tips here.
4. Cook.  This seems like a simple idea but it's one people forget about.  If you enjoy store bought hummus, lemonade, muffins, pizza, ice cream, steak marinade, you can make your own, often healthier, versions, and save the world some plastic, paper or glass.  You can save time by preparing more than you need and freezing some for another day.  See my recipes here.
5. Make your own makeup and reuse those old containers.  It's really not hard. As an added benefit, you know exactly what you're putting on your skin.  See my recipes here.  Check back, as I plan to write about a few more very soon.
6. Save water in your garden. You can reduce the amount of water you need to effectively hydrate your lawn and flower beds by a) watering at night and b) scheduling your sprinkler heads to run through several five-minute cycles instead of just one long one (helps the water sink in better so you have less running down the street).
7. Compost.  This qualifies as both Reuse and Reduce.  Reuse kitchen and garden scraps and reduce the amount of fertilizer you need to buy for your garden.  See my postings on composting here.
8. Use your freezer and learn how to properly store things in it to save leftovers and reduce spoilage - it also enables you to take advantage of good prices on your favorite organic foods.  See my tutorial here.

How to Automate Watering of Planters and Veggie Gardens

Rain is not something to be relied upon to keep your garden thriving in Texas during summer, unless it's full of drought tolerant plants.  I have a sprinkler system for my lawn and flower beds, but not for my Square Foot Garden or flower planters.  Regular watering can fall through the cracks when you're busy with other things.  So I decided to automate my irrigation and save my veggies and planters the stress.

For my Square Foot Garden, the solution was simple: one 50 foot soaker hose, some landscape anchor pins (to keep the hose in place), a hose timer and a y-connector with shut-off valves so I could still use my hose faucet for other things.   Problem solved and my veggie garden is very happy.

The problem was more complex for my flower planters.  I have two planters on my patio in the backyard like this...

... and two flanking my front stoop like this...

I had to find a way to automatically water them without marring their appearance or leaving hoses snaking through the lawn (this would be unattractive and would make mowing difficult).

I bought a $20 kit called Mister Landscaper that includes almost everything you need to hook a bunch of planters into your existing sprinkler system (or add a timer and attach it to your garden hose).

Taking the blue planter as an example, I located the nearest lawn sprinkler head (which was almost right beside the planter), unscrewed it and lifted it out of the ground.  This was the only way I could figure out what attachments I needed.  I took the sprinkler head with me to Lowes and asked the irrigation specialist what I needed to connect it to the irrigation hose in the Mister Landscaper kit. I had to dig a bit of soil from around the sprinkler head to get it back into the ground with the attachment, but it wasn't much trouble.

I extended the hose up the back of the planter and put a loop of drip hose through the flowers.  As you can see here, it's really unobtrusive:

Problem solved!  I did the same thing with my other three planters and still have hose and attachments left over in the kit.  Now my planters are watered at the same time that my lawn is.  Worry free.