Can We Save The World ?

Reduce outside water use

60% of the water we use is used outside our homes, in gardens, for car washing, and for outside cleaning jobs.

In the garden water sprinklers generally use water very inefficiently, a lot of evaporation occurs, everything in their range gets water whether it needs it or not, and you water to suit the most thirsty plants.

According to Alan Titchmash "In the UK, it is possible to have a beautiful and productive garden using minimal mains water".

What can I do to reduce outside water use:

Collect rainwater in large water-butts and use a watering can instead of a hose. If you prefer to use a hosepipe, elevate the water butt if possible, fit a hosepipe and fit this to a trigger nozzle to control flow, or better still use a micro irrigation system linked to the water butt.
Regularly weed and hoe your garden to ensure that watering helps plants and not weeds.
Select plants suitable for the climate and your soil conditions. If it is dry where you live plant flowers and shrubs that thrive in hot and dry conditions such as thyme, evening primrose, rock rose, Californian poppy, pinks, lavender, buddleia and hebes.
Use mulches such as wood chips, bark and gravel, especially near thirsty plants, this helps to prevent water evaporation and also suppress weed growth, saving you both water and time spent weeding.
Suppress weed growth on bare earth near trees and plants by laying a water permeable membrane such as weed guard.
Add organic matter to the soil, this retains moisture and other plant nutrients.
Group plants with similar water needs together and use micro irrigation to water these.
Minimise the use of mains water garden sprinklers, they can use as much water in an hour as a family of four uses in a day, look into micro irrigation, this uses water far more efficiently.
Lawns can survive long periods of dry weather if the grass is not cut too short. Even if the grass turns brown, it will quickly recover after a few days of rain.
If you water your garden, water in the cool of the early morning or evening, this greatly reduces water wasted by evaporation.
If you are going to use water sprinklers run them for a moderate time but only every few days rather than for a short period every day, this will persuade the roots to go deep.
If you have an automatic irrigation system adjust the watering schedule to reflect changes in the plant water needs and weather conditions.

What can I do to reduce water use on car washing and outside cleaning:

Install water butts and use this water for outside cleaning jobs.
Use a pressure washer, these use far less water.
Minimise hosepipe use, wash you car with a bucket rather than a hosepipe, a hosepipe can use 250 litres, a bucket 10 litres.
If you use a car wash find one that recycles water

By adopting the suitable suggestions above you will reduce outside water use from the mains supply dramatically.

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