Gray water in the garden: Economical and ecofriendly
Using gray water in the garden is ecofriendly and economical, more gardeners are learning.
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That’s just the beginning. Because recycling water involves dealing with one of the largest items you will ever purchase — your home — you need to thoroughly investigate your options, especially if you are considering a DIY design for your system. Fortunately, plenty of solid information — and some loopy advice as well, so buyer beware — is out there on the Internet.
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Saving money on water
Is recycling water worth it? In those long-ago dry summers, the price of carrying buckets was laborious sweat-equity. Now it costs considerably more to put in a new system or retrofit a home. However, Paul says a homeowner can save huge amounts of money normally spent on watering gardens. Add rain roof collection to the system, and you can take advantage of that available water, too.
The other expense is an environmental one that tends to be hidden from the economic bottom line. Any installation today will pay off in the future when fresh water begins to reflect its actual value as an extraordinarily precious resource.
According to Steve Solomon in his iconic book, "Water," the world’s fresh water supply is only 2.5 percent of all water, with less than three-tenths of 1 percent on the earth’s surface. Of that, rivers and streams make up the hard-to-grasp figure of six-thousandths of 1 percent.
In other words, we’re all living with a redwood water tank.
Mary-Kate Mackey is one of eight garden writers who blog regularly at Diggin' It. She is co-author of “Sunset’s Secret Gardens — 153 Design Tips from the Pros” and contributor to the “Sunset Western Garden Book,” writes a monthly column for the Hartley Greenhouse webpage and numerous articles for Fine Gardening, Sunset, and other magazines. She teaches at the University of Oregon’s School of Journalism & Communication. She writes about water in the garden for Diggin’ It.
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