There has been a huge amount of rain hitting Melbourne and southern Victoria over the last two days - what are you doing to collect any of it?

It may not have been possible to get a tank in when you saw the rains coming (which is a pity as it probably would have filled a number of times!) but that doesn’t mean you can’t make the most of that water…

• put out buckets, bowls, plastic tubs, etc and collect some rain to use in your garden next week or use to rinse clothes
• get out in the garden between showers (downpours!) and turn over your garden beds
• aerate your lawn to maximise how much water is soaking into teh roots (You can do this by poking holes in the lawn with a pitchfork, shovel, strong stick or whatever - it doesn’t have to be a fancy aerator to work)
• park outside so your car gets a natural clean
• put all pots out where they will catch some rain - protect them from eh harshest downpours
• prepare to mulch your garden in the coming days to keep the moisture in the soil
• continue to conserve water in the house, and remind others that rain now doesn’t mean restrictions have ended or that water is still not in limited supply

Posted: December 21st, 2007 under collecting water, general, nature's gift, saving water.
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If you run a business, do you make any attempts to make it a green business? For instance, Precious Water uses a green courier company for delivery of FlexiTanks to minimise the impact of our tanks and we recycle everything we can.

The February edition of the Business Mums Magazine will have an environmental theme, and we will be contributors to the magazine, too. It always has easy-to-read short articles so even the busiest of us can find time to read them!

Leading up to that edition, the Business Mums Network is running a survey about green businesses- we’re fascinated to see what the results will be as we’re not sure how much small business owners consider the environment within their business.

And while we’re on the topic of green behaviour, Save Time Online is running a survey about green shopping that should also provide some interesting results.

Posted: December 20th, 2007 under general, green products.
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It is possible to grow vegetables, even when you have to limit your water use - even if there is plenty of rain and water, the following tips can help conserve water which reduces your water bill and prevents us running out of water again after the rains.

• Choose your vegetables to grow in 3 layers - a ground cover (pumpkin, cucumber, strawberries, etc) in around medium crops (lettuce, eggplant, carrots, etc) underneath some tall plants (tomatoes, corn, etc). When you water the garden, water falling of each layer will water the roots for all 3 plants, the ground cover reduces weeds and evaporation and the taller plants will shelter the shorter ones from the sun and wind.
• shade young and vulnerable plants - hang some shade cloth, drape some gauze material over them, have some other plants in front of the garden
• add home-made compost to your garden between your crops to ensure the soil is nutrient rich and a good composition
• use liquid fertilizers rather than solid ones as this forms an addtional source of moisture as well as being utilised by plants more quickly
• keep the garden weed free so the plants aren’t competing for what water there is
• mulch the garden- organic sugar cane is great, as is the remains of your last vegetable crop and other garden prunings

Posted: December 19th, 2007 under gardening, saving water.
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It may not be the most glamorous job, but weeding your garden is important.

Any weeds growing near your plants will compete for whatever water is available so your plants get less water. Pull out the weeds, and your plants get more water. Simple!

Once your gardenis weeded, add more mulch and possibly plant a groundcover to reduce teh numner of weeds coming back.

Posted: December 18th, 2007 under gardening, saving water.
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Using commercial pesticides in your garden may be useful for getting rid of pests - although they don’t always work properly and most need to be reapplied regularly.

But commercial pesticides can have various disadvantages to them:

• they are often toxic so need to be stored and used away from children and pets
• they can contaminate the soil
• they can be washed into our water systems - killing organisms in those systems and resulting in polluted creeks rivers and oceans
• it took a lot of energy and resources to make and package and transport the pesticide to your garden

So what are the alternatives?

• leave the bugs alone - not all of them are harmful to the plants anyway
• try companion planting - various plants and herbs are natural repellents
• use organic pesticides - we’ll add some recipes to this blog in coming weeks
• manually remove the bugs - time consuming but leaves no residue and gets you out in the garden for some fresh air!

Posted: December 16th, 2007 under gardening, nature's gift.
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While this isn’t specifically about water, the speech made in this video is powerful and carries an important message about protecting our planet, our world.

We like to think that helping Victorians and Australains to conserve water we are doing something positive, but Severn Suzuki reminds us there is much more to be done. We thank her and share her speech with you.

Severn’s speech

Posted: December 13th, 2007 under general, nature's gift.
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Watering plants sounds pretty easy and obvious, so why would we blog about it?

Because we have seen so many people water inefficiently, we think there is a need for people to learn how to best water their gardens.

For one thing, aim any water at the soil and roots of the plants. This way the water reaches the area where it is needed and less is lost to evaporation and wind. Water under the entire plant, not just around the central stem as roots generally spread out as far (or further) than the branches.

With water restrictions limiting how often people without tanks can water, deep watering is often the practice now. But as a reminder, we’ll just say that most plants will do better with few, deep waters than frequent shallow watering. Plants in pots and vegetables may well need more frequent waters though.

Posted: December 11th, 2007 under gardening.
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Like for any burn, the first thing to do with sunburn is put it under running cold water to pull out the heat of the burn.

I hate to admit that our daughter got sunburnt last week - she was sunscreened but her top rode up as she rode her bike and foudn the spot we had missed. Instead ofputting her in a cold shower, we stood her in the middle of a garden bed and hosed her back It helped her sunburn and watered some plants - so although we technically watered the garden out of restriction times, it was better than putting her in the shower.

Posted: December 7th, 2007 under gardening, general, saving water.
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Years ago, everyone had a Hills Hoist in their backyard - usually somewhere in the middle of the yard over the lawn.

Now days, people have clothes lines of all sorts of sizes and styles, including many that are removed or folded away when not in use. But where is your line?

A clothes line over a paved area is easier to work from - no soggy grass to sink into as you hang washing - but it doesn’t make much use of any drips or humidity (the moisture in the air from water evaporating from your wet clothes). Whereas hanging clothes over a lawn or garden can create a little extra moisture for the soil and plants underneath.

Especially if you reduce the spin cycle time on your washing machine to use less power and let clothes drip a bit on the garden.

If moving the clothes line is a bit much to conserve a little water, you can hang clothes on a clothes horse and move it around different parts of the garden to help water them.

Posted: December 6th, 2007 under general, saving water.
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We Love Water.

We Thank Water.

We Respect Water.

We Are All Water.

We Are All One.

by Masaru Emoto, Messages from Water

Water is precious and essential. We respect and save water as part of our thanks.

Posted: December 4th, 2007 under general, nature's gift.
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