A man does not plant a tree for himself, he plants it for posterity. - Alexander Smith
With little effort and zero fancy equipment, I’ve reduced my average water consumption by three percent. Long, hot days of summer have slowed me down and drained ME of energy, but not the weeds. The weeds are running riot and lustily propagating faster than I can eliminate them. I am mostly watering only the plants which I planted this spring and summer, plus my tomatoes, the containers, and of course the hydrangeas.
My lawn is brown, the ground cover of violets is crisp, but the
horsetails and bindweed are lush and the dandelions prolific. Lazy days
filled with summer reading instead of weeding have me thinking about
water. I just finished reading “The Green Gardeners Guide, Simple
Significant Actions To Protect & Preserve Our Planet” by Joe
Lamp’l. Joe is the host of the PBS series GardenSmart and DIY Network’s
Fresh from the Garden, as well as writing on his own site, joegardener.com. His is a good basic primer for the new green
gardener or non-gardener.
The Green Gardeners Guide is not preachy, just filled with simple
little sound bites of actions that one can take to make a difference to
the planet. It’s chock full of good ideas presented in a format that
doesn’t require any heavy lifting. It’s very assessable, being one of
those books you can just flip through, read a little sidebar here,
browse a bulleted list there. The layout, the shading, and the
highlights in green ink make reading it a pleasant endeavor.
The Guide is written for the new-to-green gardener, but I found it
useful and helpful. The overarching theme is the worldwide water crisis
we’re facing. Most of us living here in the Pacific Northwest can
easily lose sight of this issue. Chapter two, Conserving Water In the
Garden, sets the tone for the whole book. “Earth is sometimes referred
to as the ‘water planet’ because so much of it is covered by water…but
99% of it is unavailable to us as usable water.”
According to Joe, “The average American now uses about 100 gallons of
water every day--enough to fill 1,600 drinking glasses. And of those
100 gallons, at least 25 to 29 gallons per person goes to watering
lawns, plants and gardens… The EPA estimates at least half of all the
water we use on our landscapes and gardens is wasted. That is to say,
if we all stopped wasting water in our gardens and landscapes right
now, we could save 3.25 billion gallons of water per day, which
translates to about 1.2 trillion gallons of water each year.” Now
that’s a compelling case for not wasting water.
I was hooked, right there in chapter two. As days passed, I kept
becoming aware of my water habits, which were…wasteful. After a couple
of weeks, I remembered living in Santa Barbara, California during a
drought. Water was rationed and we turned the shower off to lather up
and then back on to rinse off. Back then I showered with a bucket in the
shower to catch the gray water runoff for my plants. Over the past two decades I had drifted away
from my water frugal ways.
I’m pleased to announce I am
again showering with a three-gallon bucket in with me. My shower is
upstairs, a long run from the hot water heater, and needs several
minutes of water running before I’m willing to get in. I now catch and
save over two gallons of water that formerly went down the drain. When
the water is hot, I lift the bucket into the tub and place a new basin
on the shower floor before I hop in. By shower’s end I have another
gallon of blow-by water saved. Three gallons is enough for all my
potted plants on my upstairs deck. This small habit change means I’m
using over 1,000 gallons a year that previously went down the drain. The book has affected my daily life. Without being made to feel
guilty, I’ve become aware of my water use.
I sincerely doubt I would have had the insight to catch my shower water
if I hadn’t just read The Green Gardeners Guide. L’ampl managed to get
me thinking creatively about the little ways we can change our
gardening styles and save the planet. I guess it’s never too late
to re-learn new green tricks.
The Green Gardener's Guide: Simple, Significant Actions to Protect & Preserve Our Planet
by Joe Lamp'l
Cool Springs Press, 363 pages, $16.95
Buy it from Joe Gardner directly to have it inscribed or order it from a local bookseller in our directory.