Earlier in the summer, I discussed how we planned on saving most of our kitchen waste water for watering the garden. We have 2 rain barrels that fill in spring from roof run-off. We use this water exclusively for watering food-producing plants. By mid-July, both rain barrels have been emptied, and in past years we've mostly used municipal water for the garden. (We've saved some water from the kitchen, but not a big effort before this year.)
This year I came up with a workable plan for using the kitchen waste water. I put a 5-gallon bucket just outside the kitchen door and started using a plastic dish pan for rinsing produce, to catch hand-washing water, and for rinsing basically clean kitchen tools (like measuring cups) that I plan on reusing shortly. My plan was to dump the plastic dishpan into the bucket on the deck, which I would later empty into the nearest rain barrel for watering at a later time. Early in the implementation of the plan, I did all of the above. As time progressed, I often found it just easier to water parts of the garden directly from the dish pan or large bucket. However, we still poured this water into the rain barrel when I didn't have a need to water any of the garden.
Anyway, I seem to have gotten the whole family on board with this plan to salvage waste water, and we've all done our share to wash hands or rinse vegetables over or in the dish pan. We've also used the not-as-clean water from washing a pot or pan or cooled bean-cooking water directly on a couple of fruit trees just outside the kitchen instead of using municipal water for shrubbery and trees. (We normally have to set a hose on our trees once or twice per summer as our summers here are quite dry.) In addition, I've urged everyone in the house to take much, much shorter showers. A couple of us have been taking navy showers. Your standard 10-minute shower can use as much as 60 gallons of water, whereas a navy shower done right can use as little as 3 gallons. (Unfamiliar with a navy shower? Basically, you get your body wet as soon as you turn the water on, then turn the water off while you soap up. Finally, you turn the water on just long enough to rinse the soap off. It's easier to do in the heat of summer when I don't mind a cold shower.)
Even with saving as much water as we could, I did still need to use municipal water for the garden on many days.
So here's what I've been waiting for, some sort of confirmation that our efforts have been making a difference. I received the bi-monthly water bill that covered mid-June through mid-August on Monday. And . . . we did save water! Our usage was greater than the previous 2-month period (mid-April through mid-May), but that was to be expected as we never need to water the garden in that earlier time period. But, in comparing this same time period between this year and last year, we shaved about 20% off of our water usage this year. We still have another couple of weeks where our garden will need regular watering. But the days are getting shorter and slightly cooler, meaning the garden will need less watering as we move closer to September. We will continue with water-saving methods, with hopes of receiving a water bill for the next cycle that doesn't make me feel sick to my stomach.
