Watering the Garden

[Guest guest]

Water Conservation and Gardening for the 21st Century

- Subverting the Dominant Plumbing Paradigm

By Alanna Moore 31/12/2006

 

With rainfall in many parts of Australia down to about half the expected

average, we need to take on some serious behavioural changes if we want to

survive the 21st century. Not using water wastefully, conserving it and

saving it to use for a higher good, is something that we can all do in our

own homes.

 

The days of hosing concrete clean with drinking grade water are over. (In

many regions with water restrictions - you would now be breaking the law to

do this.) That may be an extreme example. I reckon that a majority of people

are wasting criminal amounts of water down the drain every single day in

their homes, without much of a thought. I'm referring to the inappropriate

technology of the flush toilet. It's sooo the last two millenia!

 

The ancient Romans supposedly advanced civilisation with their attention to

sanitation. They may have been a whizz at plumbing, but it was plumbing that

did them in too. Drinking water out of lead pipes saw to that.

 

Here, in the driest of continents, we are throwing away vast quantities of

fresh water, our most precious resource, with techniques suited to less arid

areas, just because we are expected to 'flush and forget' about it. And

there's something else being lost that people find a subject too delicate to

air. But I'd like to yell it from the top of every soapbox:

 

" Wee will Fertilise!! "

 

If you are a gardener you'll know that soil needs regularly feeding,

particularly if intensive food production is the goal. The production and

long haul transport of commercially bought fertiliser usually involves a

high degree of unsustainability. As an ethical gardener you might ask -

where is the most sustainable source of nitrogen to use on plants?

 

Well, search no longer. Just stop flushing your urine down the toilet and

pee in a special bucket instead (ideally with a lid and spout). You can also

chuck in the soupy washing up water, left in the basin you keep in the sink.

(Go easy on soaps and detergents, choose brands wisely.) And add the water

that you collected while waiting for the hot shower water to come through.

Not to mention topping it all up with some rain water from your tank.

Collecting garden water shouldn't be seen as extra work, more - an Earth

citizen's sacred duty!

 

By evening you would have collected a wicked brew to pep up your plants

with. Water it around the root zones, trying to avoid getting it on leaves.

Vegetables, in particular, will love it! Potatoes will go berserk! So will

onions, peppers, celery and carrots, and anything else that loves a good

dose of potassium, phosphorus and all the other juicy minerals that come

with the urine.

 

A dilution of up to five parts water to one of urine can be used, although

native plants may well prefer it weaker (certainly they tend to be touchy

about phosphorus). Try not to splash it on any leaves or vegetables that you

are about to eat. Little seedlings would prefer to be watered with a weaker,

say, 10:1 dilution. Always use your brew fairly fresh or it will start to

pong. And give plants this weak urine solution often, daily should be okay,

for instant green thumbs!

 

It is estimated that the average adult produces enough nitrogen in their

urine to fertilise around 300m2 of garden (applied at the annual rate of

70kg of nitrogen per acre/0.4ha.) So this is both a good financial saving,

compared to buying in fertiliser, as well as an environmental win.

 

Another great way to use urine is to compost it first. You can regularly

drench your compost heap with it, sprinkling it in a dilute form. Another

method is to half fill a 20lt bucket with sawdust for your wee bucket. When

it's damp and starting to smell, tip it all onto your compost heap and

spread it around as a thin layer, ideally. If you have a lot of materials

that are slow to break down (bundles of weeds, shredded paper or cardboard,

straw etc - all rich in carbon) - this brew will really give the composting

process a kick start! Sawdust itself is normally very slow to break down,

unless a good source of nitrogen is present.

 

Is it safe?

Pathogen levels in urine are generally negligible, certainly when compared

to faeces. Urine is even consumed by people doing urine therapy or when lost

in the desert, so it can't be too bad. (Harold Tietze, in Bermagui, NSW, has

written popular books on the subject of urine therapy.)

 

However in terms of local planning laws, it's a bit of a grey area (as are

many other 'new' ideas at first viewed with suspicion). So it's best to

avoid discussing using urine with environmental health inspectors. Ten years

ago, when I was employed by a local council to teach compost making, we

always waited until the council people were out of earshot before discussing

the benefits of urine in compost. Maybe things have changed by now, but I

doubt it. (One day the authorities will catch up with the grassroots home

environmentalists. Perhaps this will be when all the old style engineers

have become fully fossilised!)

 

Who else doesn't like your urine?

Worms in worm farms and vermicompost heaps really don't like to take a

'golden shower' and dry compost toilets are preferably kept urine free too.

By separating the urine and using it in a positive way - it's a win-win

solution to tackling environmental abuse!

 

However people who are sick (eg with urinary tract infection) or taking

medications may not want to use their urine, in case of unwanted

side-effects. But if they compost it first, this shouldn't be a problem, as

any pathogens will be broken down in the process.

 

Because of its high salt and acid loads, undiluted urine can burn and kill

the leaves of your plants. (This is why there is a country tradition of men

weeing underneath the lemon tree, not on it.) This deadly attribute can be

used to advantage to get rid of weeds, if you spray urine onto their leaves

several times, and ideally doing it on hot, sunny days.

 

And full strength urine can be sprayed on fruit trees when they are dormant,

to protect against mildew, apple scab and fungal diseases.

 

Urine is also a good deterrent against marauding deer, I've read. (Has

anyone tried this for native Australian animals, I wonder?) A few pails of

urine placed in corners and the middle of the garden does the trick,

apparently.

 

Apart from them, your garden will love you, and Mother Earth too, if you

always remember that - " Wee will fertilise! "

 

References:

'Urine in the Garden' by Alanna Moore, in 'Permaculture Volume Two - The

Best of PAWA', Candlelight Trust, WA, 2002.

The Australian Organic Gardener's Handbook' by Keith Smith, Lothian, 1993.

'Gardening without Poisons' by Beatrice Trum Hunter, Berkeley, USA, 1964.

 

This is an extract from Alanna Moore's forthcoming book - 'The Wisdom of

Water', Python Press. Information at www.geomantica.com

[Guest guest]

I personally much prefer a bath to a shower, and NO a bath does not use more

water. When I lived in the Far North of Qld we had to survive on tank water

alone, no such luxury as town water there. Well we had a bath every evening

with me having my bath first, then my 2 sons in the same water, followed by

hubby. I then would bucket the water out of the bath and use it to water the

vegies and trees in the garden.

 

To me a shower is incredibly WASTEFUL with water as where does the water go

while you are enjoying that lovely flowing water?? Straight down the drain

and into the sewers!! No water re-use or saving there, unlike the bath

water which can be re-used to wash the car, clean the concrete, or water the

garden!!

It is a BATH for me every time!!

 

My washing machine was a hoover twin tub and I would always wash 2 loads of

clothes in the one tub full before changing the water and would then pump

the water out onto my garden. Water conservation was a high priority at all

times and we had to conserve it in any way possible.

 

huggs

Lyndall

 

Our right to own our pets is in danger

- if you care, take a stand before you

have nothing left to fight for.

 

 

-

" Jane MacRoss " <HIGHFIELD

 

Monday, January 22, 2007 4:38 PM

Watering the Garden

 

 

Water Conservation and Gardening for the 21st Century

- Subverting the Dominant Plumbing Paradigm

By Alanna Moore 31/12/2006

 

And add the water that you collected while waiting for the hot shower water

to come through.