You are not alone! I used to struggle to remember to water the plants in our home. For a long time I thought our houseplants survived by magic until I realised my husband was watering them. I’m a cactus and orchid kind of person – they don’t like being watered too often which is perfect for me! However I’ve discovered a way that I can remember to water the plants with ease. I don’t have to set myself any reminders and I don’t need a set routine to remember to do it. This is because I have started watering them with waste water!

How reducing waste can jog your memory and help keep your plants watered!

After most meals in our house there are half drunk glasses of water on the table. So instead of just pouring the water down the sink like we used to, we water the plants instead! It has become part of our tidying up routine and is a daily prompt to think about watering the plants.

If the indoor plants aren’t looking too thirsty I pour the water on the outside ones. We also water the plants with any leftover water from reusable water bottles that we have brought home at the end of the day.

What else can you water plants with?

You can also water the plants with tea, coffee, sugar free carbonated drinks and cooking water. You do need to make sure that anything you water them with is salt, milk and sugar free as that could harm the plant.

Can you water plants with leftover/ spoiled wine, beer or spirits?

It is not a good idea to pour wine or beer on your plants because they are too sugary. If the wine is spoiled and has turned to vinegar, the vinegar is also bad for your plants. Diluted spirits can be added to plants, but may stunt their growth! All in all, it is probably best to keep alcoholic beverages away from your plants!

Use up excess / leftover alcohol instead! If you have some leftover Amaretto for example, you could try some of these ideas: 5 ways to use up your amaretto (this only applies to those who are of a legal drinking age and only ever drink in moderation )

Make sure you avoid over watering!

The only problem we have now is trying to make sure we don’t over water our houseplants! Too much water can kill a plant, just as much as not enough can.

So next time you find a table scattered with half drunk glasses of water or other suitable drinks at the end of a meal, get watering those houseplants!

If you liked this post, you might also like to read about how to reduce your food waste !

The post A zero waste way to remember to water plants! appeared first on Eco Thrifty Living.

We first heard about them at the Eco Technology Show in Brighton earlier on in year, where the designer (who happens to be local) was exhibiting. When we saw it we both thought it had a lot of potential. So what is the Waterblade? It is a little adapter that fits on your existing tap and changes the usual flow of water to a thin flat sheet, which is slightly thicker at the edges. It works with greatly reduced water pressure compared to a standard tap and uses far less water.

It isn’t practical where you need fast flowing water e.g. in the bath, but it is perfect for a bathroom or toilet sink tap and our kids find it lots of fun!

I was really impressed how easy it was to fit, less than 10 minutes after I took the Waterblade out of the bag it was fitted to the bathroom tap. You do need isolation valves on the hot and cold feed to the tap and that’s the where the savings are had – the taps are virtually turned off and you can still wash your hands well.

According to Waterblade it can save you over 13,000 litres a year compared to a normal tap, that’s a lot of water and if you are on a water meter it can pay for itself many times over in the first year. Yes it will easily pay for itself within the first year. So whether you are eco and want to save water or thrifty and want to save money its worth looking into this product!

The post We’ve just got our hands on a fun new water saving gadget! appeared first on Eco Thrifty Living.

Rain is a natural way of watering the plants and if you can store it and get it where you need easily then it is better for the environment, better for your plants and if you’re on a water meter, better on your wallet.

When we moved into our current house we had 1x 100 litre water butt which didn’t last 5 minutes, I then added a 220 litre butt next to it, a year later I added another to another down pipe but they were all on the wrong side of the house, I was spending too much time carrying watering can after watering can from where the water butts were to where we grow our vegetables.

What I really needed was the water butts near our vegetables, unfortunately there are no downpipes to fill the water butts with there so I looked at other options. If I couldn’t fill a water butt from the roof water then I needed another way of filling the water butt. I found that there are loads of submersible garden pumps and some are even geared up for use in water butts

I looked around at pumps and decided to go with this one which can pump the water from one water butt to another. It was £50 but will save me a lot of time every evening in the summer and also allows me to use a hose instead of a watering can as there is plenty of pressure for that. Since then I have used it to wash my solar panels (look out for the blog post on that coming soon) and if I wanted to, it could be used to wash my car with rain water. All in all quite a versatile pump.

Now I have 1 big water butt in my veg garden which I refill from my other water butts when its running low, it takes 10-20 mins to fill it up from the other water butts but I don’t have to do anything. The pump turns off when the water runs out as it has a floating cut out.

If you’re growing things in your garden that need regular watering, where are you getting the water from, would it be easier for you to have the water next to where you use it? If so water butts and a pump may be the way to go!

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