Did you know that by making some simple changes you could use about 30% less water, help conserve a life sustaining resource and save yourself some money at the same time.
When we built our new home this past spring, we made sure to make some simple changes to our home. First of all we installed low flow shower heads and low volume flush toilets. We’ve started to try and conserve our water consumption by not letting the water run needlessly; like when we’re brushing our teeth. The other thing I did not realize is that I didn’t need to wait until my dishwasher was full to run it. It’s actually more efficient to run a part load because we have the Energy Star appliance that is more water efficient. I would waste more water hand washing and rinsing dishes than throwing a small load through my dishwasher.
What about outside our homes. For many homeowners a beautiful lawn is important and many of us consume unnecessary amounts of water to keep it this way. In many regions only 2 to 3 centimeters of water a week is necessary to keep your grass healthy. They say if you keep a tuna can outside, and if the rain fills it to the brim each week, you don’t need to water at all. Some ways to reduce evaporation is to leave your grass 7 to 8 centimeters long, water early in the morning and leave some lawn clippings in place after mowing.
Whatever you do, please try not to use pesticides or insecticides on your lawn! It seems funny to me that in the effort of trying to achieve a green lawn, people end up making their yards anything but Green! See the following link to learn more about the six step plan to an organic lawn http://www.organicgardening.com/pdf/lawns_trifold.pdf
Heather Harris
Tags: beautiful lawn, conserve water, energy star, green lawn, low flow shower heads, low volume toilets, organic lawn, pesticides, reduce evapouration, resource, save money
March 4, 2009 at 8:04 pm
I’ve been thinking about my lawn and water conservation a lot, too. I think we are going to let it die this summer and replace it with something else. Water is becoming scarce here in CA.