There is no doubt about it, water is always on the minds of Torontonians. We live on the coast of beautiful Lake Ontario. The entire province of Ontario is filled with lakes. In fact, Canada is a country dotted with sources of fresh water. So, it is hard to ever imagine a water shortage affecting us. Right? Well, the reality is that as climate changes and draught becomes more prevalent our plentiful water sources are getting lower. As our population rises the high demand for clean water is pushing the cost of water up as well. The average Torontonian uses 253 litres of water per day (toilet, shower, eating, cleaning, etc.) A large portion of this usage in the summer time is water that we use in our outdoor spaces; gardens and lawns. So, while we have plenty of lakes and rivers, all that water still has to be processed and transported to our homes. As the demand increases, the price increases. What does all this mean?
It means that we need to become more conscious of how much water we use and find ways to use it wisely. We've been talking about being water wise with our daughters (you might remember my husband works for a local municipality in the water division). We are trying to focus on our use of water outdoors. The reality is that we have gardens, vegetable gardens that need water. This summer we are trying our best to reuse our household water and tap into any available water we can...here's what we are doing.
Outdoor Rain Barrel
When we moved into our house a few years ago we disconnected our downspouts and set up a rain barrel. A rain barrel collects the rain that would typically run out the downspout and into the grass. While our rain barrel is attached to our downspout, you can even use a rain barrel if you don't have a downspout. We discovered an alternative, it has a large funnel you attach to the rain barrel. The funnel collects the rainfall and directs it into the barrel. A simple solution we saw on an episode of Ask this Old House. The best part is that our rain barrel is so easy to use, that even my daughter can operate it.
My daughter simply pulls the hose from the rain barrel...
She opens the small tap and fills the watering can...and waters the garden.
We have been using our rain barrel for a few weeks now. Unfortunately, it is getting pretty low. Come on rain!
Indoor Water Pitcher
I noticed recently that at the end of the day I was pouring the last dregs of water in people's glasses down the drain. What a waste of water! So, I decided to place an empty pitcher beside the kitchen sink and I asked the family to pour any excess water they had into the pitcher, and not down the drain. You would be amazed how much water we have collected. The ends of water bottles and glasses of water have really added up. What have we been doing with this water? We were watering our seedlings and now we are watering the container plants on our front porch. Even though it's not enough water to take care of all the plants, it certainly does help.
I think that is the point. We are well aware of the fact that we need to use water from our municipality to clean and eat. But, if we can find alternative ways to find water to use in our garden then we are being water wise. We aren't done yet, we are still looking for ways to reduce our water consumption.
How do you water your garden? How has your family reduced your water consumption?
