World Water Day - SDG#6 Part 2
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Welcome back for another episode of 1000 Ways Green. This episode is being released on March 22nd, which is world water day so I’ll be doing part 2 of SDG #6 and talking more about things we can do to help save our future selves from our current and growing water crisis. First I want you to think back to your childhood, picture yourself putting on your swimsuit, grabbing a towel and going to your local swimming pool to meet your friends to have an amazing day. If you’re having kids today they might be walking down to a big, open and empty cement hole in the ground if the current cost of water keeps climbing at the rate we are using and wasting water. Want to save future kids' pool days? Listen to this week’s 3 things:
Mint Green Challenge: Let your grass grow longer. Whatever your setting on your lawnmower is at, bump it up one notch. Make it a little higher and it will gain you two wins. 1. You won’t need to mow as often and 2. When you get less rain this will protect your lawn from drying out and you won’t need to water it as much. I moved my lawnmower up to the 5th of the 6 settings and watched my lawn stay green for almost 6 weeks before the lack of rain was causing it to start to die. One of my neighbors needed to use their sprinkler multiple times a week and the other had dead grass within 2 weeks. If you do insist on watering your lawn, at least invest in a Smart Sprinkler system so it knows when rain is coming and only waters your lawn when it’ll be dry for a while.
Shamrock Green Challenge: Ensure that WATERever plants you have growing at your place, be it in a garden, houseplant or outdoor landscaping are ones that don’t require much water. These lists will vary quite a bit based on where you live but a quick search should give you a few good options. If you’re planting outside and you pick plants that are native to your area you likely won’t need to water them at all as they evolved in that area and should be good to go on the natural amount of rain received.
Forest Green Challenge: Start collecting rain when it falls from the sky! This could be as easy as putting a tub or bucket outside (kind of like how I talked about last episode) and then using that to water your plants/garden/dry spots in your lawn but that won’t get you as far as the second option. That second option is to use a rain barrel collection system to collect rain directly from your gutters if you’re in a home. I’m super excited to try this out. I found a free rain barrel on Craigslist last fall and bought the Oatley Mystic Rain Water collection system to go with it. I was hoping to have it set up by the time I was recording this episode but unfortunately it has been too snowy and cold here in Minnesota for me to do so yet. I’ll try to get back to you about how it works once I’m able to install it. Regardless I’m planning on using it for all of our outdoor water needs this year.
That’s it for this week, until next time, be green and be seen.
Links from the episode: