“Use what you have” is a key frugal philosophy, and one I try to incorporate as much as possible into my life.
As most of you know, I have some lovely planter boxes that line my two porches. They are one of my luxuries! I just adore walking up to my house and seeing the profusion of flowers.
But those dang things need to be watered. Frequently. As in every other day. The boxes sit on the porch railings, but are covered by the eves so even if it rains they don’t get watered.
Now water is not terribly expensive where I am~there is no water shortage in Upstate NY~but heck, rainwater is free. So when the boxes needed watering and it began to rain the other day I thought “heck, why not just take the planters down and set them on the porch steps to get rained on.”
Voila! It worked. Not only did the planters get watered, but the kiddos came out while I was moving the boxes around and decided to have some rainy day fun. They got drenched to the bone but had a fantastic time for about 45 minutes!
A gray rainy day in Upstate NY
Here are the planter boxes on the stairs getting watered.
The planter brackets look so sad & naked w/out the flower boxes in them.
The kiddos playing in the rain. Really-I wasn't making them do pushups.
We have severe water problems where I live (Mohawk Valley). We have two sump pumps running constantly– rain or no rain– in our basement to keep the water out.
But we made lemonade out of our lemons a few years ago during a summertime dry spell. We rigged our sump pipes all the way to our veggie garden, and poked holes in the flexible pipes. When the sump pumps turned on, it watered our garden; a homemade irrigation system!
Now that is innovative! Great idea!
Personally I’ve been wanting to try a rainbarrel as well, but I haven’t found a plastic drum that was foodsafe and am too cheap to buy one unless I know I’ll use it. . .
I have been doing this same thing with our tomato plants. Great frugal job!
Water in our little town is very expensive, even though the township finds it ok to water the sidewalks with sprinklers and the fire department thinks it’s ok to wash every truck at least once a week along with all personal vehicals. OK, I’m hopping off my soapbox.
You’re kids look like they’re having a blast in the rain!
I have buckets under the eves of my house catching rain water for my flowers. I do have to go around with my watering can, after filling it up with the water, but it’s only in areas where my drip hose doesn’t reach. I put a drop of cooking oil on top of the water to ward off mosquitos. The flower pots on my deck seem to need way too much water, keeping me running from there to my kitchen sink. I must find a better way of doing that.
Also, my husband is going to develop a system of guttersand rain barrel for in the front, so I won’t even have to use the drip hose and spend $$$$$ on water.
The kids were having a fantastic time in the rain-it was the perfect combination of rain and yet warm weather!
Joyce-wow, those are some fantastic ideas! I have really been wanting to try a water barrel. The cooking oil idea is fantastic. You really only need a drop?
I have a cousin who used to get her kids to wash the car early on in the storm. They would run out, soap it up and let the rain water just rinse the car. And the kids had a lot of good, clean fun playing too.