When my husband built our new greenhouse I knew that I would have to come up with a convenient way to water the plants. Eventually I would love to have a rain-barrel that collects water from the gutters (which we don’t have yet either). But until then I simply keep a five gallon bucket in the greenhouse full of water and use it to water the plants.
The greenhouse sits next to our HVAC unit which has a drainage pipe coming from the house that constantly drips water. I thought what a waste of that water. It sure would be nice to be able to use the wasted water, so I decided to place another five gallon bucket under the drainage spout and collect that water (it’s FREE). I don’t know about you but at our house the water bill goes up drastically in the summer when we have to water plants. Collecting this water may not eliminate the increase in the water bill but it will help lower it. I’m amazed at how quickly the bucket fills up.
A friend of my suggested that I use crushed eggshells soaked in water to water my house plants. I have been taking her advise for a couple of months and noticed that the plants have really improved. This gave me the idea to keep crushed egg shells in the watering bucket which stays in the greenhouse and give the new plants a boost. Whenever I have eggshells left from breakfast I simply crush them and add them to the bucket. The eggshells provide calcium to energize the plants (FREE fertilizer). I think they like it a lot! The above tomato plant was started from seed in the middle of February and it looks like it is about to bloom.
What are some of the unique ways that you water and feed your plants?
What a GREAT tip. I am for sure going to try this with the eggshells. I wonder if I could blend them up in the blender…. maybe that would also sharpen my blender blades.
You should link this post up to the Thursday Blog hop that is up on my blog. There are no rules. Just link up. The posts don’t have to be new, just link the post, not your blog.
Terry I think putting them in the blender would work great for getting them really fine. I just pound mine with a canning pestle. I don’t know if it would sharpen blades but that would be a definite plus
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I am going to try it. Thanks for the tip. Next week I will be posting Garden Club Thursday on this blog
http://mygloriousgardenofeden.blogspot.com/
I see you have other garden posts…. hope you link up.
This is such a good idea. We’re in the process of building a new home and will have a real HVAC unit for the first time. I’m anxious to give this a try with adding eggshells to the ‘drip bucket’. Visiting from Terry’s Candida blog!
Hi Becky, This was our first house with HVAC also. I love it and really appreciate being able to recoup a little of the cost by reclaiming the drip water. Good luck on your new home and with your plants.