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Health & Fitness

Reduce, Re-use, Recycle (Water?)

Roll out the barrels to recycle rainwater for your garden.

Finally, it's the unofficial start of summer and time to enjoy the outdoors.  It's been a long time coming. Working in the yard is great this time of year, but keeping it pretty takes a lot of water. Yep water. Pumping and treating that water for our homes uses a whole lot of energy. It also gets more and more costly all the time.  Did you know that a simple ten minute shower takes 25 to 50 gallons of water?

There are some simple ways to conserve water though. 

Inside: Don't leave water running while brushing your teeth or washing your dishes and run your clothes and dishwashers only when they are full. 

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Outside: Deep soak your lawn two or three times a week rather than a little every day (this gives a deeper root system for drought periods and uses less water). 

Here's a good one: Sweep your porch, sidewalks and driveway rather than hosing them off (it's better exercise too!).  There are plenty more ideas for easy water conservation for sure.  What are  some more easy ones? We all know that if it isn't at least fairly quick and easy we won't stick with it. Send us your ideas!

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These days it's all about recycling everything we can, right? So if we recycle aluminum, plastics and paper, why not  water too?  Rain barrels are the best solution to recycling water for your garden and landscape.  They hold 50 gallons of FREE rain water which your plants will like much better because of  all the good stuff it has compared to tap water.  The concept and use of them is very easy.  According to Jessica of Robinson's Rain Barrels, during a one-inch rainfall a person could collect 500 gallons  of rainwater in a very short period of time (using 10 barrels of course).  And their barrels are all made of recycled materials with a wide variety of decorative choices to go with your lovely landscape.

So, if we all do a little, a lot can get done, right?  Is this how you could do a little?

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