h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Gee, Hypatia, didn't the water come out soapy? Did your plants mind? And why didn't the car wash owner object? The reason car washes are permitted to operate in a drought is because they are supposed to recycle the water. Maybe you threw them an extra fiver to look the other way?

, too many questions.

I much enjoyed the article despite the thievery.

I went in the do-it-yourself stall and put it on rinse. And I paid for that water, thank you very much. Thievery, indeed.

Actually soapy water is good for plants - it gets rid of mealy bugs and aphids and probably other tiny critters. The soap suffocates them. Just use dish detergent and make a soapy solution and mist it on your house plants if you see bugs. Or you can take them to the sink and dab the soapy water on the leaves with a sponge or rag.

Ah, well then... never mind.

You really collected water from the car wash? What a great idea!

Thankyou for reminding me of Dogwoods - I had them down as a Christmas present idea for someone and had forgotten. They have a red stemmed one. I was thinking of an orange one to go with it.

If you have plants that don't mind a little soap, and a washer at groud level or above, you can siphon out your laundry water just before the rinse cycle ends and turns to spin. Stop the wash by lifting the lid. Put a (clean!) garden hose in the washer, turn the water on outside until you see all the air bubbles (if any) come out in the washer barrel, then turn the water off and unscrew at the outside bib. Once the flow has reduced to slow enough that you can't stand it anymore, you can take the hose out and close the lid.

Some edibles sometimes came up tasting odd, so I mostly used this for tomatoes, citrus, and ornamentals.

When the drought was really bad I recycled my bath water and started washing dishes in a dish pan so I could use the dish water on my plants. And I put barrels beneath the drain spouts to collect rain water as a matter of course. That's a habit I got from my grandmother. She collected rainwater to use to rinse her hair. I put it on my house plants and on the veggies during the summer.