KOCHI: World Water Day, a day dedicated to focusing attention on the importance of water, has just gone by.Scary statistics made it to news headlines like how Bengaluru is going to go the Cape Town way if we don’t take preventive action NOW! All of us got to enjoy a bumper crop of water-saving tips: close taps, fix leaks, wash cars with minimum water, ask for water refills in restaurants only if you need it and so on.
But do small drops of caution and care really matter in an ocean-sized problem? I’m not a statistician, but truly believe in the poem written by J A Carney in 1845, about little drops of water and tiny grains of sand making up the mighty ocean. And so, we must save those precious drops.
My most enduring memory of water saving is of my arthritic grandmother walking across the street to feed the neem sapling with the water saved from washing the rice. I’ve tried to follow in her footsteps literally. Let me explain:
“Tell me about your daily routine,” said the doctor whom I was consulting for an annual check-up. When I added gardening to my recitation, she interrupted. “You do everything in the garden yourself or just water the plants?”“Everything,” I said proudly, conveniently leaving out the size of the garden – three tiny balconies. She approved of this active gardening. The water from washing vegetables and rice is saved and used to water my plants. Like my grandmother, I walk all the way to the plants..um well, just a few steps away from the kitchen.
Here’s how some other hobby gardeners make the watering routine more challenging:
l Blitz vegetable waste in the mixer, dilute it with kitchen grey water, and use it to water the plants. (I don’t do this. There are many contrary views about this process. If food waste is not composted, it may carry the risk of increasing harmful bacteria and fungi to the soil.)
l Use small spray cans instead of large mugs to water small plants to avoid spillage. Make a spray can by recycling pet bottles. l Stick a bottle of water with a hole in the lid into each of your pots that don’t need too much water.The roots will draw as much water as they want. Especially useful when you there is no one to water the plants for a couple of days. Also useful if you don’t want to earn the wrath of the downstairs neighbour on whose space you often accidentally pour water. l With just a little water, it is possible to have a decent set of plants that can give one a lot ofpleasure.
When you water right, plants generally do well. Then you can sit back and have a drink made with home-grown ingredients such as tulasi kashaya in winter, blue butterfly pea tea and passion fruit juice in summer. Blue tea is said to be full of goodness, and it is so easy to make. Add boiling water to fresh or dried butterfly pea (shankhapushpam) flowers. Let it steep for a few minutes. When the water turns blue, decant, add a dash of honey, and sip sip sip.Cheers!