Caring for God’s Earth – Save Every Drop!

Eco Church

The continuing dry weather is causing problems in the garden. On our clay soil the ground has gone rock hard, which does at least seal in whatever moisture is present, while others with lighter soil are seeing plants wilt unless watered very regularly. Water is a major issue in many parts of the world, with catastrophic floods in Bangladesh and Australia, and desperate droughts in parts of Africa. Even in Norfolk there are problems: water is abstracted from the underlying chalk aquifers to irrigate crops such as potatoes and lettuces; this in turn is drying out precious fen wetlands which are vital refuges for wildlife such as Swallowtail butterflies, Fen Orchids and other rare species found only in the Broads. While it either rains or it doesn’t, we can be careful over the amount of water we use. Not just having a shower rather than a bath and installing a dual flush toilet system but we can use water butts to collect rainwater for the garden, or even washing hair or woollens in freshly collected rain water, when you can get it, which is much ‘softer’ than the ‘hard’ water that comes out of the tap! We can also use ‘grey water’, which has already been used for washing or washing up, to water plants, and collect that which is usually discarded when waiting for the hot water to come through, to use similarly. We can do our bit to help conserve our water supplies.