by Dave Riley
The problem of drought and carbon emissions made me want to experiment with a few urban possibilities. So at home I found ways to conserve and recycle water. The problem with recycling is that you have to create a use for the second water usage --so I started back growing plants. Initially I grew culinary herbs in pots and then a bona fide vegetable garden.
This slideshow below is a record so far of the exercise.
I called it "Little Cuba" as I wanted to monitor how the sort of greening that is taking over Havanna and other Cuban towns could pan out in a local context. Of course this isn't a product of state facilitation as is the case in Cuba. This is just lifestylist experimentation -- but the key element I think, is that the water that fed the greening was recycled from domestic other usages in kitchens, bathrooms and the like --and even without the use, so far anyway, of water from roof run off.
Appropos of earlier discussions here about water conservation, it becomes self evident very quickly that water containment within the confines of one domestic residence is a rather narrow and schematic agenda and that we would need to consider local community pondage catchment systems if we were to aggressively tap into the potential of such resources. And if you 'caught' it --what would you do with it? There's a brutal logic, you see....
That if you wanted to go green, doing it alone would be the least efficient way of proceeding.
Since I live in a region prone to waterholes -- being the adjunct to a major urban wetland -- the logic of the option and the problems it presents become apparent.
Needless to say, I am also working on the pond issue....and have one of those underway.
