Saturday, July 07, 2007

Water conservation.




For a few months this year the rain water I collected during the Spring period provided enough moisture to keep everything alive. The water collected in the ´chacca´ or small swimming / plunge pool which was originally part of the agricultural water system on the farm which predates the house. The pool was renovated by us and seems pretty water tight now. I read advice on the Internet that water cress added to any standing water would help to avoid algae build up. The watercress helped for a couple of weeks but then the hot Spanish sun burned it up and the watercress joined other failures on the compost heap. If we get sufficient rain next year I will try the cress earlier in the season though I don´t think it will ever make the salad drawer in the refrigerator.

4 comments:

  1. Have you tried adding guppies, or is this to be drinking water???

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  2. The pool or 'chaka' is only for agricultural use. Unfortunatly the water is used up quite quickly...probably faster than I could teach the guppies to walk! Long term we might put a pond in though there is a problem in that we are surrounded be heron colonies and cats.

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  3. Anonymous8:45 pm

    whats the second pic

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  4. Water cress it provided an accelerator for the compost heap but the heat eventually killed it off!

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