Collection: Water Conservation

Water Saving Products for Home and Garden

Wool holds up to thirty times its own weight in water, which is the whole idea behind organic wool garden pellets. Work a pound into every 10 to 20 square feet of bed, two to four inches down, and the soil itself becomes the reservoir between waterings. The 5 lb bag covers 50 to 100 square feet for a season, enough for containers and a small plot; the 10 lb bag is sized for a whole home garden. The pellets are 100% Canadian wool, EcoCert certified organic, and break down into roughly a 9-0-2 fertilizer. The other water saving products here work the two remaining angles: getting water to the roots, and cleaning what comes out of the tap.

Put the Water Under the Plant

The double-wall soaker hose weeps evenly end to end, wetting about 12 inches on either side of the line, which the manufacturer rates at up to 90% less water than conventional hoses and sprinklers. Lay it under mulch or bury it 2 to 6 inches deep, and open the faucet a quarter turn. Buy it by the row: the 25 ft flows 1.9 GPM at 62 PSI, the 50 ft 3.1 GPM, and runs chain up to 500 feet. Both are USA-made from recycled tires, with double-thick walls that kill the geyser effect and a lifetime guarantee. Around a young tree, the Tree Ring Soaker Hose loops the root ball for the same claimed reduction: a 5 foot ring for a new sapling, 10 feet for a wider planting.

Oya Clay Watering Vessel: A porous clay olla, buried in the bed and topped up every few days. Roots grow toward the clay and take only what they need; the maker reports up to 70% less garden watering, as little as once a week. Size it to the ground it covers: the Small holds 1.1 quarts and waters about 2 feet across, right for patio pots and 5 to 15 gallon grow bags; the Medium holds 3.2 quarts, waters 3 feet, and two cover a 3 by 6 foot bed.

Oya Clay Watering Spike: The container version, a 16 oz clay reservoir 7.5 inches tall that extends a potted plant's supply by up to 7 days. Built for pots 8 to 18 inches across, sold singly or as a two-pack. Not for succulents or cacti.

The vertical-planter watering system plumbs a 5-tier or 7-tier tower to a hose spigot and takes whatever timer you own.

Read the Soil Before You Reach for the Hose

The indoor soil moisture meter needs no batteries. A 4.25 inch probe reads conductivity at root level on a 1 to 10 dial, and the guide covers 170 plant types: a geranium is content at 1, a fern wants 6.

Hoses You Could Drink From

The three drinking-water-safe hoses, the slim 7/16 inch, the standard 5/8 inch and the self-storing coil, are made in the USA from UV-stabilized polyurethane meeting FDA and NSF standards: lead-free, phthalate-free, PVC-free, BPA-free. The slim and coil are Oregon-built. Bore decides which one: the slim weighs 3 lbs per 50 ft and flows 4 GPM, easy to haul around a patio garden; the standard flows 9 GPM at 6 lbs per 50 ft for full-pressure work. Both run from 25 up to 100 feet. The coil, 3/8 inch inside diameter, stores itself but stretches to about 80% of its stated length. The Premium Polyurethane Soaker Hose puts that material into weeping form in a 100 foot run: 0.75 GPM at 5 PSI, 2.0 GPM at 25 PSI, so faucet pressure decides whether it seeps or sprays.

Cleaner Water at the Kitchen Tap

The patented 10-stage countertop filtration system threads onto a standard kitchen faucet in minutes, though not a sprayer faucet. One cartridge treats up to 1,500 gallons, which the manufacturer puts at a year for a family of four. It takes out chlorine, lead, mercury, inorganic arsenic, pesticides and trihalomethanes while leaving magnesium and potassium.