I am so envious of those of you who have gardens... sigh.

We live in the high desert of AZ and pay for our water. It is never under $20 a month in the Winter and much higher in the Summer. Having been raised all of my and DH's life in the desert, we've really taught our children to be conservative with their water use as well. We use very little water compared to so many...

Note: our bill combines water with sewer.

Sadly, a garden just wouldn't pay for itself here. Because it is so dry, we'd have to water daily.

Can you grow some things inside??? That might help keep the plants from drying out so quickly. How about citrus trees??? Would they draw water from the ground once the roots got deep enough??

__________________
Doing the right thing isn't always the same as doing the easy thing.

Cuthie, is the price of fresh fruit and vegetables high in Arizona? If there was a way for me to ship you some veggies from my garden, and not get bad, I would. Because I know in a month or two my neighbors will be closing their blinds when they see me walking across the road with yet another basket full or fresh veggies for them.

__________________
Chicago Bears!!!!
We are the Bears Shufflin' Crew
Shufflin' on down, doin' it for you.
We're so bad we know we're good.
Blowin' your mind like we knew we would.
You know we're just struttin' for fun
Struttin' our stuff for everyone.
We're not here to start no trouble.
We're just here to do the Super Bowl Shuffle.

Thanks for the offer Polve! Allin, I do some container gardening but mostly herbs and small plants as there are already four of us living in 1400 square feet living area. I may try a tomato plant in a pot outside. That would definitely pay for itself and worth a try.

I remember when we were kids and had a HUGE garden (we lived on property with a well and windmill); we always had an overabundance of everything! I love fresh produce and no, store prices aren't bad at all. It just wouldn't pay for itself for us to grow a garden...

Oh well. It gives me more time to spend on MyCoupons learning about other ways to be frugal!

I remember going to a friend's house that had a hanging tomato plant just outside her back door. She LOVED it! It didn't take up any ground space, and she said it was easy to care for.

I think fresh basil is the secret ingredient of summer! For me, it's the one REAL fresh item I need from a garden, and we always grow ours in a container on the deck. That way, when the wind blows just right, it's a treat to smell, too.

I feel for you, Cuthie. If I could, I'd bring you a hanging tomato plant and a pot of basil for your deck/patio/doorstep.

Ahhhh, can't we all just find a nice neighborhood and all move into the same block?
Can you imagaine what a cool place that would be?

I'd trade you for a $20 water bill. I haven't ever seen one that cheap. Ours runs $75-85 and includes water, sewer and trash pickup. It is projected to go up over $100 in the next couple of years.

I have a well, and I would much rather have city water and sewer.
I buy so much bottled water, its ridiculous. I just cannot get myself to drink well water. Spoiled I guess.

I do have a garden and I love it. We are in Indiana and as you all know, we cannot get the rain to quit so I have not had to water my garden at all so far. Its growing like crazy. My tomatoes are at the top of the cages!!!

I'll trade you for a $20 water bill too -- ours is usually around $40/month (water & sewer). I am in Georgian and we aren't allowed any outside watering except 10 minutes by hand every other day or to fill our Koi pond which was 'grandfathered' since we had the fish before the watering ban went into effect.

Sarah........mom to Jason & Devin

I will also trade water bills with you, Ours is about $50-$60 a month, that includes once a week trash pick up and sewer. We do have a small veggie garden, I have not noticed that the price has increased too much from the watering. So far we are eating strawberries and tomatoes.

__________________
visit my homepage http://penny.mycoupons.com/

$20 is the water portion only -- I wish that was the total! We pay in the $50-60 range on average with sewer plus water.

What some people do to water their gardens is to save the water from canned foods, from boiling eggs and steaming veggies, keep a bucket in the bath/shower to catch "cold" water when waiting for hot. There are some devices you can put on the shower to divert the water that goes down the drain to water the yard. Maybe if you use environmentally friendly soap you can use your dishwater and washing machine water.

It is worth looking into.

Wouldn't it be cheaper to buy water in the store?

__________________
The political system is broke and it's a joke.

Well, the good thing about living in the desert is you can get away with having gravel for your front yard (xeriscaping!), but it can still grow weeds, even when it seems too dry. I keep thinking about trying tomatoes, too. We do have an orange and lemon tree, but I miss serious gardening.

Have you tried a two stage water filter mounted under the kitchen sink?? For years we've used a Brita pitcher, then a faucet mount PUR. When DH gets around to the water filter we're going with the larger filters mounted under the sink. One filter is for chemicals, the other for sediment.

Our water and sewer are also together on our bill. It is $50 a month just for the sewer. Water runs between $20 and $40 a month.

Funny that you mention this... My dad visited me from Oregon and commented that I grow rocks in my yard. Had me laughing. We have black plastic under the lush and beautiful 1/3 acre of gravel -- no weeds. But, yes, lots of *rocks*.