Blog Update!
For those of you not following me on Facebook, as of the Summer of 2019 I've moved to Central WA, to a tiny mountain town of less than 1,000 people.

I will be covering my exploits here in the Cascades, as I try to further reduce my impact on the environment. With the same attitude, just at a higher altitude!

Saturday, June 21, 2008

Celebrate Summer!

Golden Showers Garden PartyWhat better way to celebrate the first day of summer than to feel more at one with the rest of the animal kingdom? And what better way to do that than to mark your territory and spread some liquid gold?

That's right, people, today is the day (if you haven't started already) to help fertilize your plants with some all natural nitrogen and phosphorus rich urine! Stop buying that expensive Miracle Gro when you have your very own Miracle Flo! No petroleum or packaging needed.

It's not too late to sign up and be one with Mother Nature.

P.S. On behalf of myself and those who have already tried this, I must warn you that, once you enter the Liquid Gold Lovers Club, you will find that it is totally addicting. No hangover, shakes or brain damage required.

36 comments:

Anonymous said...

YES! I'm doing it! Bucket is nearly halfway full!!

Anonymous said...

Wow, this is pretty interesting. This really works? Either will have to do some research and find out. Makes sense though. Thanks for pointing out.

Peak Oil Hausfrau said...

The book Liquid Gold says it does work and has research and pictures to prove it!

It's surprising how much LG comes out in one day! :)

Is anyone planning on doing an experiment with fertilizing some plants with the LG but not others, to compare how well they grow? Over the rest of the summer, I mean. (My garden is too small for good comparisons) I'd be interested to know!

Robj98168 said...

Burien Kid checking in- flowing like a river down here! Met some new friends today too! Remember not to fill the buckets too full- you still have to get them down the hall to outside!

Anonymous said...

I don't know why this has captured my imagination so - but it has!

Our community garden is supposed to be organic - and there is a member who uses miracle gro - and we are trying to gently persuade her that even though her plants "look" great - chemical fertilizers for plants are like junk food for children.

Because the garden is new - second year - and the soil is heavy, thick, clay, it will be some time before our sustainable processes will be visible. So I guess this practice makes me feel encouraged to continue to do my part to reduce our reliance on commercial fertilizer.

Plus it is really fun peeing in a jar.

Anonymous said...

Think my landlord would mind if I went out and "took care" of the landscaping in the front of our building? ;-)

Unknown said...

i've been doing it intermittently. i need a better catchment strategy.

i can't get my guy friends to pee in the bucket or garden, though. thppt. when we had the raccoons, i begged and they looked at me as if i were ready for the psych ward. thppt.

Connie said...

Yes, I have been practicing in private but I used this day to mention it to hubby over breakfast toast.

He did raise an eyebrow and shake his head but his only words were that he was better equiped for the project.

You'd think he'd wonder why there was a bucket in the bathroom but this is where one might make the comment that guys can be dense...but might not so as not to offend any sensative guy.

Mist said...

The liquid gold has been flowing here all day. We're not doing the bucket thing because my husband would FREAK at pee sitting around all day, but I've been taking my LG and the twins' out, diluted, throughout the day.

Grow baby, grow!

Anonymous said...

hausfrau, I teach botany and you've come up with a great experiment for my high schoolers!

I can see the headlines now: Tenured Teacher Fired for Encouraging Kids to Pee in Greenhouse!

Anonymous said...

I gave our garden some liquid love this morning. Husband didn't even protest. And to think, I didn't even know today was THE day. What great luck. I'm expecting at least a foot of growth by tomorrow...

Anonymous said...

I started this morning. My husband raised an eyebrow, but what the heck! Once I reminded him of the cost of fertilizer, and the cost of gas to get it, his eyebrow went back down.

The funny thing is, I'm peeing in a jar, and using cloth wipes. Why do i still go downstairs to the toilet? Seems like an extra trip for nothing. ;-)

Spot-On said...

count me in!!! It was 109 degrees here in southern california yesterday, think my plants need all the help they can get!

Leila Abu-Saba said...

Jar? Bucket? I pee in a cup every two weeks for the benefit of my oncology nurses, so I'm an expert markswoman. But I ain't carrying no pee buckets through my kitchen to the backyard.

Let's just say that we have a very, very private back yard. And too many raccoons, so anything to scare them off. My experiment is intended more to save flush water. Drought emergency here and we're supposed to be cutting back by 19%.

Theresa said...

Hee hee! The husband made his contribution last week and it's my turn today! Happy Solstice everyone!

Anonymous said...

it's an odd feeling to go into your bathroom, fill your collection chamber of choice, deposit your cloth tp in the basket and leave the room (after washing your hands of course!)without the familiar woosh of water cascading out of the bowl. it's a silence i can live with.

Connie said...

He he, one of the things I love about this house is that there is a laundry bathroom with toilet and deep sink off the garden.

So, no carrying that sterile liquid gold through the kitchen!

Ellen said...

I did it one day early but I think I'll do it every time. Here's how I did it. While washing a small load with my Wonder Wash, I caught the water (2 gallons in total) in my kitty litter jug and then just used that to perch on. It worked great! I plan to do the same with my warm up water from my shower. Since my surgery I haven't showered (2 baths in 2 weeks... I might be starting to stink) but I might brave it tomorrow. I chose to water my trees and not my food garden because I'm chicken but I have Liquid Gold on hold for me at the library, so I'll look into it! Thanks for another super fun and eye opening challenge!!

The Crone at Wits End said...

Been doing this since the start of the challenge and have perfected the way to collect, ladies;

Get an old funnel and an empty two litre bottle. Put funnel in bottle and you use the funnel to collect the flow ;). Put the lid back on the bottle and keep topping it up during the day.

No spills, easy to pour in to your watering can and best of all, no smells to gross out the kids/husband.

Jenette said...

I gifted my garden with 2 days of LG. I put it on all the plants and veggies except the carrots (I just couldn't do it). I am going to store up and take care of the lawn this week!!

Crunchy Chicken said...

Well, I tell you I've been cheating all week long and sprinkling some love. My pumpkin plants have gone nuts because of it.

Today, I invited the kids to help and boy was that fun for them! It was a huge novelty. Emma was enamored of the collection (I set up her toddler toilet ring over the bucket so she could sit in comfort) as well as the distribution. Of course, being a kid, she wanted to "see" the collection and commented on the nuanced colors between everyone's state of hydration.

Anyway, today the cherry tree, potatoes, tomatoes and a few others got some liquid attention.

Anonymous said...

Wow. I took one look at the first comment and thought, "Wait. Am I really that excited about pee? Oh wait. It's another Beth. There's more than one of us in the world. And this one is not that exclamatory today."

I'll just say that I did it, and leave it at that. No fanfare. And I probably won't do it again. Not because it's not a fantastic idea. But because I can barely remember to water those tomatoes with the hose, let alone carry a special container of "fertilizer" through the house to feed them too.

Oh, but I do have a question. Is the dilution affected by the amount of water one drinks? One of us in this house drinks so much water his urine is practically clear. Would that affect the ratio?

Anonymous said...

I posted a report on my day's activities on my blog

Amanda said...

okay...okay...i am going to give it a whirl...anything to help my garden!

Greenpa said...

I'm sorry to say that the idea a little pee will slow down your raccoons is just wishful thinking.

I did experiments- like, real ones, 2 years long, when I was trying to grow grapes. I bought commercial pees; besides using the home product- tried: red fox, bobcat, coyote, wolf, African lion, mountain lion, mink; and a couple others.

Best result is- some of them may surprise the critters for a couple days, then they get used to it.

Which makes sense, if you think about it; can you see all the critters out there in the woods spending a lot of time going "ohmigod!! what's that!! did a coyote/human/whatever PEE here several days ago? Oh, no! help!"

Nope. They're pretty blasé about the whole thing.

Kristi said...

I got Thing 1 to make a contribution. I got the 12-year-old eye roll, but he followed me into the garden for the dilution and sprinkling. Thing 2 was disappointed, he wanted to contribute first.

In the spirit of science (Thing 1's idea), we decided to only do half of the veggies. So half of the tomatoes, onions, and leeks were showered (one "contribution" diluted fills my two-gallon watering can). We're going to wait a week to see if we see a difference, then decide if it's worth the effort.

I don't believe everything I read (especially self-published books) but there was a study in Finland, published in a respectable, scientific journal, with cabbages that showed a difference. The study said:

The analysis showed that growth and biomass were slightly higher with urine than with conventional fertilizer.

There was no difference in nutritional value of the cabbage. "Our results show that human urine could be used as a fertilizer for cabbage and does not pose any significant hygienic threats or leave any distinctive flavor in food products," the report concludes.

You can read about the study here:http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071008093608.htm

Robj98168 said...

Grennpa- Redd Foxx Urine? The man has been dead for 10 years and they are still selling his urine? Has hollywood have no shame?

Theresa said...

Well, I did it. It was interesting. I can pee into a bottle better than I thought I could. I forgot to use greywater for dilution - just used straight tap water. It was kind of odd to be putting my own pee into the watering can and then diluting it with water from the garden hose. I used it to water some things I'm just saving seed from: barley, flax and wheat. It was a bit surreal actually, and I had a smirk on my face the whole time, wondering what I would say if anyone asked me what I was doing! I'll probably do it again. It's great for water conservation too - I hardly flushed at all yesterday.

Anonymous said...

My husband was on board for this, so the two of us filled a bucket in our bathroom all day on Saturday and half the day on Sunday. Another huge benefit? No flushing required (even though I use cloth TP, and "let it mellow", this used even LESS)! I could not squat over the bucket, so I peed into a cup and poured it into the bucket. I must say, we had quite a stink going on by this afternoon!

I diluted it and used it to water our two measly tomato plants, all of our herbs, and container flowers.

I will absolutely do this again when it's time to fertilize -- how often should you do this?

Erin

Anonymous said...

I did my part too, as I have been for several weeks now. At first I had a 5-gallon bucket with a toilet seat on it. That was easiest in terms of adding the dilution water, but it was a real hassle in a small bathroom. So I switched to a coffee can with a snap-on plastic lid, to keep the smell down. I fill it in 1-2 days, depending on whether I'm home all day or away at work. Then I either pour it directly onto the compost pile, or on the ground outside the garden fence (even with Greenpa's voice of experience, I still figure "it can't hurt" in my attempt to keep the deer out of the garden). Or, like I did on Saturday, I poured it onto the garden near (but not directly on) some squash plants, and them immediately started the sprinkler for a while -- figured that was my dilution. At some point I'll get a bigger bucket for doing the dilution so it can go directly onto the plants, but for now (nothing's very leafy out there yet) this is working.

And yes, it's nice to not have to clean the toilet as often, since it's hardly getting used!

Jenn said...

I confess - I feel guilty when I flush away my liquid gold at work or anywhere else. It's sick - I just want to save all my pee. :(

I watered the tomatoes on Saturday using my gallon of fertilizer -- we'll see how they do.

mudnessa said...

I failed. i do plan on doing this at least once for my herbs on my patio, not sure how often i should do it for small potted plants, dont wanna over do it.

had a pretty crappy weekend. hurt my foot and am having major mood swings . . . all part of being a woman for me, sorry tmi but come on we are watering our plants with pee, hehe.

Anonymous said...

Ok. I have been debating this one for a while but I think I am going to give this a try! We are already using cloth wipes for #1 and I am working on cloth wipes for #2. Our garden is just starting to show some signs of life - maybe this will hurry things along! So the pee collection starts immediately (well, once I get a container). How long do we do this? Is there a limit to how much pee our veggies can take? Is there any such thing as too much 'gold'?

Laura said...

Does my pug's contributions count? He's quite a fanatic about my plants!

Anonymous said...

Update on my pee party... So,we started collecting the natural fertilizer in a bucket yesterday evening. Hubby, daughter, and myself all added to our container with joy (ok - more speculation and ammusement than joy). I was getting excited which means I really need some new friends! Anyway, this morning, our homemade miracle grow had disappeared! Are you kidding me? Where the !#$%# did it go? I was completely perplexed. Could it have evaporated overnight? And then the truth became clear - my toilet water drinking dogs had found my collection container and had a little nip - well, they slurped it completely dry! I would say GROSS but I was planning to put that on our vegetables and then eat them so I can't really say too much! But, the container has already been placed back into service and a nice lid is protecting the contents from scanvengers! Just wanted to share!

Erica said...

I've been working on this, but not full force. Some days I'm just happy to get to use the toilet, let alone to remember to pee in a bucket. I get about 1-2 pees a day, dilute it then water a few things here and there. Better than nothing!