Test Kitchen Tuesday

I could have also titled this post “Waste Water Treatment Plant.” While I amused myself with the clever double meaning, I was pretty sure no one would read a post with such a title.

Moving on.

Today, I have the ultimate in eco-friendly plant fertilization tips, and it involves leftover products from veggie cooking. Sort of a “full-circle” kind of thing.

In Seattle, we have this crazy gardener called Cisco Morris who has his own gardening show on a local NBC affiliate called “Gardening with Cisco.” Cisco is pretty zany, but he knows oodles and oodles about plants.

One day, I happened to catch a snippet of his show where he talked about saving the water that is leftover after you cook veggies and pouring it on your landscaping or house plants (once it has cooled of course. Hot water kills plants. And weeds, FYI.)

I have sort of haphazardly been using this tip ever since. Haphazardly is the key word to be noted, but that is also how I know that his tip works well!

While I am very industrious in many ways, and manage to fill up my days with all kinds of projects, workouts, and reading, I am also a little lazy. Remember that post about balance? Yeah. That’s what we’ll call it. When I pour the “veggie water,” I pretty much only pour it in the same place. This has produced interesting results!

When we moved into our house, the landscaping was over-run and I pulled most of it out, much to the neighbors’ confusion. Don’t worry, I re-planted quickly, much to their satisfaction. Anyway, in this particular spot, I planted some Otto Luyken laurels. They were all the same size (small) two summers ago, and they have all grown. But, the one closest to the front door is almost twice the size of all the others. Why? The veggie water! In my laziness, I pretty much always dump the water on the first plant nearest to the door.

If you’re wondering why one window has the shades drawn, that is where Pipa sits to guard the house and greet visitors. There is a window bench in the room behind the window, and she truly becomes the “how much is that doggy in the window” dog.

So, next time you have some water leftover in a pot from steaming or boiling veggies, let it cool and pour it on your plants or landscaping. Just don’t be lazy like me – spread it around!