Last week I was up in the hills in Beverly Hills for a 12 noon meeting. I passed by beautiful houses with beautiful landscapes and a lot of the houses had gardeners prettying up the yards, planting non-native plants and were also hosing down the bushes.

I was amazed at how much water was being wasted. Water, that is precious and that we don’t have enough of in California. Water that was running down the hill and into the gutter.

Every day I look around and I see water being used carelessly by all of us. I watched the Hollywood FD hose down their driveway for about 15 minutes in the middle of the day. I see businesses water down the sidewalk in front of their store instead of using a broom. My neighbors water their sidewalk to keep it clean.

And the water is just running down into the gutter and into the ocean without it having any benefit to the environment or to us.

How can we raise awareness on water usage? How can we be more conscious of it every day?

Here are a few tips that I hope you will find useful . Some of these were already posted in and old article but it doesn’t hurt to repeat them:

• take short showers
• turn off the faucet while you brush your teeth
• put your dishwasher on water-saver (if you have that option)
• fill up the sink with water to wash and rinse your dishes instead of washing them under running water
• stop hosing off your sidewalk! Use a broom!
• you can save a tub of water that you rinse your hands in throughout the day. Use that water to water your plants.
• When you rinse off some dishes that have no grease or animal products, use the rinsing water on your plants.
• If you have a garden or a yard, wash off your fruits and vegetables outside so the water can run into the soil.
• Leftover water in plastic bottles can be emptied into planters or flowerpots.
• If you have a garden, make sure you plant native plants, that don’t require watering. Or better yet, plant edible greens, so that the water is put to good use.
• Talk to the owner or the manager of the businesses in your neighborhood to start using a broom instead of wasting the water.
• Call the LADWP at 1-800-Dial DWP or email them at DroughtBusters@ladwp.com to report wasteful water usage (I called them a few months ago because my apartment maintenance personal used to water down the courtyard on a weekly basis. The LADWP came out and they haven’t watered down the courtyard since. )

And of course for more tips on water, gardening and sustainable living check out our friends at the Homegrown Evolution site.

If you would like to share your ideas you can add them below in the comment section.

Water is finite and we need to be conscious about how we use it.