Reader Tip: Easy Waste-free Watering

We live in the country and our only supply of water is our cistern. We also collect water for watering the plants in two 55-gallon drums.

We raise about 20 tomato plants each year. Since water is so precious we take two-liter plastic drink bottles and cut off the bottoms. We sink the top of the bottle into the ground at the base of each plant and secure it to the metal tomato cage around each plant with twine or a plastic tie. When we water we just fill each bottle with water, which goes directly to the plants’ roots with no wasted runoff. It has worked well for us.

—Pat and Lou Osterbrock of Indiana

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