I feel for you Connie. Fabulous idea saving the bath water. Epsom salts will do wonders for the plants. I would bucket water from any standing water you may find. My aunt still has standing water across the road from her place in Mt. Juliet plus set buckets out to catch the massive flow of rain water. I went to Lowes and got a ton of deals due to thier not being able to water. Sat the plants in the captured water and back to life in no time.

Oh wow...I hadn't thought about the garden centers and not being able to water. Glad you scored some deals!

I saw a mention of the drinking water problem a few days ago, but then nothing after that. I hadn't even considered it still being such a problem. I have a little bit of an idea of what a pain it must be, because I just about went nuts when our water was shut off for most of just one day a couple of months ago because of a huge leak in a main line.

BTW, be careful not to overdo the Epsom Salts on your plants!

Here is a link that might be useful: Linda Chalker-Scott's Article on Epsom Salts

My garden about all keeled over last week. I was barely watering them with about 1/10th the water I usually give them, if that. I finally said screw it & gave them a full watering on Friday. I'm hoping this rain will give them another good one today. Not easy at all conserving water in the garden with many sunny days in a row! =)

- Steve

I've got two rain barrels purchased through the Cumberland River Compact so plants/garden all good. I got them to avoid using chlorinated water on the garden and to have some reserves for summer dry spells. That's not much help to you now but it may be something to consider going forward.

I had a little bit of rainwater set aside, and also I had the contents of two water features, so I've had them turned off and been using that.

I've been taking quick showers (Madison has it's own utility district, but we have been sending water back to Metro, so I'm still conserving), but I've been using hand santizer 80% of the time to wash my hands. We have a low flush toilet in the bath we re-did downstairs, so we have restricted ourselves to using that one. I've also been only eating fast food or takeout for lunches at work (so as not to dirty extra dishes that someone will need to wash) and we've also been eating off of paper plates and using plastic ware for eating. Every little bit helps, I think!

After getting 14.5 inches of rain in Antioch, I realized I had a Rubbermaid trash can (35 gal?) that had completely filled with rain water. I started to dump it out, then thought of Mayor Dean's encouragement to conserve water. All last week, I used an empty coffee can to dip the water to put on the new azaleas and hostas I planted recently. I set up the trash can & another tub this weekend (we had more rain!) to catch the run off from the roof. The containers filled again.

Here's my question: How's the best way to prevent mosquitos from growing in these containers? Is BT the way to go?

Okay, we've had a good rain now this weekend and some of the water limitations have been lifted but here's mine:

"military" or "eco friendly" showers. Quick showers and/or turn the water off when your sudsing up. Water on only to rinse. Using such little water has let us shower almost every day, yay!

I've been saving the water from the dehumidifier (needed for the basement that got a little bit of water May 1 & 2) and been watering plants with that.

I haven't set up my rain barrel yet, but went ahead and put some 5 gallon buckets out in the garden to catch water when it does rain. Then they're close to where I need the water when the garden dries out and I don't have to move them when they're full and heavy.

Paper plates, plastic silverware, plastic cups. I usually hate to use these, but it's saving water right now. We're only washing pots as far as dishes.

On May 2 we filled a 5 gallon water bottle for drinking/cooking and a number of other containers for dog & houseplant water. This was before the water restrictions, but we had heard rumor of it. Many locations citywide are giving out a case or two of bottled water per day. You don't have to be a flood victim, we're all on the same water shortages.

Any mosquito concerns...you can put mosquito pellets/tablets in rain barrels, etc and they're not supposed to have any effect on the water as far as to water plants.

Hope everyone stayed safe and dry from the floods!

The other thing is that mosquito larva won't thrive if you simply aerate the water regularly. So I dump the water into other buckets and agitate it every day, even when I'm not using it. That's usually enough to get rid of most of them.

Thanks for the suggestions on avoiding mosquito larvae!