Liquid Gold: The Lore and Logic of Using Urine to Grow Plants

by Carol Steinfeld

Dont flush it down the loo! Save your pee and fertilize your garden! Because it is not recycled, our urine is wasted and pollutes the water system. Yet it could provide 50%-100% of the nutrients needed to grow our food. Use your pee to make a liquid recycle, save water and energy, and prevent pollution, all at the same time! In the 19th century you could sell your urine for a penny a bucket or 1.5 pennies if you were a redhead. Early Romans used urine as mouthwash. In some cultures, urine is used to clean wounds and as a health tonic. Urine can be used in curing leather, and as a tattoo pigment. Discover the delights of the urine-diverting composting toilet, the activists urinal, and the urinal for women; find out about customs and rituals connected with urine, the science and technology of its use, and profiles of liquid gold at work all over the world in farms and gardens. Take to the fresh air when nature calls and fertilize your garden for free with Carol Steinfelds entertaining and fact-filled book!

Genres: Gardening, Nonfiction, Nature

Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

Reviews

[Tracie · Rating 3 out of 5]

What an interesting, unusual book. I read it because I have been using bedding from my horse's stalls in my garden for the last two years (which is soaked with horse urine) and my garden just exploded.

[Hester · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is definitely a thought-provoking book. My real problem with it was, in many ways, a collection of anecdotes rather than a survey of scientific work and suggestion of ideas on a larger level. Most people do not want to think about pee, let alone collect their own and put it on the compost heap. They will, however, happily pee into their school urinal, knowing the urine collected will later be collected to fertilize the school orchard. I think the book did not tackle this dilemma head on. The attitude seemed to be that if people just learned enough about urine, they would change their ways. I do not think that is true.

[Kris Rafferty · Rating 5 out of 5]

Recycling urine to prevent it from polluting our waterways is a serious solution to a serious problem. This book takes a practical look at one more way we can save our planet. Well written and thoroughly researched, the author has important information to share. Maybe we need to start listening.

[Clivemichael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Accessible and entertaining. Much emphasis on patent devices. Remember, Urine Charge

[Cindy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty interesting. I wish the pictures of the toilets were better

to present:

Chapter on Liquid Gold pg. 10-25

[Cheryl Devine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great so far. Not as good as the Humanure book, but I'd still recommend it

[Jenna Citrus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! What a change on my perspective this book has given me. I highly recommend everyone with an open mind reads this book.

[Judith Proctor · Rating 4 out of 5]

A light, entertaining book about the benefits of urine as natural fertiliser.

This book, wisely in my view, tells you all kind of interesting historical facts about urine, shows urinals designed by artists, has photos of urinals in unusual places, etc. before getting into the hard data about actually using the stuff in a practical manner.

It gets you more comfortable about the subject before diving in.

I came across this book many years ago and was mildly sceptical, but I applied dilute urine, as directed, on my rather limp and yellowing French beans.
Two weeks later, the vigorous beans were green and growing fast.
I was a convert.

I've used urine as a fertiliser ever since - not on salad crops such as lettuce, where there is a risk of contamination - but on pretty much everything that I grow. Tomatoes thrive on it: so do squashes, runner beans, flowers, lawns (best applied before rain on lawns so you know it will wash in quickly and then you'll be more comfortable walking on the grass). The list is endless.
It's also great as a compost activator or for accelerating the rot of leaf-mould.

The simplest trick is to keep a plastic, screw-top milk bottle in your toilet, then you can fill up your supply without worrying about anything smelling.

You can save a small fortune on commercial fertilisers.

I'd have rated the book higher if it wasn't getting a bit old now. It was published in 2007 and the section on toilets is bound to be out of date, though the principles are pretty basic..

[Fernleaf · Rating 2 out of 5]

This a short book about urine. Includes some interesting history and lore of urine throughout the ages, and then a pointed argument for the use of urine as a fertilizer instead of as a pollutant. This is particularly appropriate since the main nutrient component of urine is nitrogen which is currently made using natural gas for synthetic chemical fertilizers. Urine is relatively easy to use and fairly safe compared to feces. An informative book and a great ice-breaker.

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has good information, but there's just not enough of it to make a book (even a 95 page one like this is.) I've summarize the most important points of using urine as fertilizer in the garden on my blog.

[Kathely · Rating 1 out of 5]

Too weird.