From Christopher Jessop, Marloes, Pembrokeshire, UK
Never overlook human urine’s wonderful surfactant properties – the Romans certainly didn’t when it came to doing their laundry. From my experiments, any textiles steeped at ambient temperature in a solution of fresh urine and rainwater (which is naturally soft) are cleaned amazingly well. After a cold rinse cycle, I couldn’t detect any residual odour when pegging the clothes out(29 March, p 22).
Throw a handful of fresh lemon balm stems into your steeping bucket – and can anyone guess how the washing gets scented? As for disposing of the used solution: straight on the garden, of course. Its property as a wetting agent might deter, if not kill, aphids.
