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Don’t Miss This Golden Opportunity to Grow Anew
This article was originally published in our local newspaper: The Applegater, Summer 2026 edition.
Golden water is my secret for lush starts, vibrant leaves and happy container plants.
What is golden water? It’s diluted urine as liquid fertilizer.
Golden water is everything chemical fertilizers wish they were, as it:
- Is made in my body, instead of industrially produced.
- Offers full spectrum minerals, not isolated compounds.
- Helps the environment, rather than harms.
- Builds plant strength, not chemical dependence.
- Encourages co-creation, not dominion over.
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A golden rule of nature
Every life form’s waste stream is food for other beings. My urine contains concentrated minerals that plants crave. Since I eat a nutritious diet, why discard valuable unused minerals, when nature intended them as food for others?
As a liquid, golden water is easily absorbed by plants who grow stronger and healthier.
Your urine is safe to handle without precaution since it’s practically sterile and won’t transmit disease, like humanure (or huwomanure ;) can.
It’s true, concentrated amounts of urine can harm plants (most garden plants are not salt tolerant), but repeated use of diluted urine offers amazing benefits that can be witnessed almost immediately.
As herbalists often say: “The dose is the difference between poison and medicine.”
Consider my neighbor’s story
Last summer he grew a potted tomato plant and cucumber vine on his patio, both of whom were stunted, yellow, and barely growing. It was painful to witness their suffering, not to mention my neighbor’s dismay.
He began feeding golden water to his container plants daily and was shocked to see hints of rebounding in several days. Within a few weeks they were vibrant, green, vigorously growing and productive. His jaw dropped in awe.
I had the same reaction when I first started golden watering seedlings in our greenhouse. All the starts clearly benefited, and the fast growing, heavy feeders like tomatoes, peppers and squash especially enjoyed the boost.
Golden water is easy to make
Collect your urine and dilute it with water. 1:10 is a ratio most gardeners quote as having little-to-no scent and being gentle enough for plants. I personally don’t measure. My ratios are sometimes closer to 1:5, and while there is some light scent when less diluted, it still works great. And you can also dilute it more than 1:10 if you want—there’s no hard rule!
I often use a sprayer to foliar feed plant leaves. Golden water also works amazing as a soil drench in the root zone. In the summer when my seedlings are in the ground, I continue using golden water to feed container plants, heavy feeders and fruit trees. I golden water houseplants year round.
Another fun story
A few years back I shared my love for feeding pee to my plants on Instagram. I said “As a man, it’s easy to collect my urine in a bucket outside, but I don’t expect women to jump on board.” To my surprise, a fair number of female gardeners replied, proudly sharing they collect their urine as fertilizer too.
Well, one international friend went on to tell me about a product sold in Sweden—a watering can that doubles as a potty, designed for convenient golden watering. Bravo!
At least one local friend collects her overnight urine in a glass jug. She uses a pee funnel, popular with some female backpackers and travelers for convenient relief on the go.
Personally, I started feeding plants golden water for practical reasons (free, high quality organic fertility), but I love the unintended benefits…
I experience more reciprocity with plants
We humans breathe in plants’ exhales and we eat plants for nourishment. In turn, plants breath in our out-breaths, and they eat us too.
We don’t have to wait until we die and turn into compost or ash to reciprocate and nourish plants with our bodies. We can deepen our symbiotic relationship right now, feeding each other while we are alive.
Miraculously, plants and humans were designed to nourish each other.
Every living human automatically generates daily doses of fertility that can be offered back. Knowing this fills me with more delight and gratitude for the magic of life.
Recommended Reading
- I Am a Forever Beginner Gardener
- A Little Seed’s Winter Gift to the Hungry Heart
- Soiled Again! It Feels Soul Good.
4 responses to “Don’t Miss This Golden Opportunity to Grow Anew”
I can see the usefulness but wonder about those on medications, I only take asthma and allergy medicine, that may cause any unwanted affects on the plants or soil. Also depending on the area of the garden would it possibly attract wildlife wanting to mark their place even if diluted?
Hi S, it’s a good point to be mindful of urine when on medications, thank you for sharing that! I can’t speak definitively about urine inviting predators to mark their territory, but in my experience, it is such a natural occurrence for predators to mark, regardless of human activity. In this land, predators are marking all over the place regardless of our activity, gardening, golden watering or otherwise. Anyway, wild urine on the land is not going to hurt us. Have fun!
I hadn’t heard of this before, but it sounds like a great idea. Free fertilizer and less waste, win-win.
Darlene, I’m glad you enjoyed hearing about golden water. Permaculture encourages us to cycle nutrients before they are lost from our system. In this case we get more out of the minerals in our urine before they end up down the sewer or in the septic. Have a great day!
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