Topic: Watering Allotments

[Motherwoman]

Our council has decided to ban the use of hoses on allotments even though the HTA guidelines say that council allotments can be watered. They are going on about fitting push button taps so that only cans can be filled,I think that we are about to lose our hoses for good and that the council is just using the water shortage as an excuse for a cost cutting exercise,ironic that you can still wash down drives,walls and greenhouse glass but not water the plants!
How is everyone else getting on with this?

[derbex]

Never been hoses on our site -just troughs. I tend not to water much, only seedlings and permanent plants that are establishing.

[Robert_Brenchley]

There are people on my site who water for hours a day, but I've never bothered. There are a few plants, like Primulas, that do really badly in a dry spell, but most can reach the water table, whivh is always quite near the surface.

[sarah]

i am planning to do the same as you derbex and only water seedlings and anything thats wilting. I watered stuff loads last year and a lot of my stuff was not very tasty for it, especially things like tomatoes. I think that making the plants dig deep for water makes them stronger and more able to survive dry spells. Its a vicious circle with too much watering as the roots just stay close to the surface waiting for you to give them water.  I really think we need to be water conscious and remember that people in very hot and arid countries still manage  to grow good crops with minimal amounts of water,

[Svea]

i agree with the above.

we have had a hose pipe ban imposed by thames water who DO NOT allow the watering of allotments as 'they constitute private gardens'.

in any case, i was the only one last year not trigger happy with the hose - in fact i hardly watered at all. and if i did, it was point watering with the watering can.

i had heaps of veg - the only one that did not do well for me was the celery!

[jlottie]

Hi everyone A newbie!

I have never  had the luxury of water at my allotment site.  2 water butts, 3 black dustbins with lids and various containers hold all the water that I can collect.  It never seems enough though.  Plastic bottles sunk into the ground next to thirsty plants gets the water right down to the roots and mulching helps too.  I dig trenches filled with compost and shredded paper for my beans and corgettes.
Salads, tomatoes stay at home as I do not have enough water for them.  But good news I still get amazing crops.

[Merry Tiller]

Having running water on our site does tend to make people lazy I suppose, maybe the restrictions will make people think about what they're doing

[Motherwoman]

I'm not a splasher abouter myself but it is handy to be able to run a hose along the base of runners  and spuds from time to time. What bothers me more is the inconsistency of what you can  and can't use water for,why do plants come at the bottom of priorities? Why can you hose down your drive but not your garden?
Is it me?.......or am I missing something here?

[derbex]

Come to think of it I'm not sure the troughs are turned on, I'm not hearing the water come in :(

Oh, I water the compost heap if I think it needs it (mainly when I'm putting it together).