Topic: Water - how are you coping?

[tim]

Although most outdoor plants are growing away well, I can't help wondering about those folk with sizeable greenhouses, especially if they are some way from home.

We are fortunate in having ours at home, with a mains supply beside it from which we can legally replenish the butt. Even then, it begins to take its toll after you have scooped, mixed, carried & applied some 3cwt of water on a hot day.

There must be some who are just not capable of that?

[supersprout]

Did you know it's legal to fill your water butt/watering can with the hose and use a tap on the butt/water with the hose in the watering can tim?  :o We're fortunate not to have a ban yet so I bought a long hose, ran it to the g'house, and water with it every morning on trickle. Wimpy or what? :-[

For outdoors, I have used the sprinkler a few times (guiltily thinking of my chums with bans) on newly planted crops and the sweetcorn. BUT from this week (another fortnight without rain forecast) everything is going to be heavily mulched with whatever I can lay my hands on - grassclippingshaystrawspenthopscoffeegroundsleavescomfreyleaves - so there won't be a patch of bare earth anywhere on the plot. Ha! ;D

http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/simple_homesteading/60401

Added later: Phew! :P Two hours, half a straw bale and four bags of leaves later ... that takes care of three beds, 27 to go 8)

[jennym]

No glasshouse here, but the few things in pots are being hand watered daily.
Most worrying for me is the complete lack of appreciable rain for a couple of months now in the Lea Valley area, and the effect on newly planted fruit trees and bushes. The soil is dry to a depth of about 9 inches, and we're on a flood plain! Still I suppose carting about 8 galls a day each to a couple of dozen plants will keep the biceps in trim.  ;D

[ann hunter]

Have to say I have given up on some parts of the lotty. Very fortunate to have lovely neighbours on the allotment who keep an eye on the green house when I cant get there. I sometimes wish I didnt work full tme, and have a family to think about. :-\

[Mrs Ava]

The allotment is sooooooooo very dry now.  Somethings are struggling, and poor little seeds get frazzled by the sun as soon as they germinate!  However, peas, beans, sweetcorn and pumpkins are romping away with no help from me.  (Some will know, there is no piped water on our allotment so I rely on mother nature.)

The greenhouse shading has worked a treat and is keeping the house quite cool.  I have a hose pipe up there when the waterbutt is dry - which it is  :'(.  I am using recycled water for my pots, but now even they are looking a bit ropey.  I'm afraid tonight things are going to get a very good watering, and things that can be moved into deep shade will be heading for it!

[bennettsleg]

The allotment is sooooooooo very dry now.  Somethings are struggling, and poor little seeds get frazzled by the sun as soon as they germinate!

Mum planted out some french beans for me during that really hot spell we had a few weeks back.  They've thrived with no watering due to the bit of fleece she rigged up as shade for them. Bit of string between the babmoo poles hang fleece along it like some laundry and a few clothes pegs to hold it on.  Not extactly thye same as seedlings, but it may give them a bit of a chance.

[Garden Manager]

I am fortunate not to have a hosepipe ban in my area, plus the advantage that my 'plot' is in my garden! Mind you the garden is a long one on a slope and the vegies are near the end of it so its still a long trek from the outside tap to the plot. Fortunately I have a couple of waterbutts up that end of the garden and possess a long hosepipe. I also have a leaky hose irrigation system set up around the veg and fruit beds. However i try to avoid using it except in really hot dry weather and prefer to use a can or natural rainfall to irrigate the soil. Luckily what rain we have had this summer so far has been sufficient to sustain things for several days afterwards.

I must confess to 'cheating' a lite bit though with the water butts. when they run out of rain water I run a hose to them and refill from the mains! Naughty i know but it does mean i can fill a can and not have to trek the length of the garden to where I need to water with a full watering can!

I am just praying that we dont end up with a hosepipe ban before the end of the sunmmer. Trouble is whilst i am carefull with water, many people n the area are not. I guess the attitude is ' no ban, no shortage, no problem'. Thing is our water here comes from underground aquifers, replenished by rainfall. With a lower than average rainfall, these are not being replenshed and may soon start to run low. i fear a ban may not be far away.

[tim]

Just wish more people paid for their water - they might then think twice about careless use?

[katynewbie]

 ;D

Absolutely Tim, I bless the day I got a water meter, concentrates the mind wonderfully!

 8)

[artichoke]

Just got back from 8 days working away from home, and I am afraid I lookedat both allotments to check on their health before checking on husband's health.

Both very very dry, modestly productive. but broad beans withering on the stem, runner beans hard and not many, gratifying courgettes and squashes (ie not a nightmare glut), mangetouts growing tough.....quite depressing.

Husband well.

[Garden Manager]

Just wish more people paid for their water - they might then think twice about careless use?

Well said Tim. Whilst i do use quite a bit it isnt what I call frivlous useage. It all goes on plants or the garden or back into the ground one way or another. I dont consider watering plants a waste of water. its all good for the planet in the end.

[bennettsleg]

Just wish more people paid for their water - they might then think twice about careless use?

My mother and uncle have voluntarily has water meters installed - they have saved a fortune.  Not because of careful use, but because they were careful anyway but billed for an average household's consumption.

[Trevor Holloway]

Planted some carrot seeds yesterday and am now considering putting up some fleece shade.

Our site is particularly dry, clay soil, lack of shade, south east england and with the hosepipe ban.

[MrsKP]

No hosepipe ban here and I have used gallons of the stuff in the garden during the heatwave !  I hate to think how everything would be surviving if i didn't water it every day!

My conscience is reasonably clear, for 10 months of the year the west coast of scotland gets more than its fair share of rain and i'm sure the reservoirs must be full to overflowing ! 

i do limit other usage though.  half a bucket of water to do all the windows today which then went on the neighbours flower bed !

[redimp]

In parched Lincolnshire I haven't watered anything except transplanted seedlings and nearly everything seems to be fine.  My biggest problem at the moment is with snails that have reduced my kale to stumps or skeletons.  At least transpiration will be reduced with the skeletons (I fear the stumps are doomed) so hopefully they will recover given time.

[supersprout]

My mother and uncle have voluntarily has water meters installed - they have saved a fortune.  Not because of careful use, but because they were careful anyway but billed for an average household's consumption.

Been trying to get a meter installed since Feb :o and was expecting it to be fitted at end August.
Got a call yesterday from frantic water company - they've hired a new plumber and are 'looking for work'. Could I fit him in?  HAHAHAHA ;D
So the meter will be installed tomorrow, tonight is bath night ;)

BTW for trundling water around the plot, what about this sort of thing:
http://www.caravanadditions.co.uk/acatalog/Aquaroll.html
 ::)

[Chantenay]

We have no water supply to our allotments. But my plot is next to a little natural pond, so I spent all day Sunday and Monday with a complicated system of hosepipes, generator and pump swotting for my City & Guilds Gardening exams, swatting horseflies and filling my two 1,000 litre tanks. Very satisfying. Then it rained last night ::)

[prink13]

I am lucky that my plot is also my garden, and we have no hose pipe ban here, still I've only used the hose twice in the last 2 months! I have 5 waterbutts, and recycle all my bath/shower water and most of the washing-up water, bought a syphon "DroughtBuster" which pumps the water from bath to garden, works quite well, and is good physio for my hand, following an accident with a chainsaw!

Not only is this good for enviroment, good for pocket as we are on a water meter, and also on septic tank, so the less we fill it up, the less we have to pay to have it emptied!

Anyone else have any tips to recycle water etc. let me know!

http://www.droughtbuster.co.uk/?gclid=CNqczPznn4YCFSlGMAodACj_xw

[Amazin]

Many thanks for this link, P.
Having suffered that painful condition known as 'sucked-out lips'
(note to self: smear hosepipe end with raspberry jam - won't help with chafing, but at least there's SOME reward), I'd been searching for ages for a syphon - my father used one when brewing his own beer - but I couldn't find a supplier anywhere. This looks just the job!

CAUTION - Happy dance in progress

 ;D ;D ;D

[redimp]

We have no water supply to our allotments. But my plot is next to a little natural pond, so I spent all day Sunday and Monday with a complicated system of hosepipes, generator and pump swotting for my City & Guilds Gardening exams, swatting horseflies and filling my two 1,000 litre tanks. Very satisfying. Then it rained last night ::)

And sod the wildlife that rely on the pond >:(