Topic: Wasting water

[Ben Acre]

during a meeting tonight I asked why plot holders have to water their crops in the middle of the day and not in the evening or early morning? One member got rather shirty and said "Midday is the only time I can water!" so dont go telling me what to do. His watering just evaporates so why the bother.

The some plot holders have a tap on their plot and one stood for the three hours I was there at 2pm watering his crops.

Now other plots struggle with no water and have to scrab water from the dykes.

The Chairman at our meeting refuses to run a pipe some 400m to our plots for water as we should all be saving rainwater.


I agree but plot holders should be educated in mulching, and saving water, even the association supplying water butts, But the excuse is "We have no money" but the Chairman's site is the most secure rabbit free site in the town,
 
How does everyone else save water?

[Unwashed]

One member got rather shirty and said "Midday is the only time I can water!" so dont go telling me what to do.

Not to put too fine a point on it can I suggest that's pretty much the reaction to expect if you start criticising what other allotmenteers do.

[Robert_Brenchley]

If the water is evaporating they're not putting enough in to reach the roots anyway. Don't worry about them. Mulching is the best way to go in my view, but that being said, my rhubarb is well mulched, a few yards from the stream, and wilting.

[Digeroo]

Very few people are mulching their crops on our site. 

I had one area covered with compost before the winter and when I planted out some tomatoes and beans in it recently the soil underneath was still damp and crumbly.  Elsewhere it is dry up to six inches down. 

Not only does mulcning hold onto the water it stops the weeds as well, I just cannot understand why people do not do it. 

It seems unfair that some people have taps on their plots when other have to go 400m.    This is nearly 1/4 mile.  Does the chairman have water available?

[Alex133]

If you have a shed attach a big water butt.

(We have troughs rather than taps and they work well as only moments to fill watering cans and hosepipes can't be attached so no water guzzlers)

[manicscousers]

As a committee, we  had to bring in a hosepipe ban. This was last year before the water companies brought it in. We have brought in approx 70 barrels/bins, attached them to all the communal sheds etc, given them to people to collect from their own sheds etc and, this last week, filled them all up, apart from the collecting ones. Everyone has at least 2 barrels full, the big, blue ones. We had to install a water meter so encourage everyone to collect and mulch. We have had 1 complaint but the rest of our small site is firmly behind us  :)

[tonybloke]

Why should the association provide water butts? surely the tenant should provide their own?
do you think the association should provide a shed and guttering too?

can't folk do anything for themselves in Beccles?

[manicscousers]

We scrounged, got ours free, just the transport, which got paid out of our plant sale profits  ;D

[Trevor_D]

Don't you have any builders or plumbers on your site? We regularly get presents of spare water tanks. All we buy is the piping & connections (and we get those at trade price).

[davyw1]

A lot of years ago our site had no water if you wanted it then you dug a well collected it in anything you could (there were no plastic barrels then) or carried it. It is really your responsibility to collect  your own water after all its your plants that need watering.
There is 167 gardens on our site, the plot holders dug the trenches and piped in one tap to every four gardens trenched  to where the water board wanted to put the meter. Why not suggest this to your fellow plot holders, mind you i think all of a sudden no one will be wanting water on tap and make do with what they have got.
If money is an issue then no one should have the use of a tap so it is fair to all till the issue is sorted.
If the money is there then a motion should be put before the AGM and if the majority vote for it then the chairman has to carry it out.

[cornykev]

I don't think you would be very popular on our site Ben, you seem hell bent on upsetting people considering you have not long been on your site very long, if you had told me when to water I'd have given the same answer but a bit less politely, it might seem a bit of a pop at you but why not just get your head down and concentrate on your plot, apologises in advance if this post is a bit off, but then thats just me.
Also you can find all sorts of water catchers in skips etc.
 ;)

[Columbus]

Hi all,
Across two and a half plots I now have five water barrels harvesting as much water as I can. We are lucky to have a regular supply of woodchip mulch as well as last years autumn leaves for mulching. I have barrowed many tons of mulch (I now wear a face mask because I was getting gardeners lung) and my number one fruit plot and my pumpkin plot are very heavily mulched, up to a foot deep.
Soon I will have time to mulch the vegetable plot which is like dust at the moment.
I like to get to the allotment site as early as possible so that I have a long day gardening, I avoid using watering cans as I have a number of joint problems and work related injuries that are made more painful by lifting watering cans. So I might use a hose pipe for long periods on the weekend and try to get to the site after work to water the greenhouse. I cannot work on the allotment every day as my work and home life take most of my time and I worry constantly about how to make best use of my time on the plot.
I also put a dip tank under one of the taps after speaking to others to help save water.
So you see although I am aware of water issues and I try to use water responsibly other factors have an influence that others might not be aware of if they only saw me on the weekends. I too would be offended by unhelpful comments from others. Col

[Bruce]

His watering just evaporates so why the bother.

I doubt that all the water would evaporate. It may be wasteful, as some does evaporate, but surely it's not a pointless exercise. I expect your comment was said with good intentions, but perhaps could have been more tacktful.  :)

It's a community, so you'd think that people would want to help make the most of things. Seems you might have other issues than just water usage. Fix those and then maybe other things will improve too.

[Unwashed]

Well expressed Bruce.  And welcome to A4A!

[tonybloke]

g'day Bruce! welcome to a4a

[manicscousers]

Hiya, Bruce  ;D

[tog]

Must say I get a bit narked when I see folk using a hose in the middle of the day, but so far I have held my tongue, I probably will speak out at one of our twice monthly meetings.
I am fortunate to be able to use a watering can. I do have a water butt and using a can I know just how much a plant gets. I cut off the bottom of plastic milk bottles and when planting spuds, plant the bottle upside down next to the tuber, then when I water with a can, I know that the roots have had a gallon or so. I do the same with a couple of toms on the plot.
My other crops are given a good watering once a week with a can.
Don't have any mulch yet, only took the plot over just before the snow last year but when my compost is ready, that will go on too.
I do understand how established plot holders may get a bit narky when a newcomer gives advice, but the attitude of some folk leaves a lot to be desired.
If we all used a hose willy nilly, then we only have ourselves to blame when the water companies introduce a hose ban.
In my book, the sooner they do the better.
(Ducks for cover)

[pumkinlover]

no hoses on our site, a few years ago the site was nearly bankrupted through their use.  ???

[Digeroo]

I get frustrated when I see people wasting water.  We are on a well and I am very concerned it will run dry. 

Few people seem to mulch and people with lots of bare soiled weed free allotments seem to use a lot of water. 

We have no sheds so no water saving possible.  But there is one other big problem we have only had one butt filling opportunity in 12 weeks.  No rain no fill butt.

[antipodes]

We have butts but mine were dry for all of April and May so there was no choice but to use tap water. That said, our association pays for the water... We can only use watering cans, no hoses.
I mulch quite a lot, wherever possible, many people do not however, especially the oldies. I don't understand this, but as some of them are there all the time (like every day of teh year), I guess that if they were not constantly weeding and hoeing they would soon run out of work! But we did get a lady from the council come and tell us hopw to mulch, its benefits etc but no one seems bothered it seems.

That said... when I was a newbie, someone on our plot did come and make very disagreeable comments about the way I was gardening (because it was organic and largely exprimental!!) which was very upsetting to me, even though I basically told him that if I got zero crops, it was none of his business. I too have had to water at midday sometimes, when you work you sometimes have little choice in the times you can be present. It is obviously not ideal but probably not the end of the world either...