So...although I don't live in a hosepipe ban area, I am an avid environmentalist. Unfortunately, my water butts are almost empty already!
I water my greenhouse every day, tomatos about every 2 days, pumpkins about every 3, carrots and parsnips maybe once a week, potatos never.
What, and how often do you water?
Rarely - only seeds and things that have just been planted out - don't have a greenhouse though.
Most days I've been watering my Gourgettes, Melon, Tomatoes and my runners (but as they looked a bit sick but have got going now). Not loads of water - a couple of watering cans does the lot. It has'nt rained properly here for well over a month now.
I tend to water my mini greenhouse every other day or so with a weak feed. All the container veggies get watered most evenings since they dry out in the warm sun. All veggies in the ground are heavily mulched and get watered infrequently as my water butts are empty too :(. The only exception to this are the outside tomatoes which receive water every three days via plastic bottles dug in near their roots.
I've just had to top up my pond with 300 litres of tap water - and that hurt :'(. The evaporation rate during this warm weather is horrendous :o. But the fish have to be cared for with tap water when the rain butts are empty.
Tricia
I'm watering things in pots when they look like they need it. I don't really ever water things in the ground unless they're looking sad or they're newly planted - I figure they have roots for a reason..!
Melanie
Greenhouse twice a day at 6 and 6. Veg plot every two days unless it has been raining. Water is from my rain butts or my pond. I used to water from the mains but went on to a meter last year, continued my normal watering habits and then the water bill came in. An extra 250 GBP. Now I use rain water that I collect.
we never water the veg patch-we like stuff to grow slow and strong so they get watered when planted and thats their lot-water pot tomatoes sparingly once a day(at night)and feed once a week.hanging baskets and the like have rainwater and when its gone its gone!
kitty
Greenhouse once a day at 7am. Some squash get a look in with the watering can once a week. Otherwise, have resorted to a sprinkler to soak sweetcorn, young beans and toms in compacted soil, and undug areas where I'm going to plant out (making the hole is easier). New plantings in friable soil get a soak with the watering can in the planting hole, and that's it.
The sprinkler is a recent import. I don't want to use it regularly unless we've had drought conditions again, when it will be a good soak every week at most. There IS water down there, especially in the undug areas, and I'd prefer the plants find it themselves.
I'm finding this year a marked difference in the water needed by the toms in pots in the g'house since adopting the ring culture & Mrs.KP's Pretty Maids method 8)
They now get water every 3rd day approx rather than the daily dose they needed previously.
Seedlings get cosseted - once out in the big wild world only in extremis (not reached that point yet).
Never water the allotment apart from seed drills and new transplants. You make your veggies into wooses by pampering them! ;D
Greenhouse, as and when it needs it. I have lots of shade, and when I do water, I water well. Maybe 3 times a week is enough. Everything seems to thrive and we always end up with bumper crops.
I recycle and save as much water as I can however. Waterbutts at home and at the allotment, and I have started saving the pollybottles that my milk comes in to pour in waste water...so for example, water from the kids drink bottles that they take to school, veg boiling water, running the tap waiting for the hot to come, veg washing water. Amazing how much we waste in the kitchen. I fill a 4 pint polly every 2 days!
QuoteYou make your veggies into wooses by pampering them!
indeedy!
ours need to be strong little beggers to survive-but they do and they are tastier for it i think
-its why commercial taters have no taste-too much water :(
and even with very strictly limited wateringkitty cracks whip!) we get tons of veg!
as foir saving water-wheen we run the hot tap we save the cold-before-it-becomes-hot water...usually means we have about 6 pints to throw in the butt or use on tomatoes
kitty
Quote from: EJ - Emma Jane on June 22, 2006, 17:52:22
Never water the allotment apart from seed drills and new transplants. You make your veggies into wooses by pampering them! ;D
Fairs fair, I live in the second dryest county in the UK, (EJ is in the dryest), so for someone from say manchester, where it rains every day, to say that my veg is pampered, well. They'll take your veg on any day of the week. ;D ;D ;D ;D
Seriously if I don't do it as often as I do, you can actually see the veg wilting. Now you could say thats OK, leave them, they will harden up and recover, but what if they don't? Then I've lost a whole season of veg, I spent to much time (and worry) growing the seedlings, preparing the beds and all the other work that goes in to it to take a chance. So me and me wooses (I won't tell them you called them that) will just carry on. :D :D
QuoteThey'll take your veg on any day of the week.
oo-er!
theres a very mean lookin parsnip coming up our path -i take it that'll be one of yours mike?lol! ;D
well-you keep watering your veg if thats what you want to do(i'm just over the border from you-there-see?i'm wavin'!)and i shall keep mine thirsty!
kitty
Practically a desert here in Essex. No, I do appreciate what you are saying, and yet, in the middle of August my squash bed can look really poorly. This is why I have been saving the water in the plassy polly bottles. I have put a can in at the planting point of each squash, then, if I do have to revive the little beggars, I can direct the water rather than waste a drop. I have never lost veg because of the dryness, I have lost veg seedlings by watering them and then the sun baking them to a crisp! I find for me, once they are off and running, leave them to it.
greenhouse everyday ! and the outside err everyday !!
i tend to make sure that pumpking cougettes and Squash and Toms have a drink outside weather it rains or not (down pours are mised of course)
and i always water everything in the green house so i guess mine will be following mikes up ya path lol
Carl
Potting shed - weekend and mid-week, depends how sunny it is.
Outside - seedlings when they are transplanted. Squash, pumpkins & courgettes once, maybe twice a week via a pot sunk next to their roots ...
I can't get to the lottie every day, so I need my plants to seek their own water. They have no choice but to be tough.
I could do with some more 'gravel' trays for my potting shed.
Save water in rain butts, but have had to top up with the tap twice this season.
I believe if youv'e paid your expensive water bill, which they are, then use your entitlement. you are right in what you are doing, but we should see more effort by the government to force water, gas is next then electrics, to do more, these people, the more and more the harder YOU try, the more these people line thier pockets, or have i got te wrong forum :-[
but do you really need to water carrots and parsnips?
Wow, I am so impressed with how little you guys water. Here, in Plymouth, it hasn't really rained in almost a month. It's good to know that my plants will live without water.
don't worry, Wimbledon tennis starts next week, its sure to rain for at least a couple of days
Saving the heat-up tap water is bright, Emma. So much is wasted that way.
Equally bad is always running the hot tap, without even waiting for hot water, just because the tap is on the left. Just watch how often folk do that. And that means that the 1/2 -1 gallon of hot water you didn't get just goes cold in the pipe.
One sometimes forgets that water price has increased 27% & electricity 47% in 2 years??
PS Amazing how far 9 large butts + one next door can go!
Quote from: tim on June 23, 2006, 09:45:37
Saving the heat-up tap water is bright, Emma. So much is wasted that way.
PS Amazing how far 9 large butts + one next door can go!
A bucket goes with me into the shower ;D. My bathroom is quite a way from the boiler so the bucket is 3/4 full before the water is comfortably warm. In the kitchen a large plastic jug is filled sometimes twice or three times a day and all the water is used for my plants - they don't seem to mind if has been used to wash hands or lettuce :)
Tim, I've seen your photos of your large garden - I wouldn't mind betting that even nine butts wouldn't suffice for my tiny garden and pond here in the south-west. As Umshamrock says - we've had no measurable rain for ages and my five butts have long been empty.
The sun is shining as I write and no rain is forecast for the immediate future, so tap water it will have to be ::).
Tricia
Quote from: umshamrock on June 23, 2006, 08:50:07
Wow, I am so impressed with how little you guys water. Here, in Plymouth, it hasn't really rained in almost a month. It's good to know that my plants will live without water.
i don't believe that for a minute!! :D i've never seen as much rain as i did in my 5 years in plymouth!!
watering wise, i haven't watered anything in the ground yet, just stuff in seed trays, and my cucumbers are in large pots, they probably get watered every couple of days. i'm in suffolk.
I've been more diligent this year with watering, about once every 4 days for established plants, more often for seedlings (once a day for the first week or so). Glad to know I can leave some plants like potatos a bit longer! :)
I come from 3 generations of gardeners and I can always remeber my Grandad saying that watering vegetables is like giving sweets to a child. Once you start they will always want more. (he was a miserable old bast..d) >:( I don't water any of my lottie veg except for the tomatoes and they get a gallon each every 10 days when the fruit is forming. It's true that watered plants are weaker. The worst possible mistake is regular light watering...you need the plants to get there roots down.....tough love is what they need. Be mean and keep them keen.... ;D ;) ;D Better put the bucket on my head to avoid the FLAK :)
Adding on to my own comments......noticed this morning that my new pak choi (judged too small to pull just yet) is developing flowerheads. I'm wondering if my lack of watering has put these plants in survival mode leading to premature bolting?
Lishka - I find that they'll do it just for the Hell of it!!
tricia - yes - large, but we leave most things to their devices &, for the others, they're no more than 80m from the kitchen tap. But it sure tells on ones back!!
I agree Rob! Having lived 10 minutes from Wimbledon for all of my childhood years, you could guarantee rain, and Cliff! ;D
Lish, I don't sow spinach until late august because it will bolt immediately, same with pak choi and corriander. I think the grower could be more flexible with their sowing times (not you....tis the royal we if you know what I mean). We should have an idea what grows well on our plot and what struggles in the heat of the summer, so quick to mature things like radish and chinese greens I grow late winter/early spring, then not again until very late summer/early autumn. By now, radish on my plot won't even germinate!
QuoteSaving the heat-up tap water is bright, Emma. So much is wasted that way.
me!me!me!(kitty hops up and down!)
that was
my idea i want the Bright Idea Badge! ;D ;D ;D
well..i think most of us are doing really well in the water saving area!by which i
dont mean to disparage the water users-each to his own i say-we none of us know what each others plot is
really like so its best if each waters according to conscience.. ;)
*kitty joins dinger with bucket on head!* ;D
i had to have a serious word with the veg plot-i think they thought that it was time they had more to drink-they've got another think coming!
kitty
EJ, thanks for tip about spring/autumn sowing of pak choi, this was my first attempt. Shall harvest & eat what I've got tomorrow, then :) Lorna sent me the seeds & we sowed them together - she'll be in for a surprise, too, then, when she comes back from hol :o
and this 8) is for Kool Kitty in place of a Badge ;D
Kool kitty :D
(http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e220/supersprout/images.jpg)
Have no time for watering the allotment - its hard to keep up with harvesting, weeding, planting at this time of year.
The greenhouse gets a drink when it needs it/ I remember.
After Monty Don mentioning recycling bath water, I have been syphoning the bath water off - I think it will save the garden from the drought!
Also been reusing washing up water for pots.
Give veg a good soak once a week in hot weather and every day for seeds until they appear.
I'm down to my last water butt, so I'm hoping for rain soon.
thanks lish and sproutington!i shall wear my badge with watery pride!! ;D
we are under enforced water restrictions at Kitty Towers anyway-we have a leak(shame its not a leek)and only have access to running water for 5 mins a day to fill the (many) buckets stood in the kitchen-the 5th plumber(the first four didnt want the job-no money to be made from it apparently-ahem!)will fix it-which involves digging the kitchen floor up-as soon as he returns from his Baltic Cruise in 4 weeks time......
i really am in the wrong job*mutter mutter*
dry kitty
I know the feeling; I once lived in a tower block with a leaking pipe at the bottom. After it had leaked for nine months, with water running across the pavament, it burst. Naturally this happened on a Friday afternoon. So 350 people, including babies and octogenarians, were left on a standpipe over the weekend. Never mind tapwater, we couldn't even flush the toilets.
mmm..its a bit like that at kitty towers..still-it does make you grateful you dont have to walk 10 miles with a pot on your head..
we are still managing to stay clean...if not a little grumpy at times!-but i shant half be pleased when its mended!
i wonder if rhys's syphon would stretch to lincolnshire-i wouldnt mind second hand bathwater at the moment!
'bath with a friend?'i'd give me eye teeth and bathe with the divil himself if it meant sloshing around in a bubbly bath with soap...lots of soap.and a loofah..and radox-oh yeah radox-lots of it,and warm fluffy towels..
sorry-had a 'ben gunn and cheese' moment there...
o well-not long til he docks..i've a good mind to pick the plumber up from southampton meself!
kitty
Quote from: kitty on June 24, 2006, 20:19:03
sorry-had a 'ben gunn and cheese' moment there...
Oh kitty you do make me laugh! Good one ;D
:-* ;D
ohh, Kitty, you poor thing - I've got lots of lovely hot water and you would be more than welcome to indulge yourself with some radoxx - maybe you could think of a reason to visit Yorkshire ?
a baths reason enough!!! ;D
hold on-i'm on me way!!!
*kitty grabs towel..frilly shower cap...loofah...soap on a rope..and rubber ducky..* ;D
I'm a bit of a soap dodger so it would take more than a bath to get me into Yorkshire - possibly has something to do with my Lancastrian roots ;D
i'm not that fussy-yorkshire lancashire-so long as i smell like a rose after a bath i'm happy!
soap dodger ay?
so thats why people were keeling over at that plant sale!
lol! ;D
kitty