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?
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)
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
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. :-\
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!
Quote from: EJ - Emma Jane on July 15, 2006, 13:15:07
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.
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.
Just wish more people paid for their water - they might then think twice about careless use?
;D
Absolutely Tim, I bless the day I got a water meter, concentrates the mind wonderfully!
8)
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.
Quote from: tim on July 16, 2006, 12:02:28
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.
Quote from: tim on July 16, 2006, 12:02:28
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.
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.
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 !
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.
Quote from: bennettsleg on July 17, 2006, 10:27:58
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
::)
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 ::)
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
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
Quote from: Chantenay on July 20, 2006, 08:34:11
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 >:(
at this point can i just say that if anyone has a variety of diseases..including desquamation of the skin(flakiness to you and me!-i.e. excema,psoriasis etc)crohns,renal problems,well-anywayy-check the leaflets available...or is on tax credit thingies -working or child...then you can get vast reductions on a metered bill...
i know-i'm just full of fascinating facts!...
well...full of something!! ;D
anyway-anyone i have mentioned this too has had no idea about reductions...*kitty shakes head*
gotta know what q's to ask!
kitty
Wow that's really well worth knowing kitty ;) thanks :D
My veg are complaining my peas are not taking off at all and i've lost most of the savoy cabbage I sowed got very dishearted. Hose pipe ban in operation but use it to fill my water butt still takes me 2 hrs + to water.
That reminds me, I was planting out leeklets tonight and completely forgot to water my trays at home - and the brassicas have been hit by aphids so they need all the help they can get. Going to have to water them in the morning now. Got scout camp over the weekend as well.
Your busy redclanger have you got a baby sitter for your trays? I'm going to have to ask my neighbour if he will look after my leeks they still look like grass will they ever grow for me to plant out?
If they're not growing in the trays it's worth planting them out temporarily to grow on for a bit before putting in properly. Once they're over six inches long they're big enough to go in the holes, no matter how thin.
Fortunate enough not to have a hosepipe ban here in Dundee and have taps on site. However we are even struggling to keep up with the watering, the gfround is just dry dust at the moment.
Been watering most things at least every other day, more for the lettuce and seeds just planted if poss. have have to rig shading for the late planting of swede and beetroot or they burn as soon as they come up. takes 15-40 mins to water depending whether I do all or just some.
To the person who wanted a syphon - Try pet shops as they often sell them for emptying fish tanks.
Just come back (about 10mins)from a fortnights Holiday :(
I'm dreading to think what tha lottie looks like without watering for the time i've been away:(
Think the greenhouse and pumpkins will have suffered to say the least :'(
going up when i've had a coffee.
Ps
could not wait to get on to A4ALL ;D
No piped water at our allotment, but luckily a previous tenant has set up a great sytem of staggered water butts. Only realised in the recent shortage that he must have dug a hole at least 3 ft deep to sink the lowest one! Even so, supplies are getting low. I'm amazed I've got such a lovely crop of french beans- thought they needed loads of water. Just glad I decided not to use the greenhouse at the alllotment this year- I would definitely have run out by now!