Allotments 4 All

Can anyone advise me? Now that we have a hose pipe ban is it legal still to fill your watering cans with the hose pipe or do I have to too and fro from the kitchen sink taps?  ::)

I only use the hose pipe for my hanging baskets and pumpkins and realise that I am now spilling more water lifting the heavy can so high up,  what a palava  ::)

Hosepipe ban means just that..total ban...I only use my hosepipe to fill mu butts on the plot when they are empty..if we get a ban I wont be able to do that...it will be numerous trips with the watering can.

Thank for that Fork, googled the legalites of it all, but the advice was all very conflicting.

Trips in and out of the house with 2 litre bottles it is the, oh what joy!

I was led to believe you can fill your cans with a pipe, the reason being spraying with a hose goes everywhere, the cans get aimed where you want them with no wasted water, you can fill a paddling pool for your children and use the water afterwards, dip the cans in the pool, Bobs your uncle.  ;D ;D ;D

What Fork said, you can't use the hose, not even to siphon the water out of your bath - seriously.  You can't use a leaky hose irrigation system either.

You can, however, use the hose to fill a pond if it has fish because they count as livestock.

Not sure why you couldn't use a pipe to siphon dirty water from your bathtub, can't see anything anyhwre to prevent this, or to siphon and pipe from stored water in butts.

Just had a (great) weekend in the Lake District and a typical very wet one it was too. None stop rain all day saturday, footpaths under water and lots of swollen overflowing streams roaring donw the hills!

Camp site owner said it started raining on the day the hosepipe ban came into operation!!
Its a long time since the Cockermouth floods but you do wonder about the water companies strategies - its not that unusual to go several months without significant rain (maybe paying shareholders dividends is a bigger priority than water conservation measures).

Get a cheap plastic dustbin which can be filled by hose.  Dipping the watering can is quick and easy and if you are slowly filling with the hose while you are dipping the water doesn't run out.

In a previous garden, I also had a plastic water tank (from someone's loft) next to the greenhouse  which had a hose running permanently down the back of a border for easy filling.

Quote from: jennym on July 13, 2010, 00:41:35
Not sure why you couldn't use a pipe to siphon dirty water from your bathtub, can't see anything anyhwre to prevent this, or to siphon and pipe from stored water in butts.

It's a hosepipe ban, and the regulation doesn't make any distinction about what it's connected to, it just bans the use of hosepipes.

Quote from: redcoat on July 13, 2010, 07:35:17
Get a cheap plastic dustbin which can be filled by hose.  Dipping the watering can is quick and easy and if you are slowly filling with the hose while you are dipping the water doesn't run out.

A hosepipe ban is a ban on the use of hoses in general and not just the use of a hose connected to a mains tap, so you can't fill the butt with a hose.

John on our site contacted United Utilities for some clarification and posted the answers on his website

http://www.allotment.org.uk/garden-diary/990/hosepipe-ban-update/

Seems you can use the hosepipe to fill a watering can with but not water the crops directly with a hosepipe.  And disabled people can still use a hosepipe.

When I was on a water meter and starting a new garden, I wrote to the water company and said I was using a siphon hosepipe to recycle my bathwater onto the garden so as not to cause any confusion if a hosepipe ban came in.  I might have accidentaly left the bath tap running on the odd occasion whilst siphoning, but mostly I was a good girl.

My previous answer wasn't very good.  This is a better answer:  The water company can select items from the list in S.36 Flood & Water Management Act 2010.  They can't just decide for themselves what to ban and they don't have to ban everything on the list.  This is what United Utilities have currently banned.

So they have indeed banned the watering of the garden and allotment with a hosepipe, and it is indeed allowable to water both with a watering can, but I can't for the life of me see clearly whether it's OK or not to fill the can with a hose.

God it feels good when I'm right.    :P :P :P :P :P

Quote from: Unwashed on July 13, 2010, 10:21:33
So they have indeed banned the watering of the garden and allotment with a hosepipe, and it is indeed allowable to water both with a watering can, but I can't for the life of me see clearly whether it's OK or not to fill the can with a hose.

Although I do water my vegetable plot with restraint, I do feel that there should be an exemption from the ban for pensioners, if only for vegetables. We don't have a ban in our area and haven't had one since I've been on a meter.

I think the hose ban is foolish for food crops period. If it comes down to feeding your family and possibly losing your harvest it is wrong in my opinion.

Sorry flower lovers but you can't eat the roses and whatever we like to do we don't have to shower every day, but without water food crops are going to die.

No one would expect a farmer to water his fields with a can so why should somone with a veggie garden have to.If the garden is big that is a lot of water to carry. People are just going to find ways around it.

Out lotties in the UK did not allow the use of hose pipes unless disabled .I was allowed to use  one so they put me a tap by the trough. Everybody promptly used it!!It was only supposed to be for filling barrells with though, not for hosing down. I knew that going in that lottie but if I has always used a hose then was not allowed I guess it would mean I would lose the crops. I admit when  I filled the barrells, the water splashed a bit.... I couldn't have done it without. Here we have hoses and fortunately we are surrounded by lakes, so fingers crossed that is over.

I really feel bad for you all, terrible if you lose veggies.

XX Jeannine

I read the Q & A on United Utilities site on Thursday and it said that we can use a short hose to fill a can or bucket from a tap. We can syphon with a short hose from a container to fill a can or bucket. A hose can not be used directly to wash cars, water gardens or allotments. Washing and watering has to be by the use of buckets or watering cans.

I checked their site again today and they have changed their Q & A  and there is no mention of using a short hose for filling cans and buckets.

They have taken off a lot of things which are allowed and just said that washing animals and fish ponds can be refilled, with a hose.

Curious.


I wonder if I put a dirty dog on the allotment and got him to run around a bit whilst I washed him, I would get away with it ?...........

...........(that was an attempt at humour before those who have no sense of humour start to quote it with replies).

Thankfully we are now getting the long awaited rain and that is doing the job nicely.  Most things are established enough not to need more than is being provided for from the sky.

Personally I hate standing with a hose and watering, it seems to be a waste of time I could better spend doing something else. 

Give the dog the running hose and play chase with him XX Jeannine

we can now use hose pipes to fill water butts,and its been raining  ;D  ;D
we dont allow plotholders to use hose pipes directly on to the plots,and for good reason! If someone asked to do so,i would rather water the plot for them than see all that wasted water!

Well that is fine for an allotment's site rules but there is a hose pipe ban in some areas in the North West. An area where there were loads of resovoirs which when the Thatcher government sold off our water the new owners sold off  these resovirs as prime building land and then said on TV. If there was no rain at all for two years, there would be enough water in the area.

Seems that the BBC have lost the clip but a few people remember it.

However, they are now saying that the water these resovoirs would have yeilded was not of good enough quality.

Funny, no one got ill from it in the past. Old argument but it still niggles.


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Actually on our site we have no water restrictions what so ever. Out side of the legal ones imposed on us and I was actually very surprised this year at the water bill for the period where it was dry. With 40+ plots over the three months ending on the 29th June it was under £400 which is less than £10 each.

Some people hardly water at all, others come down daily and use sprinklers. Impossible to police and our members have made it clear they would rather pay extra than have restrictions imposed.

Our site has now got dedicated gardeners. We have managed to get rid of those who think an allotment is a fashion accessory. They were much worse, some would come down when it was spitting rain and get out the hose to water their weeds. Something I would not have believed but witnessed it.

In fact, in the past, when the metered water was less per cubic meter, it cost us more and in those days we found that certain people would come on site in the morning, turn on their sprinklers then go to work and return later.

The solution was easy, we regular retired lot got there after our late breakfasts and turned off the stand pipe taps before we made a cup of tea and had a natter.

No one ever 'complained' that their hoses had been turned off so it was never a problem.

So we assume that they knew they were being 'cheeky'.

Worry Ye Not.  Today the rains have returned and our lotties are loving it.

On our site hoses are only allowed for filling butts which is quite understandable as when one plotholder is filling his butt, no one else can use the tap.  However in my experience when a hosepipe ban is enforced it is guaranteed that the use of a hosepipe is unnecceary.......it flaming well pours it down!!!