Allotments 4 All

You will have to excuse my naivety on this subject but the last time we had one in Kent I was very young indeed.  What does this mean?  Does it mean that we cannot use hosepipes to water our gardens, but we can fill up watering cans and continue to water ?  What if I defied the ban and continued to use a hose, what is the worst that can happen to me?  Please do not take this question that I am someone that flouts and breaks the law (as I don't) I just want to know the do's and don'ts...
Sorry if this question is very basic but I have searched on the net and there is nothing on this topic on the do's and don'ts...
Many thanks in advance for any advice anyone can give me.
Yours very law abidingly, Suzie

Generally - although I will stand corrected if anyone know better - a hosepipe ban means just that, hosepipes cannot be employed for watering. However you can still fill a watering can from the tap and then water. The theory is that banning the hosepipe stops the indiscriminate spraying. As for penalties I'm not sure who enforces them.

Bodolph

I was also pondering this question....

Would a hose pipe ban affect an allotment? 

With my thinking cap on ... I would like to think not as most allotmenteers are doing their bit to ensure self-sufficienty and not just washing their cars, watering the lawn, and watering flowers. 

But then again a ban is a ban...

Wonder if we could still top op our water butts? 

Hmmmm...

i think  what bodoplh said sums it up.
if you have to carry water in cans from waterbut/hosepipe source to the bed, you are hardly going to waste that prescious water.
a hosepipe ban does stop spraying of areas with the water, as that is not that effective, and a lot gets wasted. spot-watering at the base of each plant is better than wetting the whole plot/mulch etc anyways.

so yes, use the hosepipe to fill up your waterbut or watering can, then carry the precious liquid to where it's needed.

my mom, ever saving anything useable, in the height of summer has been known to save the showering/bath water (obviously washing with minute amounts of soap or none at all) and carrying that water to the plants. they sure thanked her for it. :) (only applicable if your garden is right next to your house, of course)

svea

Many thanks for all your responses, so watering can it will be then if it is imposed.....Funny thing Svea I remember my mum making us share baths (not with all the neighbours I hasten to add!!) in 1976 and putting the plug in when we brushed our teeth to save water...  ;D  She then used to bring buckets of used bathwater down the stairs to the garden to water the veg......

I think we had standpipes in the street where we used to all queue up to fill our recepticals, which made me think, how did we bathe??!!

I am far to young to remember that  ;D but would say that on a lot of allotments you are not supposed to use a hosepipe to water your plants regardless of a ban.  Check with your lottie regulations or guvna.

Standpipes? We had a pump on the 'green' outside our house. Picture to prove it!  And, of course, used the bath water for the garden. But, if you are on a meter, as we have been for decades, it does temper your useage? I reckon that everyone should be. Do you keep the water running while you brush your teeth?
I have never known an 'authority' check in this neighbourhood, even for the non-return valves that everyone should have on a standpipe. DO YOU??

As has been indicated, sprinkling seems to be for golf courses, where the rich (these days) have to be taken care of. It is such a bad way to water plants. Mostly what it does is tempt the roots to the surface & create a crust there. But if you are point watering, know what you want to apply & time the outflow of your dispenser.

It all boils down to honesty in the end?

Give me another Scotch!!

Etc, etc!

Never keep the tap running whilst I brush my teeth, or whilst I soap meself when I shower, also known in our household not to flush the loo between errrrr ..... liquid gold deposits.........because we used to have to survive on the water our roof provided for us in a hot climate.....makes you careful of water useage, and to appreciate what comes out of a tap!!!

baths ??

Baths !?!?!?

you should have been showering !!!!


or using carrot crunchers sink

depends how long you shower for... if you shower for longer than 12 minutes then its more efficient energy wise to have a bath


i don't use hosepipes to water, don't like the idea of waste or watering weeds. the other plot holders think i'm mad but hey, it makes me happy. i water the absolute minmum in any case - i like my plants to look after themselves a bit and grow deep roots looking for their own water rather than be pampered by me!!

I'm told that the last hosepipe ban wasn't applied to our allotments. Farmers are allowed to continue also. This is either because it's for growing food, or more likely because it's metered. It's only those who pay a set fee who get restricted it seems!

from what i understand there are different types of hosepipe ban just to make things confusing.

unattended hosepipe ban - this just bans sprinklers really and is the first to come into effect.

blanket hosepipe ban - covers all hosepipes (domestic) and applies until they cut off supplies and have us queing in the street :o

just a thought but as an island arn't we surrounded by the stuff? and as the sea level is rising why don't we take some of that eh.  ;D something for tony to think about before the election(not)!!!

Quote from: filstaz on April 12, 2005, 08:59:47

just a thought but as an island arn't we surrounded by the stuff? and as the sea level is rising why don't we take some of that eh.  ;D something for tony to think about before the election(not)!!!

Desalination plants are very expensive to run, especially to produce drinkable water (but it'll still taste a bit salty), so we'd be paying much higher water rates and buying bottled water to drink. Far better to save what you can, and use 'grey' water where you can.

A friend of mine has rigged up a system that can direct bathwater into his huge water tank in the garden, which he then uses for irrigation (seep hoses etc). Obviously not very useful for a lottie some distance from your bath. Baths on the allotments, anyone?

Funny you should mention baths on the 'lotment. I have an old bath surplus to requirements that is becoming a header tank for my irrigation system. It will sit at the top of the site nearer the water pump (we lift water straight from the river Thames water table). I'll raise it up a couple of feet and the resultant pressure should be enough!

We haven't had a hosepipe ban in years - at least in my part of the country!

not that it affects me anyway - we don't have an outside tap. all water for the garden has to be carried down from the kitchen (1st floor flat).

i remember collecting water from washing hands etc to water garden when we were kids. I still collect the water that's cold before it gets hot when you're running the hot tap. (that produces 10-12 pints of water each time!)

I'd love to use my bathwater on the garden, but I have very dry skin, so have to use bubble bath and I heard that can't go on the garden.

Quote

A friend of mine has rigged up a system that can direct bathwater into his huge water tank in the garden, which he then uses for irrigation (seep hoses etc). Obviously not very useful for a lottie some distance from your bath. Baths on the allotments, anyone?

I would be interested to hear how your friend did that SpeedyMango.

And personally I would have thought a hosepipe ban was a hosepipe ban, regardless of whether you are on a meter, end of story, certainly was here the last time we had one.
Most people waste far too much water every day and yes I turn off the tap when brushing my teeth and like aquilegia I collect the water that runs cold before it runs hot.

MM

What is it with running the tap whilst brushing ones teeth? never quite worked out why it was required to wet the brush first.

L.

when i was in the navy well two years ago i was in charge of making fresh water out of sea water and when we showered we had three mins to get a shower
so you had to be quick
talking of a shower i am am going for a good shower ;)

Hi all, On the subject of water...

Anglian water use a helicopter to catch people using sprinklers when they impose a ban.

You can buy useful sprinklers and weep hose from value shops for a couple of quid which means you can get on with other things on the lottie whilst it waters itself. I always end up soaked. :)

This year I can collect all the run off from my sheds in three butts and mostly use that, all the guttering came from a skip but apart from that my NGOH has decided to be in charge of watering this summer. I`m putting a standpipe in the middle of the plot all she has to do is connect it to the main tap and turn it on.

Has anybody ever made or used an Archemedian Screw as used in ancient (and maybe modern) Egypt to get water from a river for irrigation?

Col