Hosepipe bans

Are you affected? :confused: Details of areas where hosepipes are banned can be seen here. http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/subjects/waterres/1014767/1131486/1131550/?lang=_e

Apparently you can use a hose to fill water butts, ponds and containers without plants, (but not containers planted up!!) Bloody barmy bureaucrats - how will they know if someone waters an empty pot or a planted pot?

Anyway - I'm on the wrong side of the Herts/Essex border and it is very difficult. All the rain water has gone from both water butts and I have filled them only to have very nearly emptied them again. Never mind - thunder storms forecast tomorrow. Bet they miss me :rolleyes:

 

No hose pipe bans in E&Suff water or anglia water. Am watering my wilting plants and fresh turf in their clay bed soil! would be very much boogered if i had to rely soley on my rain water.

 

Hosepipe ban here in Kent :( Using bath water to water containers, came home from work late in the dark and lost count of the number of people in their front gardens using hoses :D

 

Well Poppy, I'd have no compunction in reporting them. If a ban has been imposed everyone should observe it. The hose pipe crew will no doubt be at the front of the queue if the domestic supply runs out and stand pipes are introduced.

No ban here, but even so we do empty the dish washing water onto the container plants and use the water butt too, and try to be as economical with water as possible. However I have to plead guilty to using a hose to give the car it's first wash for 6 weeks.
If we ever do get really stuck for water we've got a capped well in the garden about 20 feet deep which should help out.

Psst. Wanna buy a a bottle of Genuine Scottish you know what?! (Sorry couldn't resist it)

 

Hi guys!

I'm in a country where rain would be a welcome visitor. We've had one day of drizzle in three months ... and this is supposed to be our rainy season getting ready for the summer.

From an area of a country where we currently SERIOUSLY don't have rain ... the UK at least has regular drizzle ... wouldn't we welcome it here ...

Yes, we collect rain water in a huge underground cisterna (when we can) and use that for watering the garden. Bath water is also a good thing. We have gone as far in recent times past as putting the hose from our washing machine into tubs!

Obviously I'm into indigenous gardening ... drought tolerant plants and shrubs. However, surprise it may be to some, we do actually have frost in the Algarve in January / February. You may have read that Lisbon had snow for the first time in 53 years this past winter and most people didn't know what it was!

If we can manage to collect a wee bit of water here in our cisterna, surely you guys can collect a drop or two in your water butts from the drizzle.

For what it's worth, we don't have hosepipe bans here, strangely enough, but the water board has recently put out a pamplet sent to all households suggesting ways to save on water usage, even to the old point of "don't let the water run when you are brushing your teeth"! ....

Hope all of you keep your gardens green and your plants/trees/flowering and healthy by whatever method you deem proper as I do here.

VickyB

 

We are in south WET wales !! My water butt is still over 3/4 full ..but then ive only got pots !!! so hope everything lives the summer for you, our lawn is in a realy bad state and if we get a ban i may as well slab it !!!

 

Hi there IOGPs!

Can you bring your butt over here, please ... in the nicest possible way, of course!

I love lawns and we can't have one here for obvious reasons. Well, those who live in certain places do and use lots of water keeping them green ... as do all he golf courses here (and obviously I'm not a golfer) ... say no more!

I haven't been back to the Graig for many a year ... maybe some day ...

 

One water butt only lasts about a day, for my pots etc. when its hot at this time of year.
I've got four but that obviously means four days of no rain and they're all empty.
Think I'll have to get a swimming pool and fill that up over the winter. :D

 

Hornbeam - so sorry for you, I am sure you will survive, but what a hell of a lot of unecissary work!

 

I might survive, but some of my plants won't. I never water the lawn so I have no worries about that, but some of the roses are looking very sad with bleached flowers. My lovely clump of acanthus is flat and tender annuals haven't grown since planted out. I am fortunate that the bottom half of the garden stays moist. Front garden is ok too as its mainly drought resistant herbs and wild flowers. The roses are the problem and just when they should be at their best some flowers have even gone crisp and brittle! But that's gardening isn't it - we have to take the rough with the smooth and hope for the best next year.

 

Being ignorant on such things, how much does the "average" water butt hold?

Our cisterna (underground) can hold 19,000 litres ... ha, ha, should we ever get enough rain to put anything into it. Before three years ago when we went onto the mains we had to rely on this, or ask neighbours who have boreholdes to put water into our cisterna. I can tell you this was rough living for a few years !!!!

Mains water came to us about three years ago and what a blessing. Fortunately it is also cheap here, another surprise ... first 10 cubic metres 17 cents, about 10p, rsing to 1.34 Euros (just over a �£) for swimming pool fillups! Our average water bill is about �£10 every two months, which includes the irrigation!

As I have said before, certain areas of "wealth" use vast quantities of water for their swimming pools, grass, gardens, etc, wihout thinking of the environment (most of these people don't live here all ear round but rent their places out at up to �£2,000 a week) and then there are the golf courses. In saying that, that is the ecomony and the income for Algarve ... shame ....

I like indiginous gardening and do what I can to help the problems here by using and re-using water.

I'm sure you gardeners in England want ot do the same for the environment there.

Happy gardening, however we keep it going.

 

19 (potential) Tonnes of water; now I'm jealous!
We have a fairly small garden which is mostly hard standing with lots of large potted shrubs, this is great for flexibility but we would be sunk if a drought order were imposed. I'm currently planning an underground cistern. We in the UK could save huge amounts of run-off water from our roofs & patios if we put in the investment & effort. Surely this has to be the way forward in the long term.

 

Hooray!!! Its raining - Lovely big fat soft dollops of life giving splosh. I knew that rain dance would work!

 

no hose ban up here in scotland. but i still do all i can not to waste water.

 

Just a thought hornbeam but do you thing that pruning your roses hard back may give them more of a chance?

I suppose it would encourage root growth, but no water to feed rrots, but they could go lower, and you would stop water loss from leaves - very??? I know but drastic measures for drastic times.