So, this hosepipe ban.

[lindyloo]

4 heavy containers for approximately 200 feet!!! every day - your stronger than me! and younger!!! then again i have done it for 15 years, as well as bales of hay and straw, until the last couple of years when due to arthritis and various injuries, i have had to adjust somewhat. so now use the stream if it is flowing. ( but as it runs aside the road, i worry about pollution.) even the water companies will bring a bowser to livestock if they didnt have any, so at least i am saving them the trouble.

[Two_Sheds]

What did farmers do before hosepipes? (serious question). Dewponds?

[lindyloo]

yes- but i am not a farmer! i am just a older woman who is responsible for her old pets,and faithful friends, and is lucky enough to have someone let me use a paddock for free.( so i do not have the tools or facilities farmers have) when i lived on the family farm, they had 5 ponds and a reservior. (and farmers also pay higher rates as industrial users, for all the water they use). i dont feel guilty in the least about what i am doing. i take a bathe and wash my hair once a week. so does my son, who still lives at home. i use a small round basin to do the washing up, rather than use a dishwasher or fill the sink. we fill the kettle for just the amount of cups we neeed to fill, and dont leave taps running, plus the loo is on low flush. .and we do 2 loads of wash per week, so my impact on the water level is very slight... now if you want to talk about my sister and her brood- about 20 loads of wash a week, 8 bathes or showers per day, car wash every week end.... what really p-s me off is , i pay for every ounce i use, but she doesnt, as she is not on a meter! ( much as i like my sister! )

p.s. when i fill my containers, i put the hose into the first container before i turn the hose on and then it fills as i come back through the house. i also go to turn the hose off, before the last container is half full, so when i change over the 2 middle containers, i put the hose into one or other of the 2 tubs which house my lilac tree, and my rowan tree, while i lift the full container out of the way, and replace it with the empty one. if i watered the pots with a bucket, i would still use the same amount of water. actually, i do it so fast, it would probably use more!

[Two_Sheds]

i dont feel guilty in the least about what i am doing.

And so you shouldn't. Please don't feel you have to justify yourself on here
The hosepipe ban is more aimed at those who turn the sprinkler on every day and leave it running, needlessly.

[teakdesk]

I have a group of neighbours who:-

A/ complain about the household which has an unkempt garden because it makes the street scruffy
B/ complain about the old chap who lives for his immaculate garden because he uses a hose during dry spells - he doesn't use it during hosepipe bans or threats thereof



One of that group told me last year that they use their washing machine every day and couldn't live without their dishwasher.
This was during a conversation about how much it would cost them if they were forced to have a water meter fitted.

I know the old chap has voluntarily had a water meter fitted so he can regulate how much water he uses and pay his due.


Just another example of the bigoted, sexist, racist, discriminatory world we live in.


In dry spells I'd rather stop washing myself and my clothes and my dishes (my ancestors all seemed to live Ok without the current fad for cleanliness) than stop occasionally watering my vegetables by hose as I'm not capable of watering them by can (my ancestors didn't live long without food).

[bubblewrap]

Nothing, no difference really othere than the boffins that are in the "government" reckon that we lazy louts out here in real life wont spend an hour wandering about with a watering can but we will spend five hours drinking pina coladas sat on our bums watching the water coming out the end of the hose.......................Another good idea is to approach ones local Wytch and imbibe her with Mead and ask for a rain spell.............Or a spell of rain.........

An hour with the can?
It takes me an hour with the pipe.
If I used a can it would take me at least 5 hours as I have 330 square yards of fully planted lottie to water.

[Two_Sheds]

There should be more education about how to garden without watering every day: esp. lawns, which we know come back again after turning brown.

My lawn is still green because I don't shave it really short (and it's got a lot of clover in it too). All round our estate the verges are shaved, brown parched deserts. The council hasn't got a clue: they mow once a week regardless of the state of the grass, or if it's the middle of a drought.

I suggested to them turning the town's verges into mini wildflower meadows, but didn't receive a reply

[piskieinboots]

....: esp. lawns, which we know come back again after turning brown.

Beats me why anyone would water a lawn - unless you are a professional bowling green

[jacob marley]

I have 4 water buts on my 2 plots and they get filled up with the hose but we are not allowed to water with the hose .
I last filled the buts up 2 weeks ago but do not water that much since i started to make lots of compost the crops do not need so much water obviously the compost is improving the soil structure .
I am watering some small cabbage plants that have only been in 2 weeks once they get going properly they will not get any more.
The reason for filling the buts up was i could see a hosepipe ban coming but we have not got 1 yet .
So if you can composting is the way to go...jacob

[lindyloo]

i'm another one who likes the grass fairly long, and it's mostly clover and moss anyway- which i really like, but my nieghbors cut thier's very short and try to get rid of everything that's not pure grass. so theres is now beige, mine is still greenish- not vibrant, but green with yellow tinges. two sheds; glad your not too horified about my watering then. i'm very good really. in fact we dont have a hosepipe ban in this area yet. i expect it is imminent tho'.

[Incy]

I don't water my beds very much as they are raised beds sat on heavy clay soil so I reckon they have enough moisture further down for the plants to find.
The ban will be a bit of a pain for watering the hanging basket toms as they are a little high to comfortably use a can but I'm sure I'll manage. I'll probably use a plastic bottle or something to be able to reach more easily. Having grown up in an area with regular hosepipe bans it's something I'm fairly used to even though they are uncommon here in the north west. It would however be nice if the utility companies could sort leaks out promptly when they occur as that is one of the biggest areas of water wastage.

[Alison]

I was at a presentation by somebody senior in Unitied Utilities yesterday and he said that they were reducing certain activities which needed a lot of water for, say washing, over this summer so as to preserve more water. Probably more for PR reasons but every little counts.

[Nicos]

What did farmers do before hosepipes? (serious question). Dewponds?

Where we used to live, all the fields had empty dewponds in them

Dew pond - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

this one's a bit more 'egghead'- but it is interesting to skim through..

Air Wells, Dew Ponds and Fog Fences: Methods to Condense Atmospheric Humidity

Ya know- we really, really need to sort out all those leaking pipes and devise a way to collect our more than ample annual rainfall don't we?

Yes- as consumers we need to be less selfish ( who really needs a lush green lawn and clean car??)..and do our utmost to preserve our water( all year round!)- but some decision HAS to be made about who is going to pay for repairing/replacing all those leaking pipes.
Tis all down to money and profits isn't it?

[teakdesk]

Ya know- we really, really need to sort out all those leaking pipes ...

Newton's Third Law states that for every reaction there is an equal and opposite reaction and this often seems to hold in environmental matters...

A few years ago there was a river that an industrial company wanted to divert (can't remember why) and the local environmental group opposed the diversion due to the wildlife that lived in the river.

The company won but had to agree that they would restore the river when the process came to an end.

Ten years later the company started to restore the river and were opposed by the same environmental group because the wet-land that was naturally created at the old river site had attracted many rare species.

In other words, when humans do something that seems bad nature has a way of turning it round to its advantage.



Why did I quote this?


Because I wonder what benefits nature gets from all this leaking water. It has to go somewhere - it doesn't just disappear!!

I'm sure that if leaking pipes are repaired there will be streams and becks that then dry up killing many rare species.

And if water is stopped leaking under roads and houses then the ground will dry and shrink causing roads to collapse and house walls to crack and crumble.

I'm sure there will be other bad effects that come from stopping leaks!!

[Nicos]

...hadn't thought of it like that to be honest- but it's certainly a very expensive way of 'playing' with the environment