[ytyynycefn]

Well, after surprisingly little success trying to get a length of hosepipe off Freecycle for a couple of months, Jay found me some this morning by the bins at school when he took the nipper in this morning    They were more than happy for us to take it, as we'll be providing lots of seedlings, help etc for their veg patch project.

There's enough to join my IBCs together, and reach all round the plot from one or other of them, so hopefully that's my watering nightmares (last year I had what I could carry from the house) done and dusted.  It'll be the wettest summer on record now, you'll see  :roll:

[muntjac]

or ya gona get a hose pipe ban lolo

[ytyynycefn]

Well, they haven't had a ban here for nearly two decades  :shock:  And as the water in my IBCs is just collected rainwater, I think I'll just about get away with it lol!

[muntjac]

under emergency they can take water from ya pond mate  

[ytyynycefn]

They'll have the river first, and that's only 8 feet away from my plot  

[muntjac]

lucky you ,,,, hope ya got n extraction permit lol

[ytyynycefn]

How do you get one of those???

Jay is planning on rigging up a pump so that we can refill from the river if necessary.  Not entirely how without a PTO on the Landy, but he says he has a cunning plan.  :shock:

[muntjac]

ya dont   u hide a pipe n large pond pump in a wire box .in the river  n just pump when ya need to .... oh n check if ya got crayfish in the river if ya got signal ones ya can trap em n eat em .if they english ya throw em back

http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Tackle-Traders

[ytyynycefn]

I've just checked the Environment Agency Wales website, who say you only need on if you're extracting more than 4000 litres a day, so should be alright to pull a few hundred out once a week or so.  

We've got a 240v power convertor and I can get a big pond pump off my dad, so we'll see what we can rig up  :?

[richyrich7]

Thats right we can extract water from our brook, never bothered tho'. Rekon if I took 4000 litres out a week it would dry up  

[ytyynycefn]

Well, last year I was limited to just what I could carry the couple of hundred yards from my house, so I'm blooming determined not to have any water issues this year  :twisted:

[richyrich7]

Don't blame you , must have been back breaking work in the hot summer.

[ytyynycefn]

It was, which is why nothing got enough water  :oops:

It'll be interesting to see how much difference manure and water will make to my yields...

[Trillium]

What you really need to help minimize watering is lots of mulch around the plants: shredded leaves, straw, etc. I put mine on early after a good rainfall and lots of it, but not touching any stalks. Just check it from time in case you need to water a bit. Beats regularly lugging around watering cans, etc and wasting all that time. And we don't even have water bans my way. Also keeps weeds under control. Slugs aren't much problem really, not when it's that dry.  

[Eristic]

. Slugs aren't much problem really, not when it's that dry.

This is a general misconception that slugs cannot take heat or dry conditions. Unfortunately they thrive in these conditions. Slugs travel quite a distance each night to and from a disirable food supply and tend to mobilise shortly after sunset. At this time, the surrounding surfaces attract moisture from the air which has suddenly cooled down thereby raising the humidity.

Last summer I walkwd round the suseptable areas of my plot every evening at dusk and gathered staggering numbers of slugs which suddenly appeared and raced to the food. It does help if you have blue eyes though.