[acetaria]

greetings fellow vegetable gardeners,

Couldn't find an FAQ but I am sure this has been discussed before...anyway here goes.....

I am a newish allotment holder and wondering you can advise me on the ethics of hose pipe watering. I am getting conflicting opinions about if its really 'moral' to use them at all. Last year in London we had a hosepipe ban and despite moving large amounts of litres of water every day by hand I still couldn't keep up with the demands of what I had planted. This year we may not have on (yet) but my allotments officer is saying we shouldn't 'really' use hoses and do it all by hand. Its hard to contemplate planting water intensive crops under such conditions. If there is no ban this year am I a 'bad gardener' if I use a hose? Surely the big picture here is that the UK has loads of water its just mostly in the wrong place and due to chronic underinvestment 30%  seeps out the pipes before it ever gets to a tap (in London). If I invest in micro drip surely I am wasting less water than even waving a  watering can around, let alone a large moving sprinkler system like you see in parks and on farms. Finally what is the point of promoting healthy veg gardening if you can't actually grow something interesting to eat, namely the things that need lots of water. People talk to me about planning for droughts and dry gardens, olive tree's etc but I am based in Kent, the 'garden of england' and I should be planting an Olive grove and some dull Australian shrubs?

Any debate, clues, views and links appreciated?
 
Andy Freeman

[noshed]

We have a permanent hosepipe ban on our site so it does concentrate the mind. Mulching and the use of butts is essential. Also cans do make you concentrate the water better.
Also I don't water anything but seedlings - except tomatoes last year and that was only when they drooped.
You do develop big shoulders though.

[sausage]

We have a permanent hosepipe ban on our site so it does concentrate the mind. Mulching and the use of butts is essential. Also cans do make you concentrate the water better.
Also I don't water anything but seedlings - except tomatoes last year and that was only when they drooped.
You do develop big shoulders though.

Whats Mulching?

[crowndale]

I'm an evil vege grower, I use a hose!  But it is in my back garden and we are fortunate not to have had a hose ban in many years.  The local allotment used to have running water and hosing was frowned upon but many did it, this year it has been found the pipes are leaking and hte local council have turned off the water until they fix it (hahahaha) so they are bringing in a lorry with water but it only fills up the several troughs on site (around 40 allotments).  The water was delivered saturday, by yesterday afternoon the troughs were empty.  So some are bringing it in from home in bottles, not very efficient but the only solution.  

Personally, if there was running water and no ban I would not feel bad about using a hose, it's got to be better than filling watering cans dozens of times even if that method keeps the allotment holder fitter, it's hugely time consuming and judgin by my efforts at occasionally using a watering can it is also wasteful as much gets spilt between tap and plant not to mention how much misses the can in the filling of it or the plant in the attempts to water it.

[Zak the Rabbit]

i work on the following principles -

1. reduce the need for additional water where possible, ie by mulching
2. i am growing foodstuffs. It is my right to eat fresh food. In order to grow food they need water, so it is my right to provide water to my crops.
3. I use where i can stored rainwater, but when that runs out, point 2 above requires that i use potable water
4. I have a water meter. I pay for what i use.

regarding point 4 - i have a car, the dealer i bought it from has no right to tell me where and when i can drive it. I buy my water, what i do with it is up to me.

If i use a hose, or if i take the evening to carry the 15 watering cans, the net result is the same - i transfer some 80-100 litres of water.

i say get yer pipe out!

[acetaria]

The local allotment used to have running water and hosing was frowned upon but many did it, this year it has been found the pipes are leaking and hte local council have turned off the water until they fix it (hahahaha) so they are bringing in a lorry with water but it only fills up the several troughs on site (around 40 allotments).  The water was delivered saturday, by yesterday afternoon the troughs were empty.  So some are bringing it in from home in bottles, not very efficient but the only solution.  

Is this what they mean by 'water torture'?

[GrannieAnnie]

We don't have a hose pipe ban here in Lincolnshire, but I am trying not to use my hose, one reason being we are on a water meter, and the more I use the more it costs us!!!  But you are right in that it is hard work carting what seems like hundreds of cans of water around.

I think this is a very personal matter.  Its how you feel yourself about the subject.  Yes, the UK does have loads of water, we are surrounded by the stuff, but if you talk to people on here who know about these things, de-salination plants cost a lot of money to build and I suppose maintain, also there is the cost of getting water from the areas of the country where they have too much, to the areas where they don't have enough.

So personally, we have 2 green water butts (which are now empty after being overfull for weeks) and an IBC container which holds I think 250 gallons which is now half empty, but I have been using that for the chickens too, and have just heard from my water company, that my monthly payments are coming down from £11 a month to £9 a month!!!  Okay, that's only £24 a year, but it all helps!  I just need more water butts!  Went for one on freecycle last week, but got beaten to it!!!

However, saying that, I don't think I'd fancy watering a whole allotment by hand!!!!

[Sadgit]

at our side I have a tap a few feet from my plot and I use it all the time with a hose pipe.. it is there for a reason so I will use it. I have a water butt but it has been dry as a bone lately so I had no choice.

At home I try not to use much tap water on the veggies as our water bill is sky high already!! so i even wash the car at the plot now  :oops:

[GrannieAnnie]

At home I try not to use much tap water on the veggies as our water bill is sky high already!! so i even wash the car at the plot now  :oops:[/quote]


OH can go one better SG, he never washes the car, just waits for it to rain!!!

[Oscar Too]

Watering by hose uses more water than by can.  If you are going to water by hose (and I do), use it as sensibly as possible.  

Water late in the evening so that it gets a chance to penetrate, not evaporate.  


Aim the water properly - water the roots, not the leaves (except cues, keep water away from their stems).

Don't use sprinklers, all they do is make rainbows and waste water.

Mulch, mulch, mulch.

Using washing-up water where possible - the washing-up liquid will not damage the plants and some even like it.  All our washing-up water goes on the garden.  If I could get a grey water system i.e. to recover and use shower and bath water I'd do it.

Think of water recovery eg water butts.

Water is a precious resource and one that is being terribly mismanaged.  There will be water conflicts in the near future in the same way that there are oil conflicts now.  I think we'll all have to get used to using less.

[sausage]

We have a permanent hosepipe ban on our site so it does concentrate the mind. Mulching and the use of butts is essential. Also cans do make you concentrate the water better.
Also I don't water anything but seedlings - except tomatoes last year and that was only when they drooped.
You do develop big shoulders though.

Whats Mulching?

But what exactly is mulching? sorry if this is a dumb question (again)

[ytyynycefn]

Mulching is covering the soil - there are many things you can use.  My spud beds are mulched with black ploythene sheet, which I cut slits in and planted through.  All my beds are mulched with rotted horse manure, except the roots bed, which isn't at the moment.  When the plants are big enough, I'll shove something between the rows, possibly straw.

Mulching helps stop the soil from drying out, but also protects it from heavy rain, and blowing away in dry, windy conditions.  It can also protect the plants.  On the downside it can be a great harbour for slugs!  But a good home for beetles, worms and other good beasties.  It's much easier to pull weeds out (it's loosed than soil), and hopefully smothers annual weed seeds before they germinate.  My manure mulch will be dug in at the end of the season, and more added in autumn/winter.

On the hosepipe front, there's no choice on my site, no running water!  I've got 2 350 gallon (1000 litre) IBC containers linked together and connected to the guttering on my shed and greenhouse.  When they're full, I have enough pressure to run a slow hose and a gravity fed watering system in the greenhouse.  I also have a generator and a pond pump, so I can fill them from the river that runds alongside the plot.  I'm going to get a third IBC for the bottom end of the plot, and rig up a corrugated iron roof for my row of 5 compost bins, and collect the water falling on those.  Last year I had none of this in place, so had to carry all my water in cans and buckets from my house a couple of hundred yards away  :shock:

I'm only watering newly planted seeds and transplants, the new fruit trees and canes, and in the GH,  My soil holds water pretty well, and I didn't water very much last year, so I'll keep with that same thing this year.  My swedes, leeks and caulis were quite small, though - but it was my first season, so may just have been me being not very good at it!

[4 Candles]

I only water with a can filled from one of my three water butts.

Unfortunately the butts have become empty over the last few weeks of dry weather....


.....so I filled 'em up with a hosepipe!

[wellingtons]

... and I'll probably say it again ...     Water what really needs watering and allow the rest to find their own way to water.  Every plant wants to survive and they will find it wherever possible, if by frequent water you teach them that can find water near the surface they will never learn to seek it elsewhere and you're making a rod for your own watering can.

We had hosepipe ban here last year and it wasn't until September that some bugrit told me that I could fill my waterbutt from the pipe!  I watered salad crops and anything that looked as if it might expire, and the greedy crops like courgettes and pumpkins.  But I dug out little moats around the plants so no water was just skimming over the surface.

Yields were down, but I still had enough veg to feed me and my nearest and dearest, I just wasn't reduced to chasing the neighbours around the close with a bag of courgettes begging one of them to eat some!  

If you can't keep up with the watering demands of your plot then you may be need to rethink what you plant.  And how you plant.  And what you expect from what you have planted.  Because if and when a hosepipe ban does kick it'll be harder for you to cope if you've been watering liberally than if you haven't.

Good luck!

[Trillium]

One extra tip for saving water, is to collect the tap water you let run so you can get either hot or cold water. Amazing how much wasted water goes down the drain rather than into a collection jug. Same with the bathroom tap. It's a bit of a nuisance, but you're paying for it anyway so why waste it? And people who let tap water run while they shave or brush teeth should be saving it as well or at least turning off the tap.  And empty any leftover teakettle water into the butts instead of the drain.
Doesn't make lugging it to the lotty any easier but now you have a clearer conscience when those bans crop up.