Here in the North-West, there were never any restrictions on watering during the dry spell. No threat of a hosepipe ban. The problem with water, there's no infrastructure to move it in volume from one area to another in this country. The houses in our road are built on what was farmland until the mid-sixties. It's free draining and has some sand content, being on the former flood plain of the river Mersey. It can rain as hard as it likes, we never get pools on either the lawn or in the borders, not even water in the little drainage channel between the lawn and the beds. We've a lot of shallow rooted plants like azaleas and rhodos, some fine leaved acers and a sambucas that are liable to get scorched leaves in hot sun, plus five wisterias that are very thirsty and a couple of dozen roses in ceramic pots on patios that dry out quickly in hot weather. The tall acer tree in the front garden needs it too. So throughout the hot spell, I made sure everything got plenty of water, even the lawn. I know, "yellow" lawns will recover, but I find them unattractive. So the two lawn sprinklers were on for a few minutes every day, likewise the borders leaky hose system now and again., but mostly I used the hose to keep the the soil and the foliage damp and the fine leaved plants got a mist spray at lunch time if I was home. The patio pots got an evening water every day. We didn't lose any plants. Well, the accounting for this care and attention, has just arrived in the form of the twice yearly water bill. I'll be paying an extra pound a week for the next six months. That amount of money wouldn't replace one plant of a reasonable size if any had died for lack of water.. My next door neighbour lost a large tree and a few plants by not watering sufficiently.
Watering is such an important thing. The amount, the timing, preservation of moisture. These were also factors over here this summer. We gave an enormous amount this season. Also no losses for us, but others on our complex did loose plants. Getting the watering right, whether outside or in your home is a real art and requires experience to tailor what needs doing. What a challenge this year was.
We had exreme heat and a drought last year. This year, we've had drought conditions since late summer into early fall. June was very cool and wet however. We water faithfully. We're lucky to have access to irrigation. Last year people were asked to irrigate sparingly during the heat wave. We also use rain barrels, sink rinse water for the herb garden beside the porch and veggie washing water. As well as some well water. Our irrigation is gas powered - so the pump cost can add up quickly. Gas was up to 1.98 a litre here this summer. Timing is a large part of our success, as well as volume. Some areas are drip irrigation with cover to minimize evaporation. Others are overhead watered. Some hand watered. Some areas watered at dusk, others at dawn. Three new recruits to the area, as well as two old timers, have struggled with gardens over the last few years. Partly due to the climate challenges, but mostly ( in my humble opinion) due to innadequate watering practices. Many of them were amazed at how well their gardens did in June when it rained non stop. With the cost of produce here, the cost of fuel to drive the three hour return trip to town to buy produce, and the need to keep a green space due to forest fires, we willingly absorb the cost of maintaining the gardens and green space. I also recognize that we are very fortuneate to have the access to water that we have. Our well alone could not support our current gardens need for water. Some folks must get very creative, @marlingardener really works hard at water ingenuity.
With the water meter we have to keep an eye on how much we use, also, many of the cacti won't like the calcium in the tapwater so we collect as much rainwater as we can. We installed these a few years ago, 1000 litres (250 gallons) each... You can just see one of the smaller rainwater butts on the edge of the cactus house. We'll be adding more when I finish the Bothy roof and we get the new shed. We ran out of rainwater this summer
@Zigs - that is a very impressive watering system. Do you have gutters/down spouts filling them? I hope they are full again now.
Ta Mel All full again now. There's an overhead gutter system from the roof. The rain goes through a filter to keep out leaves and stuff. Important to have black IBC's to keep the sunlight off the stored water, otherwise it goes green with algae
The watering system I have is b-hive all sectioned out by zones to water at night, by minutes designated to each zone around the garden. Its on my iPhone and computers.. water is from a well and a few years ago installed a larger underground holding tank . Was well worth the effort and now there is enough water for showers at the end of the day after watering garden. Some days would run out of water with just one holding tank… putting the top on in pic . Now have 2400 gal.
How long does it take to fill up that tank.. Just a guess 250 gal tank here on a down spot connect , would be full in a couple months. that is a impressive system. If snows do you use gutter heaters to defrost the ice to for water hot flow in the tank?
With the size roof they can be full in a few good downpours, say 4 for good measure. It doesn't usually stay frozen for very long in the UK, maybe a few weeks of below freezing over the winter if we're lucky. Gulf stream usually keeps the coast ice free. The exception to that was the winter of 2010. Some of the harbours started to ice up, don't remember sea ice freezing in my lifetime Nothing useful on the news about why so I joined a scientific forum to see if anyone there had a clue. Turned out the gulf stream had diverted around the other side of Greenland. No one on the mainstream news thought that worthy of reporting
I can just remember when the sea froze over around the Kent coast in 1947. I daresay it will happen again sometime in the next few years as well. It was global freezing then and it will happen again! The picture is of Whitstable (where the oysters come from) harbour.
Zigs… Just curious because when the gutters freeze here for a few days as the frozen water on the roof thaws the gutters are still frozen , downspout along with the scuppers. This condition usually leads to a big mess as the gutters over flow all the way around the entire house water spilling off the sides of the gutters. Then it’s power washing the entire house the next season. Of course this also leads the roof to the moss invasion in spring. we cross posted… wow what a pic… Usually the sea will freeze from what I read at lower temperatures depending on the salt value in the water. entire sea in areas here have huge foam chunks forming as the seas churns up from storms. Kind of like a mixing machine..
Tetters. I use heating tape inside gutters from the roof , usually just wrap heating tape In some some areas in shade no sun. Sweeping the ice off is a whole lot easier for me than using the heating cables below link…it’s only a occasional thing when we get a extremely heavy wet snow which can be concerning with roof weight limits. It’s just easier to get up on the roof and sweep the ice once it start to melt during the day and clean out the down spouts by pushing the opposite end of broom down to open for drainage. It helps to put heat tape on bottom of down spouts to keep the water flowing rather than having the melted water back up in the down spouts and pour out the top. That’s a issue with how water gets under the gutters and in time can cause rot damage. These cables all need to be plugged in and having elec plug ins outside is a must. There are heating cables which I have tired , it’s more of a pain to use, all the cables and coils block the down spouts and I still have to get up and unclog the leaf and debris clutter . The well pipe is wrapped and also the well pump at the water above ground pipe into the house has a insulated cover. Sometimes if a unusually cold snap hits I will put a heavy 4’ Rubbermaid trash can over the well faucet pipe above ground because it out in the middle of the pasture and add a light to keep the area warm enough from freezing. Gees the things we do just to flush the ….showers …..etc..it’s like how many hoops are we jumping thru this winter to avoid spendy plumbing and roof repairs. Link for roof cables.. https://www.heatingelementsplus.com/heat-trace-cable/ul-approved-roof-gutter-cable.html
