I have experienced water restrictions once that I remember. We were not allowed to water our garden using a hose, but we could water using buckets or cans. At least the flowers got what they needed. This is years ago, I was but a child. Since I have no experience with this sort of ting, I'd like to hear from others how you prepare for the situation and how you handle it once it's there.
My son called me last weekend, an was telling me they are in a water restiction in Iraq. He said he hadn't a shower in a week and a half, and finally got a 3 minute one the night before. all the extra eating places are shut down, because of the restiction. they have to have bottled water flown in for all of them. while he was telling me this it was raining hard there, but the water wasn't suitable for drinking after the drought they had.
I have been working on getting the grey water rerouted into flower beds. I love recycling so why not do it to benefit me? All of my wash water is routed to different flower beds now. I am looking forward to doing the showers and kitchen sink this spring!
I am sure the Aussie Stewbies will know how to cope with water restrictions. In South Africa not many people heed the warnings and many totally disregard the restrictions even if it is to their benefit to save water. Silman I also catch all my grey water and use it on the garden else, my poor garden would just be brown and grey and lifeless, without the "extra supplements" as I call it. This year I should be wise and forget all my wishlists and wants and start concentrating on planting waterwise plants only. (That is if I wise - whichI am probably not )
Living around the Great Lakes, we have always had an ample supply of water. I've never had to live with water restrictions of any kind. Government is now trying to protect the Great Lakes, as many other states in the U.S. would like some of our water. Our lake levels have gone down in the past few years due to little precipitation, though. Hopefully the snowfall this winter will raise the lake levels this spring.
I have a rainwater collection 55 gallon barrel out back and while our house is really small we still have enough roof surface area to fill the barrel with as little as 1/8" of measurable rain has fallen. And I plan on getting two more set up this spring. When we replace our kitchen sink, probably next month, Randy is going to connect a diverter to the drain so I can use the gray water out back but for now I can only collect the water that would go down the drain while the water is warming up for dishwashing. Can't do much about the shower yet, I do have a large bucket in the tub also for collecting water while it is warming up. We have been on varying degrees of water restrictions for most of the last 10 years, even to the point of which day of the week you could water your yard was determined by whether the last digit of your street address was an even or odd number. Even tho our rainfall last year finally broke that 10 year drought, we are right back into the same conditions and some water restrictions are still in place. I can't find any info online about the southern Atlantic, but the Pacific side of the equator is being affected by La Nina. Cooler temps in the water at the equator creates a wetter winter in the NW U.S. and dryer/warmer conditions in the southern U.S. And the conditions down here are likely to last well into April and May.
I hoard water in the spring/early summer when there is lots. I have some rain barrels and DH built me a water tanker that I fill with sump pump water. The tanker is on wheels so I can pull it around the yard with my golf cart and water in the veggie patch. I have also changed a lot of the plants in the yard to drought tolerant's.
I see that living with water restrictions makes for smart solutions. I wouldn't think about using the gray water unless somebody told me about it. I would gather rainwater, though. Thanks for explaining.
I'm planning on putting in a gutter-and-rainbarrel system on my painting studio since it's only about 4 feet from my kitchen garden (photos of my studio in my blog, the redone roof side is closest to the garden) so I'm checking out the mosquito-proofing ideas. When I was overseas for a short time the water only ran for about an hour every day- we kept the taps open and put barrels under them to collect whatever came. It was tropical, so bathing with a dipper was actually kind of nice. And hauling a bucket out to the garden isn't too bad. Of course I can be very cavalier about the whole thing sitting in a rainstorm and knowing that we are cut off from the Eastern half of the state (again) by the record snowfalls in the passes!
Mary, buy either some Mosquito Dunks or the granules for the water barrel. They are made for fish ponds so putting them in water that will go on your plants will not be a problem. I use them in the rainwater barrel and the three pots I have water plants in.
Thanks Toni- I couldn't remember if mesh over the top was decided to be the best solution or not, dunks would be much easier!
Oh my Toni - my house will be in for the same treatment this year. The previous owners were not very environmentally conscious and I need to make quite a few changes. Apart from the tanks that I want to use andhave to install, I also need to redo all my plumbing in the house to accommodate my gardening plans.
