There's a drought/ hosepipe ban in the offing

What will you sacrifice and what will you save?
I've gone beyond precious plants. I'm inclined to give a leg up to plants doing their best to survive but some aren't worth the effort. If possible,I'll put something in a container to keep it going.
I will probably give the young street trees a drink too. A couple of cans of water kept them going last time.

 

Not heard anything around here apart from the usual water company talk of there's plenty of water we just cant treat it fast enough to come up with demand.

I only water pots anyway, nothing I have actually dies once established in the ground to be honest.

When they plant new street trees around here they put a pipe in next to them and a sign asking people to water them in dry spells, I've never seen anyone doing it though.

 

I always have a bath in the morning and we have been saving it every day until the evening and putting it onto anything that needs it then.

No morning bath bans yet, I hope.

 

We did it couple of years ago and someone came out to ask us what we were doing. Slashing your tyres, of course. @pete

 

I don’t use much water compared to bigger households so I would be loathed to let all my pots of plants die when many others will pay no attention. I would take a bucket into the shower to water the pots and tomatoes, and maybe the Hydrangeas. The lawn would be sacrificed over any spare water for the borders. The pond would have to make do, but is deep in the middle so wouldn’t dry out.

 

I always use a watering can anyway. I don't have any taps suitable for a hosepipe.
I have been saving the dishwashing water every day, plus the water you have to run before it heats up which is exactly two pints. I put that water on the annuals and newest shrubs in the front garden, which is south facing and getting absolutely fried.

 

hose does nothing for pots vs a watering can i find. the can garentees they get like half a gallon each, the hose maybe a litre. we only use the hose for grass really

i am now looking for saucers for my smaller pots, i water them and it just runs out without absorbing so im hoping them sitting in water for a bit helps the soil absorb it

 

Last year my problem was with all my pots getting waterlogged!

 

The silly thing about a hose pipe ban is that it doesn’t account for filling up unlimited watering cans and buckets.
I know someone who says they have about 6 baths per day between them in their household. Target them, not my lovely pots.

 

But filling up and carrying watering cans takes a lot of physical effort, so it would be quite hard work to use more water than someone with a hosepipe. Only the very dedicated gardeners have a chance of achieving it.

I think water metering is the best way of getting people to think about what they use. The average person in Scotland, where they typically don't have meters, uses about 40% more water than the average person in Yorkshire. Why does Scotland use more water than the rest of the UK?

 

I know that if I use a hose, I use less water because it takes far longer to fill a watering can with a hose than it does to empty the watering can by pouring it. I don't water anything in the garden unless it is new or flagging. I do have pots but I prefer plants in the ground. I have spent the last few winters deeply mulching everything to hold onto as much moisture as possible and also increasing the amount of stored rain water I can collect.

What annoys me is the amount of people that still used hoses when we did have a ban a few years ago. I still saw plenty of people washing their cars, jet washing their drives or filling swimming pools.

 

One of the reasons we love where we live, is the stream at the end of the garden, which comes from a deep underground lake. We are allowed to extract a domestic amount and we have a solar pump and a long hosepipe.
We only do this if the butts are empty.
As long as the edibles are watered, I'm happy.

 

I'm getting desperate! 3 of my 4x100ltr water butts are empty, and I'm half way down the 4th. Since getting a water meter 6 years ago, I've been really careful, so don't want to have to use the hose!! I'm putting the plug in when using the shower ( except hair washing -too soapy!) and scooping it into buckets for plants in the ground like the Runner Beans, Sweet Peas and some Devil's -bit Scabious. The top part of the washing-up water and salad-washing saved too!

Most of my veg is peat-free in pots i.e. Carrots, Kale, Spinach and Tomatoes. I've found adding some coir and vermiculite to the mix has helped with water retention, so I'm relieved with how they've coped!

The best plants during this drought are the Wild Poppies and Lavender! So the bees are happy!