There's a drought/ hosepipe ban in the offing

We aren't on a water meter but I'm still reasonably careful. I have four water butts but they're getting fairly low except for one that I filled up with the hose. I might do the others so that if there is a ban, I have at least some water on hand (three of the butts are at the side of the house so less hassle than using the outside tap directly to fill cans).
We haven't had much rain since January here.

 

Everyone in time will be on a water meter, I believe through my mum who worked for Thames Water that every new build has to have a meter, when a house gets sold a meter gets installed. Where I am in London Borough of Bexley we are in a ‘hard water area,’ so that everyone has to have a meter, ‘hard water area’ is nothing to do with the quality if water, it is a metaphor telling you that I have no choice but to have a meter, a colleague of mine in Uxbridge is the same and I am sure they will roll these out to different areas and increase the amount of installations

 

It's very dry and hot here and with the best will in the world,which I haven't got, things will be too far away to carry a watering can. To be honest, I can't be Arsssd to drag the hose up there either. Some things will not make it. The disposables ( poor bgggrs) are well away from the house. Like the pigs that go on the run from the slaughterhouse, if they survive fire, flood and pestilence to autumn, they deserve a break.
However. I will arm my husband with a can of water to give sustenance to a couple of adjacent street trees. Would I do it myself? Maybe.

 

A mate of mine lives in a house where they cant install a meter, something to do with the pipework, two houses in the same pipe was not unusual back when his house was built.

I've been on a meter a few years now and it works out cheaper for me.

Hard water means its chalky, my water is chalky as it comes from under the north downs.

 

Never mind heavy rain is on its way.

 

Ha! That’s what they all say!

 

Oh I know what hard water, for Bexley Council residents it is a metaphor that you have no choice but to have a meter.

 

I'm pretty sure we pay less with a meter but tbh I've never checked.

 

With approximately 100 pots it is very hectic watering and today (33 degrees) I try and water one half one day and the other half the next and water until water comes out of the bottom, it is unrelenting and will take me an hour when I get home at 11pm tonight from work.

After a bit of advice here, do cannas need alot of watering, as I say I do them every other day at the moment, I think I saw on Gardeners World once that they are very hungry plants?

 

Yes Cannas are hungry and like a lot of water to do well in pots.

 

I won't be growing Cosmos next year, I feel so guilty when they go all floppy.

 

Yes most places are on meters around here now, I think it's better and I pay less now than I did.
I'm not sure why its considered hard.

 

Hard water refers to dissolved salts in the water, mainly calcium magnesium. In the UK soft water is up to 100 mg/L calcium carbonate more than that is hard water that can deposit calcium carbonate when boiled or evaporated.
See https://dwi-production-files.s3.eu-...ent/uploads/2021/10/11171047/hardness-map.pdf for more info on your water.