Hosepipe ban!

[Gemini]

From today we have a hosepipe ban.

You can use one to water food crops but not flowers or grass, nor can you wash anything with a hose. It's a relief about the food crops because we water the greenhouse plants and green beans with the hose. It's bit hot for lugging watering cans around. We will have to for the flower tubs but that's not so bad. We always water the hanging basket and flower tubs by the front door with a watering can anyway.


Is there a ban where you live?

[Grauntie Mag]

No ban here yet Gem. I don’t understand why you can water flowers with a can but not a hose pipe. It’s all water! I know some folk use water saved from in the house.
I fill my can from the hose anyway to save lugging it from one end of the garden to the other for my tomatoes.
I keep the bottom of a plastic barrel half full with water and sit my wall pots in it to soak, this saves trying to lift a can.

[Nanto2girls]

Hosepipe ban for us as well Gem.
Hubby washed the car on wednesday with the hose.
He says if he had used buckets of water, he would have used more than the hose did.

[Oma]

No ban here but as I only have 6 pots and 4 shrubs it wouldn't be a problem if we did .
My DD has a massive amount of plants and trees , she does have a water butt , but with very little rain it's only half full.
The grass is turning yellow around here it's so dry.

[Lizzie48]

Oma, I went for some blackberries yesterday, there are so many, the only thing is with the lack of water they are like bullets so no jam making! I expect it is the same with a lot of veg, fruit etc.

[Clover]

My water butts are really low. I try to save as much water from the house as possible. My kitchen tap takes ages to run hot so I catch that water in a container which I can use to water or refill the bird bath.🐦⬛

[Daisy]

Gem and Nanto, it's going to be a long summer for you both. It's hard work using watering cans, but it will help if you can use the hosepipe for edibles.

We have a real problem when it's either very wet or very dry. Our soil is solid clay, despite 26 years of trying to "improve" it, and at the moment it's rock hard. Even regular hoeing doesn't help much. We have to water carefully otherwise the water just runs off the surface, and we can regulate the flow more easily to give it time to actually penetrate the hard crust of soil using the hosepipe.

Our water butts are only half full, so I mainly use them to keep the bird baths and water bowls topped up.

I've a feeling that last time we had a hose pipe ban the over-80s were allowed to use their hosepipes.

[Gemini]

Grauntie, I think the point is if we are allowed to water flowers with a hose, there is the danger people leave sprinklers on for flower beds or even lawns ( I live with someone who will do this! )

Daisy registered disabled people are apparently allowed to use a hose for any purpose. Many of us are not in that category but really struggle with a heavy watering can though.

For our household I am very glad we can use the hose for the veg crops.

[Daisy]

Gem, it's taken many years, but OH has finally realised that putting the sprinkler on the lawn (or anywhere for that matter) is a waste of time and water. Our lawn is covered in brown patches anyway - one of the less appealing things about having a female dog! - and the dried up patches that we can' blame on Eva just blend in. as soon as we get some heavy rain it will green up again. I think what persuaded OH in the end was when we went on to a water meter. He now carefully waters into the base of each plant.

I agree, watering cans are heavy to carry and use, and I would certainly struggle to keep our garden watered without the hosepipe.

[Daisy]

We it seems from Monday we "may" have a hosepipe ban as well! The whole village is confused, because our postcode isn't in the list of affected areas, neither is the nearest town, and on a very vague map we are not in the red zone, ie banned. But the water authority's classification for stages leading up to a ban show us as stage 1, ie try to use less water, but since the ban doesn't happen till next Monday will it then move us to stage 2, a ban.

At least I haven't got beds full of vegetables and a greenhouse to worry about. DS2 is in a different area for water, and so far ok.

[Plantaholic]

No hosepipe ban here yet. We have rain this morning