Watering allotments?

[maxine]

I have a large garden, but no water supply to my garden as i live in 1st floor flat, i have a water butt but with summer no rain, so have to keep running indoors to fill watering can. But how do you allotment holders water your allotment as it is so much larger. And if u use water butts, how do you manage in the summer when there is no rain? Would be grateful for your help?

[Lesley Jay]

We fill the water butts up using a hose pipe. Then water with a watering can using the water in the butts.

[User Removed]

I have 40 water butts, they will up during the winter so we can use them in the summer, and as lesley said we fill them up if we run out

[supersprout]

I don't water my plot at all, but I do mulch very heavily - 2 inches at least - with whatever I can lay my hands on, so there's no bare soil showing at all. I use straw, leaves, compost, spent hops, and grass clippings.

[skegblade]

Needing a water butt due to the water supply on our allotments being turned off in September, I tried to buy one from my local water company (Anglian); not a prayer, but from previous dealings with them, I should have known better anyway; if you live in Lincolnshire you have to buy them your local council; the cost, around £35. I ended up buying one from Wilkinsons; the price; £19 for 190 litre capacity.

[Silverfox]

Try big local companies. I work for a bearing company and they throw out those large big blue barrels all the time. It was only through talking to our site manager that he told me they have to pay a special company to take them away because they are plastic and not general waste.

[dexterdoglancashire]

Adam - I'm impressed! I only have two myself! Actually, I do cheat slightly - I keep them open at the mo because they arent full, but did have a leaking hosepipe, so I just fed it into the water butt until it was half full. I then use a watering can to water my plants in the plot and in the greenhouse. Thanks to the awful weather we've had here in Preston over the past week or so, no need to use either method and the water butts are filling up nicely! dexterdog

[skegblade]

I never thought of those Silverfox; the firm I work for has these hanging around. Think I'll try begging a couple. Thanks for the tip.

[number 1 suspect]

Hi
I think this may have been on before.

Try this site

www.thetankexchange.com

Not bad prices and sizes

[nogrowarea]

We fill container with hosepipes connected to a tap.
This is quite legal because transferring water to containers is allowed ,but not actually spraying from the pipe.
this way you can store water in butts around your plot for easy access.

Good luck with your garden.

[Two_Sheds]

I've often heard that certain veg (ie sweetcorn) needs an inch of water a week. What's that in gallons though?

1 inch of rain equals 5.61 gallons per square yard

Does that sound about right?

[teakdesk]

Well my dodgy maths makes one inch depth needs 4.7 gallons per square yard but I'd say around 5 gallons is correct.


EDIT: 5.61 US gallons is 4.7 UK gallons so your quote is American and 4.7 gallons is the answer for the UK!!



BTW a 5 minute shower uses 10 gallons of water so if you give up one shower a week you can water 2 square yards of sweetcorn instead!!!!

[Snadger]

Sounds like one heck of a lot of water to me?

PS Bit of a 'blast from the past' this thread innit!

[singleseeder]

...... and to think, at the beginning of the week, I saw the council water truck out watering the grass verge on the main road to Kingston Park.

Waste of water,
Waste of time,
Waste of council tax ............. ggrrrrr

[Two_Sheds]

Yep. We should have mini-meadows of wildflowers instead of grass verges