Drought

[Jardiniere]

i have been away from my garden for a week and a friend has been watering (with a can from butts) as hose is locked away. We have had no rain for about three weeks, the butts are now empty and when I get back on Wednesday there will be a hosepipe ban in place. My veg garden is separate from the house but I can water it with a very long hose and I fill up the bins with it too. I am told we may only be allowed to use recuperated rain water (there is none). I can probably manage to water my plants in pots (toms and flowers) but my courgettes, beans, carrots, parsnips, spinach, beetroot, chard, squash are all going to die!!! 😱 Anybody got any ideas of what to do? There is no rain forecast except the slight possibility (50%) of a thunderstorm Saturday morning .

[Jardiniere]

Weather forecast has changed to cloudy on Saturday...no thunderstorm..20% chance of rain which means none.

[muddled]

Two thoughts....
When we have a hosepipe ban over here some water authorities allow the use of a hose to fill water butts as long as you then use a watering can from the butt to the plants.
Others allow the use of a hose only for the irrigation of food crops.
Neither of these provisos are publicised, you kind of have research and enquire....so I'm wondering if you might be able to find a similar rule where you are.

Second thought is extreme mulch to conserve every drop you manage to get to the plants. Six or more inches deep of straw around courgette plants makes such an enormous difference to the soil temeratures and humidity at root level. You will still need to water....but only about once a week which will be a lot better than once a day!

[lottie dolly]

can you run the hose descised some how,like through vegetation,without being seen,also if you can use the same idea with a pump or syphone any grey water instead of humping it,

[PyreneesPlot]

Are you beside the river - can you take water from it?

[Nicos]

Can you recuperate your grey water from the shower, kitchen sink / bowl etc for your flowers?
I use Eco soaps which , as well as being OK for the septic tank, make them more user friendly on the soil.
You may need to fit a diverer , but it's seriously worth considering doing if every year is going to be like this.
(Do you collect every drop of rainwater off your roof?)

Do you get condensation at night?....perhaps trying to trap some of that might help a bit???

Mulch is deffo the way to go, but do you need the soil to be damp first o trap the water in???

Not a nice situation to be in, but perhaps long term changes to water storage/ usage may be in order .

I'll have more of a think for what you can do now though.

[mothhawk]

You'll just have to get everybody to take lots of baths, then empty the bath water into your tubs....

[mothhawk]

The other thing you can do is thin your crops, taking out every other plant. Sounds harsh, but the larger the area each plant has to itself, the more chance it will have to suck up all the available water.

[Jardiniere]

Thanks for the responses . Don't have a bath so can't use that and the river is too difficult to access without a pump. There is no way of collecting rain water in the potager because there are no structures. But it's worth me looking at perhaps building a shelter with a down pipe for next year. The mulch I will try. The plants are well spaced already.its worse because I have been away for a week, something I wouldn't normally do this time of year, as I would have refilled all my bins and butts on a regular basis and not run dry.

[PyreneesPlot]

Do you know one of the local farmers well enough to beg them to put a bowser on the land where your veg is? (All the farmers use them here for livestock.)