The portion of garden given over to veggie (fruit in various other parts of the garden at the mo is total of 4 beds; 10x10, 9x10, 11x10 and 8x8 (all in feet). I was reading last night about water conservation and whilst I totally agree with what has been said (i.e. avoid soil errosion, weeding which damages soil etc) and we want to conserve as much as possible, I am seriously worried, if not frightened about how it is going to be possible.
At present we have a water but situated by conservatory to catch water from conservatory and adjacent covered patio (some sort of rigid awning thing). This normaly services strawberry bed nearby and any pots near house. We then have a pair of water buts at back of greenhouse which catches water from flat rooved garage. This services greenhouse crops and adjacent veggie plot. We also have a further water butt by cold frame at other end of veggie area which is filled by hand from any full water butts if and when rain is forcast. This helps with cold frame watering and this year will help to keep runner beans which are in a large tub due to space lacking on plot. We also save grey water in summer as and when required (ie not if we have too much rain so we dont store it) and when I rang waterboard (we are on a meter) it turns out we use only a 1/3 of the normal consumption of a house our size. I can give more info on what we do if required.
I would love to mulch our veggie plot but am concerned the costs will be prohibitive. The grass cutting method would suit as we have a large area of lawn which would service idealy but am concerned how long it would take to mature. Dont want to use hay or straw or plastic or the like as it dont look too nice - eh! Compost would be ideal and we have built a large bin but that seems to be taking for ever to rot down and hubby seems loathe to bother turning it to speed things up. Leave mould - we do have a small amount of this but nowhere near enough.
Please help as water conservation is important to us and I dont feel we are doing enough now I have read this article.
Tammy
At present we have a water but situated by conservatory to catch water from conservatory and adjacent covered patio (some sort of rigid awning thing). This normaly services strawberry bed nearby and any pots near house. We then have a pair of water buts at back of greenhouse which catches water from flat rooved garage. This services greenhouse crops and adjacent veggie plot. We also have a further water butt by cold frame at other end of veggie area which is filled by hand from any full water butts if and when rain is forcast. This helps with cold frame watering and this year will help to keep runner beans which are in a large tub due to space lacking on plot. We also save grey water in summer as and when required (ie not if we have too much rain so we dont store it) and when I rang waterboard (we are on a meter) it turns out we use only a 1/3 of the normal consumption of a house our size. I can give more info on what we do if required.
I would love to mulch our veggie plot but am concerned the costs will be prohibitive. The grass cutting method would suit as we have a large area of lawn which would service idealy but am concerned how long it would take to mature. Dont want to use hay or straw or plastic or the like as it dont look too nice - eh! Compost would be ideal and we have built a large bin but that seems to be taking for ever to rot down and hubby seems loathe to bother turning it to speed things up. Leave mould - we do have a small amount of this but nowhere near enough.
Please help as water conservation is important to us and I dont feel we are doing enough now I have read this article.
Tammy
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