Thursday, 1 March 2012

Water management plans

I think I have devised a water management plan that will enable us to recycle water and keep the veg plot watered with as little fuss as possible. I did a bit of this last year using a water syphon to extract the water from the girls' bath, but I have to say it was a bit of an effort at times as water being available to use didn't always coincide with me having the time or energy to do anything with it.
Here's one example of my antics (and their short-comings) last year. The subtle refinement for this year will make use of the green wheelie bin to store the water until I am ready to use it. The wheelie bin sits right underneath the bathroom window (I know this only too well because every time I used the syphon last year the hose pipe got stuck in the handle of the bin, necessitating endless trips up and down the stairs to sort it out).
You may well be wondering why the green bin won't be full of garden waste and compost awaiting collection. My thinking is: given that we now have a wormery there will be much less kitchen waste to compost; lawn cuttings will be taken to the allotment to use as a mulch; and anything left over which does need composting but isn't suitable for the wormery also be bagged up until I go to the allotment and put in the compost bins there.
So the plan is that whenever necessary I will syphon the bath water down into the green bin, where it will wait until I need it for watering whereupon it will be syphoned out either to use with a hosepipe (until they are banned???) or a watering can. This will also give me a water source in the front/side garden, significantly reducing the distance that I have to carry full watering cans as both our garden tap and water butts are in the back garden.
I think that's a plan. If you are wondering how you will cope if the drought continues and are not sure what on earth I mean by a water syphon, here's one for sale at Nigel's Eco Store. I'm not sure I paid quite that much for mine but then I didn't buy it during a drought. Happy watering!


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Lincolnshire Sky

Lincolnshire Sky