Lets talk about water(ing)

Oh life can be difficult, but in time U learn to adapt to the character of the land & people. Keep on gardening.

I dread it when we have hosepipe bans here in the UK.

Don't these people realise how much we love our gardens and how important our plants are? lol.

I have sympathy... this is the 1st spring they have not implemented watering regulations in my area. We have finally had enough rain to refill the reservoir. We did have one benefit.... if you grow food for family consumption you could water it!

We have watering restrictions from April 1st to October 1st every year without fail. You can still water but it has to be between 5 and 8 a.m. or (I think) 8 to 11 p.m. on odd or even days depending on your address.
With the dryish winter we had this year we have very little snow pack in the mountains. This will probably mean more stringent restrictions or outright bans this summer.

I feel so lucky in that respect - we have fresh spring water almost gushing out of the ground wells so there's never a water problem. During the very hot summer in Britain of 1976 (remember?) I used to save any water I used in the house and throw it over the garden, and I used this principle during hose-pipe bans in later years. I know you have to have water in the first place in order to save it, but when you do have it Sorbus, why not collect it and drench the tender plants then, when you are denied the basic human right of water, the plants will already be well stocked up and you may not lose so many? There's also the plus that greenfly hate washing-up liquid, so you can keep the aphids off your roses, and it's amazing what can self-seed after washing up salad plates. That's how I first made green tomato chutney - from self-seeded tomatoes that were growing too late to ripen.

I agree with the comment by Nariz about saving water. During our last stay in Andalucia we rented a house in a village in the Sierras. The weather was mostly dry & sunny but when we had a heavy plump of rain I noticed that it cascaded off the roof and straight down the drain. Prior to the holiday the owner had asked my advice on his garden so my first suggestion was several rain butts connected together to collect this water. No one in the village seemed to have any rainwater storage system at all which seemed strange.

Its sad when we cant/are`nt aloud to use Water in the Gardens :/ im really Green & use a lot of My Washing Up Water & Bath Water in Dry Months so as not to use Fresh Tap :) Im also on a Meter so its a good idea 2 save Money 2 :)

Jacque, I think we would all wake up if we had water metering! I am not against metering but grateful that we don't have it yet.

I choose to go on meter BulbaH as it does work out Cheaper for My Home :) Ud be amazed how much i save a yr buy Paying for what i use & not having it Guessed & way over charged :/

I do remember the summer of 76. I was in London that year and boy the heat and no rain at all. I also use "gray" water from in the house on plants. We have to be very careful about collecting rainwater because of the mosquito population and disease. If we get an outbreak of something the state will even do inspections to make sure you have no standing water. Even with a sealed system you would be amazed at how small a hole a mosquito can get through. We have no choice on the price though, everyone has a meter and the water is county provided. Interesting how different some places can be.

Water is just one of the oh-so-many things we take for granted in the UK, and really resent paying for!
So arrogant, really.

We have a meter - our choice - and it's much cheaper. I think we all need to collect water in butts. Why ever not? It's free and in this area...there's lots of it!

I also collect the rain In Butts Spritz but soon run out :/ Need more of them i guess? :)

Thanks for interesting comments from all. The irony is that right now we/ the area has more water than usual. Yet this winter/spring we have had more water cuts. I do have a large container (a deposito) which holds 2,000 litres - the water comes off the mains and into that. Problem arises when the mains are off for any length of time - like last week when a depleted supply got depeleted to nought. I do use grey water when I can. And Bulbaholic (what bulbs - all bulbs?) - the Spanish don't do gutters and therefore don't do water butts. I have tried to buy one without success. And it's a trifle large to stick in a suitcase.

That is an interesting point, Sorbus. I must admit that I didn't notice if there were gutters and roans (downpipes) or not! Rain butts in Spain shouldn't be a problem, though. Even here in Scotland I have an old 40 gallon drum as a rain butt and I have seen plent of similar things dumped by the wayside in Spain!!!
As to your other question, I am interested in almost any type of bulbs from winter flowering crocus to summer flowering Lilium and Arisaema, even the occaisional half hardy South Africans.

To pick up on the point of gutters in Spain, I think they are beginning to appear in this northern region. We have gutters on our house (built in 2006) and several of the holiday casas in our village also have gutters - BUT the water collected in the gutters goes straight down the pipes and into the ground. But then in this region we have plenty of wet straight from the sky, so no need to collect it in containers.

I've really got to get some rain barrels set up here. With our lack of water in the summer it would be a very sensible thing to do.