What did you do with all that water?

[iann]

Most people got a good soaking last week, or at least enough to fill a bucket or two, so what have you done with it? I've poured the whole lot on my plants ahead of the mini-heatwave. Not supposed to be really hot until tomorrow here, but it already feels hot and sticky.

[cactuspip]

I collected as much as I could, but with a view to the future trends I have been setting up 2 more 100 litre water butts.
This probably means it won't rain again for weeks and weeks!
What I did manage to collect will be going on my large pots of species lilies pretty soon, too!

[Phil_SK]

I refilled my water butts then topped up the pond and watered my plants before refilling the butts again. The plan is to water my gh tomorrow.

[DaveW]

I have a 5ft high water butt on each side of my 18ft x 12ft greenhouse and I have never managed to completely empty them yet since cacti don't need a lot of water, even though one watering takes about a third of one barrel. When the butt's are getting low it always seems to rain and it only takes a light sprinkling on the greenhouse roof to produce quite a few gallons to help top them up. As others say you just need enough water butts connected together to store water since there is usually enough rain over winter to fill them all several times over.

Mind you I don't waste collected rain water on the garden which seldom needs watering in England anyway, at least if you don't live down south. I just save it for the essential greenhouse plants. Tap water does for the garden, and even in a drought you are usually permitted to use a watering can filled with tap water even if hosepipes are banned. The thinking evidently being if you have to lug it around in 2 gallon cans each time you water you don't waste it as when using a hosepipe.

[Tony R]

My 8 x 210 litres water butts were filled up last week, but are now nearly empty again! We need some more rain in the south east, but:

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[Benjy]

It does feel hot and sticky already, I also gave everything a good watering today.
Also vacuumed my greenhouse and potting shed floors today, looks lovely now

I've just been out this evening and covered the open door with mesh, its apparently a very warm 17C overnight where I am. Tomorrow I'll add another pedestal fan to the greenhouse for the next few days.
I think by the weekend though I'll be staying indoors with the aircon on.

[ChrisR]

I don't need to water anything now.....all winter growers

[jfabiao]

I have a 1000 liter container collecting the water that runs off from my greenhouse roof. It's filled to about 90% now, but statistics tell me we probably won't have any more rain in significant amounts until late August (that's the mediterranean climate for you, and climate change projections suggest the summer drought is likely to become bigger). I will have to either reduce my "collection" or set up another container if I intend to keep watering my plants with rain water, as tap water is very hard and alkaline around here ...

[cactuspip]

On the subject of hosepipe bans, as Dave W says, you can fill a watering can and water as much as you like. You just have to carry the can to wherever you need to use it.
What is ILLEGAL is to connect up your hose then use it to fill up a watering can next to the desired spot. In effect using it like an extension of the garden tap. I presume the logic is that carrying around a full watering can is laborious and time-consuming, so acting as a deterrent to over watering.
This is one of those technicalities that only a civil servant mentality can envisage!

[Tina]

I was lucky and the previous owner left a 1000 litre square water container behind, I dragged it to behind the greenhouses so now use a water butt pump to move the water from the normal water butts at the back to fill this and then let them fill up again, I also have two of the smaller green wheelie bins I use as mobile water butts so when I'm going to water a greenhouse I move these then use the water butt pump to fill em up, I was out in the rain last week to make sure everything was filling & moving it about, Baz was amused.
I think I have 7 or eight various size water butts at the back of the G/H's