1st July 2018 - Preparing for a hosepipe ban

After a couple of weeks with no rain it was announced on Friday that Northern Ireland have introduced a hose pipe ban.  I'm pretty sure that England will follow suit if it doesn't rain soon.  We've already been asked to think about reducing water consumption and to take showers rather than baths etc.

It is true to say that the majority of plants planted outside don't actually need lots of additional water.  In most cases watering with a hosepipe doesn't actually do a lot for the plants anyway.  If you don't water for long enough it encourages the roots to come towards the surface where they're more likely to be fried in the heat and actually not watering encourages plants to reach down into the subsoil for moisture, which is where the majority of the nutrients are anyway.

My main concern about a hosepipe ban is my pots and the plants in the polytunnel.  I have 2 water butts already but I had a spare wheelie bin and decided to make it into a water butt a while ago, I just hadn't got around to doing it.  Looking at the weather though I decided that I needed to get myself sorted and make the stool for it to stand on and get the tap on. 

I had some planks from when I cleared 86a that I used to repair the stool for my other waterbutt and then I used another one to create a new stool for the new water butt.  For anyone who is wondering why I need a stool you can see in the main picture that the tap needs to be as low on the bin as possible which means it needs to be raised from the ground to enable you to get a watering can under it.  

As you can see from the little picture I made a complete mess of getting the tap in.  I put it in place and filled it but it immediately started leaking. I therefore had to empty it (not a problem when I have a lot of things to water) and take the tap out again.  I climbed inside the bin with the tap in place and could see that I'd made the hole slightly too big and so I put a bead of silicone around the thread of the tap on the outside.  I then put the tap into the hole and put a bead of silicone around the hole on the inside before tightening the screw.  I'm hoping that will therefore fill all of the gaps and stop it from leaking but I'll leave it for at least 24 hours before I fill it again.  If I get it over the tap and it doesn't start to leak I'll then fill it to the top and start using that, particularly in the polytunnel.  I was given a kit to stick to the polytunnel for collecting water (essentially a mini gutter) which I'll also put in place to feed into the water butt if it does ever rain!!

In 86a I made a start in painting the shed, I decided that I did want it the same colour as the one in 85a.  I thought it would be easier to paint it while it was laid on the floor and the weather was so nice that I was able to paint 2 sides of it, unfortunately I didn't have enough paint to do it all so I've just done the 2 sides and then I'll have to do the rest next week.

I also had to pull up some matting that I'd put down on the path which I'm going to use as the base for the shed and maybe even the greenhouse when I bring it up.  Everyone keeps commenting that they don't think it will be good for under the shed but I can't see why not.  It's strong enough for cars to drive over and will raise the shed from the ground to avoid it from rotting from underneath.  Ideally of course I'd have slabs but I haven't been able to get any so this is a free option that I'm going to use.  It will also enable me to map out where the greenhouse is going to go so that I can then work out where the beds will be.

While I was working on the water butt I found this little guy again, he was pushed up against the horrible fence (that I talked about last week) and all curled up because that's where I was working.  I moved him back into the hedgehog house which I'd packed full of old leaves from the pile at the bottom of the hill.  I made sure to point the house towards the gate this time because whilst I'm delighted that he's on my plot I wouldn't want him to struggle to get out if he wants to. I'm also going to look at putting some access points into the other fences to allow him to move freely around the plot in future.

I have also been enjoying watching the fledglings using my feeder.  They are all still really small and you can see when the parent birds come as well the little ones cry at them to be fed!  I've made sure to have lots of water available for them too.  I have a good sized plant pot saucer that I've filled with water and put under arch, next to the kiwi, so that the hedgehog can use it as well as the birds.  I've seen quite a few birds drinking and bathing in it already.  The little bird bath is really nice but unfortunately it's very shallow and it only takes one bird to bathe in it and the thing is empty!

During the week I was up at the plot quite late into the evening, with the weather being so good a few people were up there and so we were having to take turns for the water.  I ended up sitting with my neighbours for a chat and a drink and just before we left I went to have a look and see if the lights had come on.  It was actually quite dark when I took the picture but my camera adjusts to make it look brighter but I do think it looks really pretty and I'm really pleased with it.  I also found the numbers I bought ages ago but had lost so never put up.  There were 2 screws missing but there was still enough to get them up and I think it looks really smart.  I also put up signs to say that the plot is covered by CCTV which hopefully will keep people off my plot.  

To finish this week I have some flower news, the lily in the pond has come into flower and looks really pretty.  It's a white flower with a bright yellow centre and is sitting beautifully on the surface of the pond.  The new flower bed is also in full bloom and looking amazingly like an English country garden.  I have harvested all of the sweet peas that were flowering today and some of the cornflower to make a little (and very fragrant) bunch in my living room.  The sweet peas are a mix of pinks and purples and the cornflower are pink and blue so they all look really lovely together.  

I do hope we get some rain this week, in the nights rather than during the day, to give the plants a good soak but otherwise we'll just need to keep conserving water as much as we can.

Until next time then, Happy Gardening x