Beat this summer's hosepipe ban by getting prepared now

Posted by Jaimie Kanwar on Tuesday, February 27, 2007

February is not usually a month when we think about our watering the garden, but if you want to be sure of beating a hosepipe ban this summer, now is the time to get busy...

There are plenty of good reasons to think about harvesting rainwater for garden use: For a start it's ecologically better for the planet. Using mains water to supply water for the garden is needlessly wasteful, both financially and environmentally. Mains water is expensively purified to drinking water standards – so using it on the garden is a waste of all that energy it took to get it pure. Secondly, closer to your pocket perhaps, if you haven't already, you may soon have a water meter fitted – some water companies insist on it if you use a hosepipe, and new regulations will soon mean more areas will be able to insist on meters whether they know you have a hosepipe or not anyway. Thirdly, if there is a water shortage this summer you'll still have all those garden plants you've invested in to protect.

Harvested rainwater water is better for plants than mains water, particularly in hard water areas where some alkaline-hating plants can actually be killed by using mains water on them.

Rainwater is exactly what most gardens need in a long, hot summer. Keeping spring's rainwater for watering your plants and lawns in the summer may seem strange but given the all above, early spring is a good time to be thinking about making some changes to your garden watering plans.

Storing water in a water butt is easy. They are inexpensive, easy to install and once they are in place, there is little you need to do until the summer. Single butts of the 200 litre size are not expensive, can be easily sited and are a practical and worthwhile investment. You just need to find a convenient rainwater gutter down-pipe where the butt can also be sited, make sure the butt is placed on a stand so that a watering can be easily placed under the tap and follow the suppliers instructions to cut into the down-pipe and connect the butt. This type of water butts usually run out at about £30-£40, sometimes a lot cheaper if your local authority is running a campaign.

Whether a single water butt will be sufficient depends upon several factors – not least how big your garden is. Also you'll need to take into account your area's type of water pattern. Some locations get frequent top-ups from showers – a decent sized roof collecting area will fill a butt surprisingly quickly, so the occasional shower will be enough. If you already use a hosepipe then make an estimate of the number of hours you used it last year, and then multiply by 500. That will give you your water usage in litres. Of course, if you plan to use a simple butt and watering can, you are likely to be a lot more sparing than you were with the hosepipe, so you can probably halve the figure you calculated. Allow for the possibility of a few refills of the butt over the summer and you can make a god estimate of the value of one water butt. Not big enough? Of course not – a 200 litre butt would provide – on the above basis – enough to equate to about three hours worth of hosepipe use.

The simple way is to install more butts, but you will need more space for them and a row of them could look quite an eyesore if you can't screen them off. The next best option, and not too expensive if you only need say 600 litres of so, is to go for a larger, special purpose water tank. These are typically bolted to the house wall for stability and safety. After this you are into bigger tanks, say 900 litres wall & floor mounted, or underground tanks. You could pay £800 upwards for this type of tank – but remember, you will be saving on water costs if and when you are metered and it could easily cost much more than this to restock your garden with plants if a hosepipe ban is introduced in your area early in the summer.

Bigger tanks require some other investments too. Some, especially buried ones will not have any facility for emptying silt from the bottom. In these cases a filter will have to be fitted to filter the rainwater coming from the roof – the simple filter system that is supplied with 100 and 200 litre butts is good, but not good enough if you can never empty the tank!

Whereas a smaller butt can be raised off the ground in order that a watering can may be placed at a lower height, a bigger one will not be able to be mounted so easily at an elevated height and a buried one just has to have a pump to raise the water to a useable height. Of course, this does mean you will be able to use a hosepipe with it – but if you go back to 500 litres-an-hour type usage, you'll soon empty even the largest of tanks!

Water pumps are available for smaller water butts, and DIY stores like B&Q have a range of fitments to make watering easier from a butt.

Make sure you only water your garden when it needs it – and do it either very early or in the evening. If you water in the heat of day, a lot of moisture will be lost to evaporation.

Mulches

Using mulches will help to further conserve water in your garden. Mulches are layers of bulky organic material, such as wood or compost, which when spread over soil act as a natural barrier to prevent water being lost through evaporation, as well as suppressing weeds.

Make sure the mulch layer is thicker than three inches (7.5cm) and keep the mulch topped up to ensure it retains its effectiveness.

Drought – resistant plants

One of the biggest changes you can make to save water in the garden is your choice of plants. With summers getting hotter and drier, we should take a cue from our Mediterranean neighbours and plant varieties more suited to dry conditions, such as English Lavender Lavandula Hidcote or a patio palm.

Some useful links:

http://www.capitalgardens.co.uk/v3/3p-m-76.html?sort=5d&page=1&gclid=CI-V5pLKzIoCFQqIlAodjE8Vcw

http://www.evengreener.com/Scripts/prodView.asp?idproduct=89&source=affwin
http://www.rainwaterstorage.co.uk/
University of Warwick
B&Q large tanks

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Beat this summer's hosepipe ban by getting prepared now

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