Does anybody here take the Greens seriously?

[Rusty Nails]

So I've got a manual diversion system for the kitchen waste water which gives me about 4-6 buckets of grey water a day for the garden.

I do something like that but have also wondered about a diversion system for the bath and shower outlets...mostly showers these days.

 

[BoldonLad]

I thought about doing that here, but the problem with that is that when the butts suddenly fill up is the time when you don't need to do any watering. So I've got a manual diversion system for the kitchen waste water which gives me about 4-6 buckets of grey water a day for the garden. Any other garden watering is verboten in drought periods.(Note - the water is distinctly 'whiffy', so the butt needs a lid to keep neighbours happy.)

It would be a different matter if the butts were big enough to hold a few weeks' worth of water for the garden, but(t) most would only hold a few days' worth (which is better than nothing, but not enough for any proper drought).

Rather delightfully, using my 'grey water' daily has saved a blackcurrant bush which looked as dead as a doornail when I arrived, the bay has perked up, and the gooseberry might *just* survive. I don't bother with fancy watering cans – a good bucket drenching does the trick.

If you have space, you could have “n” water butts, linked together. I have 5 * 100l, they still have some water in them, but, only just.

 

[Pblakeney]

I thought about doing that here, but the problem with that is that when the butts suddenly fill up is the time when you don't need to do any watering. So I've got a manual diversion system for the kitchen waste water which gives me about 4-6 buckets of grey water a day for the garden. Any other garden watering is verboten in drought periods.(Note - the water is distinctly 'whiffy', so the butt needs a lid to keep neighbours happy.)

It would be a different matter if the butts were big enough to hold a few weeks' worth of water for the garden, but(t) most would only hold a few days' worth (which is better than nothing, but not enough for any proper drought).

Rather delightfully, using my 'grey water' daily has saved a blackcurrant bush which looked as dead as a doornail when I arrived, the bay has perked up, and the gooseberry might *just* survive. I don't bother with fancy watering cans – a good bucket drenching does the trick.

That’s just a matter of improving on the original premise.

 

[Pblakeney]

I was also wondering about Lakeland's and Manchester's water needs these days.

All things considered, it's probably just as well there's not a big pipe taking water from Scotland to England.

Give it time…

 

[BoldonLad]

I was also wondering about Lakeland's and Manchester's water needs these days.

All things considered, it's probably just as well there's not a big pipe taking water from Scotland to England.

I believe there is a system of pipes/tunnels to transfer water from Kielder Water (River Tyne system), to the River Tees.

 

[briantrumpet]

If you have space, you could have “n” water butts, linked together. I have 5 * 100l, they still have some water in them, but, only just.

Ah, OK, yes. I was thinking of the ones that hold say 100 litres - that ain't going to go very far.

The school where I worked (grounds about 40 acres, including sports fields, I'd guess) very wisely has installed two underground reservoirs, in effect, to collect all the drain water... at one time they had a 20m outdoor pool, and when they built a covered 25m pool, I thought they'd filled the old one in, but instead they filled the hole with what looked like plastic crates and covered it over, and all the water from the top part of the grounds run into there. Clever.

 

[briantrumpet]

That’s just a matter of improving on the original premise.

Not really. Waste water is a constant supply year round. Run-off rainwater isn't, unless you have mega storage (see my school example).

 

[Pblakeney]

Not really. Waste water is a constant supply year round. Run-off rainwater isn't, unless you have mega storage (see my school example).

My point is that there are ways of managing water. We in the UK are useless at it.
It just takes a bit of effort and look at what water deprived areas have been doing for decades, if not centuries.

 

[briantrumpet]

My point is that there are ways of managing water. We in the UK are useless at it.
It just takes a bit of effort and look at what water deprived areas have been doing for decades, if not centuries.

Partly because in most places we haven't had to, as we have had a sufficiency of rain most of the time, certainly in the west of the UK.

But sure, we are going to have to think about the 'new normal' and do things diffruntly.

https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/research/climate/maps-and-data/uk-actual-and-anomaly-maps

(Dive into those maps - they are brilliant, and you can waste hours there.)

 

[Pblakeney]

Partly because in most places we haven't had to, as we have had a sufficiency of rain most of the time, certainly in the west of the UK.

But sure, we are going to have to think about the 'new normal' and do things diffruntly.

https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/research/climate/maps-and-data/uk-actual-and-anomaly-maps

(Dive into those maps - they are brilliant, and you can waste hours there.)

View attachment 16748

View attachment 16749

As I said in my initial post, "complacency".

 

[briantrumpet]

As I said in my initial post, "complacency".

It has a habit of catching up on you.

OTOH, I do get annoyed by the rare events where we get caught out with heavy snow, and everyone complains that "they know how to do it in France!" or wherever, as if in the UK we need to be kitted out as if we're in the Alps and without our normally temperate climate. They'd complain about their taxes being too high because "We've got thousands of snow ploughs sitting in sheds doing nothing!!"

 

[Pblakeney]

It has a habit of catching up on you.

OTOH, I do get annoyed by the rare events where we get caught out with heavy snow, and everyone complains that "they know how to do it in France!" or wherever, as if in the UK we need to be kitted out as if we're in the Alps and without our normally temperate climate. They'd complain about their taxes being too high because "We've got thousands of snow ploughs sitting in sheds doing nothing!!"

I still don't know why people cannot drive in snow, but that's for another thread.

 

[briantrumpet]

I still don't know why people cannot drive in snow, but that's for another thread.

Lack of practice and understanding.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpyXqNLi44Q

 

[Mr Celine]

All things considered, it's probably just as well there's not a big pipe taking water from Scotland to England.

There already is, it's called the River Tweed.

 

[Dorset Boy]

I still don't know why people cannot drive in snow, but that's for another thread.

Summer tyres which are fitted to all cars as standard are shite in snow.
Why all seasons aren't fitted as standard I don't know.