On 28/05/11 23:43, jbm wrote:
I can confidently forecast the complete lack of rain over the next few
weeks. Oh, how so, you ask. Well, I went to the garden centre this
afternoon, and came back with a new water butt, to replace the one that
split in the freezing weather of December. I also bought two new
concrete pots and four new miniature fir trees, to replace the 5 I lost
due to the cold winter and dry spring. Those trees are going to need
watering on a regular basis, so the water in the water butt will
hopefully do that job. Unfortunately, for water to reach the butt, water
needs to run off the four roofs that serve the downpipe on the back of
my house. For water to run off the roof, short of running a hose from
the water mains up there, rain is needed. So I think I am pretty
confident that no rain is going to occur, and those new fir trees are
going to suffer like the last ones. Otherwise I'm going to have to water
them using a watering can filled from the tap under the sink. So one way
or the other my metered water bill is going to go through the roof that
isn't getting any water from the rain that isn't falling. A lose-lose
situation if there ever was one.

Dave, can you wash your car every day please, and sod the Test Matches?

jim, Northampton


When you have a shower, put a plug in the plug hole and afterwards get a
bucket and move the waste water from the shower into your water butt.

I doubt that watering your fir trees will have a huge impact on your
bill if you use a watering can. Looking at my last water bill I am
getting charged about 95p/m^3. 1 m^3 of water is equal to 1000 litres,
which is equivalent to about 100 large watering cans or about 200 small
watering cans (going by the watering cans I have at least). If you water
three times a week with, say, 10 litres per concrete pot (i.e. one large
watering can) then that is roughly 70 litres per week. At that rate it
would take you about 14 weeks or three months to use a cubic meter of
water which would translate into approximately an extra pound every
three months on your bill. This of course assumes that no rain falls in
that three month period which would reduce the need for you to water the
pots.