Alerte Dordogne: Just come through from the Prefecture 10th July 2026..
Please feel free to post similar stuff relating to your Area/Department…
1 Like
Thank you @Stella but the only one that concerns me is the watering of Fran’s little bush in a tub kindly sent by @JaneJones and that is always done in the mornings .
Everything else is left to its own devices including the bottom pond which at the moment is a bog.
One way to be able to continue to water tubs etc is to use washing up water and (we’ve already had this discussion 
) shower with a pail alongside.
1 Like
Not worth even putting the plug in for my washing up, plate, plate, glass, bowl and 2 tools are all I use and they are rinsed under the tap in one minute after each use.
That’s water you are letting run away that could be in you watering can - it mounts up.
2 Likes
I’m not aware of any water rationing/restrictions in my area of south Deux-Sevres but I still feel uneasy watering my recently planted garden. I have a couple of dozen shrubs and baby trees that I am watering twice a week, although they could probably do with being watered every other day in this hot weather. Unfortunately I have no alternative, they show signs of wilting by the third day after their last watering.
What I have done, however, is ‘invested’ in four 1000 litre IBC’s which I intend to use to collect rain water. This will be my September project. Two will be installed at the house which has two gutters, one at the garage and the fourth at the garden shed. An underground pipe will lead to three standpipe-type taps which will allow me to use rainwater to irrigate all my plants, front, sides and back. I’ve got to find a pump that will give me a bit of pressure when watering. The IBC’s will be raised maybe 18” off the ground so will have a bit of ‘head’ pressure but I probably still need a pump.
My apologies if this post amounts to ‘Thread Drift’ . . . .
2 Likes
No it doesn’t. It’s all part of the debate about how to keep watering despite restrictions. We have an underground water tank, installed when we restored the cottage and linked to all four corners of the guttering. By the end of winter it is usually full. I installed a pump that just sits on the tank “roof” and that can lift the water up our slope to the house, enabling me to refill the water butts, as by this time in the summer, with no summer storms, they are empty. I have four water butts connected to the house guttering and one attached to the pool house. One of the water butts is an extension of another, because we have such a large roof and in a downpour the first water butt fills really quickly and so there’s also an opportunity to catch the overflow, rather than have it wasted.
In really heavy rain (I wish!) I attach hose pipes to the open taps of the water butts and run the hoses down to the water tank. There is so much rain coming off the roof it is great to capture as much as possible by going through the water butts and straight down to the tank. After it stops, I pump some of the rain back up again to the butts. I have become quite nerdy about trying to save as much rainwater as possible - it’s such a useful resource and free.
3 Likes
I’d love an underground tank but sadly only have about 30cm, or less, soil as we are right on the limestone.
1 Like
Shame.
1 Like
First time in over a decade Norfolk has a hosepipe ban starting tomorrow.
You can still use grey water and washing up water while you wait for the rainwater system.
I have no use for a watering can, apart from the one plant, my garden is entirely wild, from choice not idleness. What am I supposed to do with the half litre of greasy water I have saved by not letting it run away? Also how could I have washed them any better by filling the Belfast with more than 4,000 cu.cms?
The washing machine is only needed once a week, as is the shower because I strip wash in the Belfast sink, no dishwasher and if it does rain, all of it from 3 of the 4 rooves drains into the bottom pond which is a bog at the moment and thank goodness for the top pond, sheltered by trees from the sun there is no evaporation and time spent there is time not spent in an electrically cooled room.
I reckon I have the balance about right. 
1 Like
Yes, the sink waste pipe is relatively high on the outside wall so I’m going to put on a removable section so I can have it drain into a bucket.
1 Like
I’d love a well that works. We have a well but it’s empty of water and full of building rubbish. We were warned in the early days not to try to empty it, in case it included old armaments from the war. A neighbour suggested a Jean de Florette scenario, where the underground water was diverted by someone. 
This is the first year since we moved here that our 2, 1000 litre IBC’s are completely empty, having to water the veg via the mains. 
Few years back, that was when I gave up on a potager - cheaper to buy them than grow them.
It’s much cheaper now in the UK and ours is organic, I enjoy getting them straight from the garden and onto the plate. My daughters family are getting a veg parcel tomorrow, grandson loves veg straight from Gma’s garden 
1 Like
We are surrounded by wells at all the other houses except ours!!! We are going to look into digging one, well probably a bore hole.
1 Like
Fortunate enough to be surrounded by water and have an etang 40m by 15m fed by a tributary to the Vienne river which has not dropped in level yet. Am also installing a water recovery system so we can go off grid and not use mains water. Last year I installed almost 20kW of solar panels with battery backup (44kWh) and I bought two 6kW pompe à chaleur from a Dutch auction site so I should be self supporting and relatively green by the end of the year.
1 Like
Here in Vendee we have just gone to ‘Alerte Renforcée’ for tap water, so no garden watering other than for a potager after 8pm.
Fortunately, after a bit of trial and error, we now have a 300litre grey water tank that takes the waste water from the bath and shower. The water is a bit bubbly with soap and shampoo, and it also whiffs a bit, but the plants don’t seem to mind having the ground around them soaked in said water.