We had some God-awful weather recently. Fortunately, we're well above the maximum flooding line of the Thames, but our overflowing gutter manages to cause its own problems. On Tuesday morning I had to move my poly-poly fern out of the way of the cascade coming from the roof.
I shoved my largest tubtrug underneath, hoping to catch at least some of the water, although I suspect it overflowed too, as it was already nearly half full by the time I got inside. But by Wednesday evening I had a good four watering cans full of low-calcium rainwater, which has to be good for the plants.
Because Bigger Pot Towers is a grade II listed building, we have an elaborate network of gutters and drains on the back of the house (this has caused problems almost every year as long as my upstairs neighbour can remember, when the gutters get clogged up and water pours through his lounge into ours). And beautiful, large, cast-iron downpipes. Look great, naff all use for siphoning off rainwater. So it gets wasted.
It pisses me off no end to see so much water wasted. There's a famous quote somewhere about how the next world war will be fought on the basis of water (actually, it might have been Hubster proselytising after a couple of glasses of pinot grigio). We waste so much of it - here's several buckets a minute falling off the roof at Clapham Junction:
And that's probably about what falls off our gutter. Into a drain, or in our case the gravel and no doubt the not-at-all-subsiding (so I am told) foundations, and then to the water table, the Thames and the sea. Eventually I suppose it'll get evaporated off, and it'll rain down again - probably in the last week of June and first week of July. And then we'll have a hosepipe ban, because while we have had loads of rain we haven't saved it in the right places.
A hosepipe ban won't affect me because I have no choice but to carry up to four watering cans full down the steps from the bathroom every time I water the garden. But I see all this good, clean (or as clean as London rain can ever be) water being wasted down the drain, while I use mains water unnecessarily. I wish I could fix a water butt to our listed downpipes, but it's never going to happen. Perhaps a carefully positioned open-top water butt would be okay, plonked under the main drips.
Then maybe I can get one of those funky pump jobs and make Hubster shower with the plug in so we can save our grey water. Do you all get frustrated by how much water is wasted like this? Apart from putting out every container possible on the lawn during a rain shower, is there any other way I can conserve more water?
I shoved my largest tubtrug underneath, hoping to catch at least some of the water, although I suspect it overflowed too, as it was already nearly half full by the time I got inside. But by Wednesday evening I had a good four watering cans full of low-calcium rainwater, which has to be good for the plants.
Because Bigger Pot Towers is a grade II listed building, we have an elaborate network of gutters and drains on the back of the house (this has caused problems almost every year as long as my upstairs neighbour can remember, when the gutters get clogged up and water pours through his lounge into ours). And beautiful, large, cast-iron downpipes. Look great, naff all use for siphoning off rainwater. So it gets wasted.
It pisses me off no end to see so much water wasted. There's a famous quote somewhere about how the next world war will be fought on the basis of water (actually, it might have been Hubster proselytising after a couple of glasses of pinot grigio). We waste so much of it - here's several buckets a minute falling off the roof at Clapham Junction:
And that's probably about what falls off our gutter. Into a drain, or in our case the gravel and no doubt the not-at-all-subsiding (so I am told) foundations, and then to the water table, the Thames and the sea. Eventually I suppose it'll get evaporated off, and it'll rain down again - probably in the last week of June and first week of July. And then we'll have a hosepipe ban, because while we have had loads of rain we haven't saved it in the right places.
A hosepipe ban won't affect me because I have no choice but to carry up to four watering cans full down the steps from the bathroom every time I water the garden. But I see all this good, clean (or as clean as London rain can ever be) water being wasted down the drain, while I use mains water unnecessarily. I wish I could fix a water butt to our listed downpipes, but it's never going to happen. Perhaps a carefully positioned open-top water butt would be okay, plonked under the main drips.
Then maybe I can get one of those funky pump jobs and make Hubster shower with the plug in so we can save our grey water. Do you all get frustrated by how much water is wasted like this? Apart from putting out every container possible on the lawn during a rain shower, is there any other way I can conserve more water?
0 comments:
Post a Comment