Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

jtaylor wrote:So I guess this standpoint says that gardens are as important as drinking/washing water?
I appreciate in 1984 this may have been the case, but I haven't put water on my garden at all, and the plants that are in it thrive no problem at all.....
In order to save water, should there not be a major Green campaign to ban all water-intensive plants, and replace with drought-tolerant alternatives??
Watering gardens is simply mad.........

Julian,
I'm not saying that gardens are as / more important than drinking / washing water. You use water for washing yourself after which use what happens to it? You could use it for the first wash opf pots and pans (before rinsing with something more hygenic) or you could use it for washing the car (so long as you don't use a hose or get caught) or you could even make waterbombs. However, there are a lot of people who, instead of putting it down the plughole would help the national effort by substituting it for clean out of the tap water when irrigating thier plants.

OK so you have Mediterranean type plants (even mine have to be watered for their first couple of months) but many people aren't so green yet.

As for veg can I recommend

http://www.simplyhydro.com/maximum__yield_q_&_a.htm
and/or Sholto-Douglas' book on the subject. Can save 80% of the water that would otherwise be used.

Given that sewage is treated to remove the nasties, why isn't the "clean" water returned to the mains?
If that were the case, letting it go down the plug hole would be far greener than watering the plants in all cases?

jtaylor wrote:Given that sewage is treated to remove the nasties, why isn't the "clean" water returned to the mains?
If that were the case, letting it go down the plug hole would be far greener than watering the plants in all cases?

JULIAN !!!!! PERLEEEZ !!

Your starting to sound like Red Ken, (he of Dick Whittington fame), C/O of The Gherkin, somewhere within the congestion charge.

You'll have us p1ssing straight in the kettle next !

(Well - I s'pose it cuts out the middle-man !)

Hot countries have the great system of having the double flush button - its divided into two - a half flush and full flush. You only need half the water for um, urine, and the full amount for feces. (yes i cant spell it!). why dont we have it in the UK?

Hannoir wrote:Hot countries have the great system of having the double flush button - its divided into two - a half flush and full flush. You only need half the water for um, urine, and the full amount for feces. (yes i cant spell it!). why dont we have it in the UK?

Very good question. Going back to the idea of a brick in the cistern - I believe it is considered very passe to use a brick, it should be a filled plastic water bottle or a purchased 'Hippo' made for that.

OK - I'll stop now!!
Personally I have very little time for the green/conservation side, BUT will do anything which is relatively easy in order to save water etc.
Hence, I do turn off the tap whilst cleaning my teeth, and never water the garden etc. etc.
I do though wash my car quite often, because that's more important to me than my water-metered water bill.....

J

Katharine wrote:

Hannoir wrote:Hot countries have the great system of having the double flush button - its divided into two - a half flush and full flush. You only need half the water for um, urine, and the full amount for feces. (yes i cant spell it!). why dont we have it in the UK?

Very good question. Going back to the idea of a brick in the cistern - I believe it is considered very passe to use a brick, it should be a filled plastic water bottle or a purchased 'Hippo' made for that.

How the hell d'yer get one of them in yer cistern ???

Aren't they a bit noisy ?

J.R. wrote:This country amazes me. We are a tiny island, surrounded by water and our plants have to wilt.

A mate in Dubai has just sent me some photo's of his local golf course, and their greens are far greener than any in this country at present. I think it's called de-salination !

Someone suggest a de-salination plant out in the Thames estuary. Red Ken said 'No', because it would cost too much to run............

Errrrrrrr !!!!! EXCUSE ME ???????????????????

Dubai is fantastic - very weird that they have green in the middle of a desert. And having walked from the green bit to the yellow bit, the dividing line is stunningly sharp.

I understood that having DUBAL out there (Dubai Aluminium) gave them all the free water they needed - something to do with the smelting process leaves H20 as a by product?

J.R wrote:

Katharine wrote:or a purchased 'Hippo' made for that.

How the hell d'yer get one of them in yer cistern ???

Aren't they a bit noisy ?

We've got two - or tried to have two anyway....We have two cisterns, one pre 1930 and one post 1980. The hippo doesn't fit into the pre 1930 one, are cisterns getting bigger?

hoob wrote:

J.R wrote:

Katharine wrote:or a purchased 'Hippo' made for that.

How the hell d'yer get one of them in yer cistern ???

Aren't they a bit noisy ?

We've got two - or tried to have two anyway....We have two cisterns, one pre 1930 and one post 1980. The hippo doesn't fit into the pre 1930 one, are cisterns getting bigger?

Maybe the Hippo's are getting bigger !

(Answers on a post-card to your nearest Zoo !!)

J.R. wrote:
Errrrrrrr !!!!! EXCUSE ME ???????????????????

I was going to reply "You're big enough to do it yourself" but then I wondered about your wife's view of such a response

jtaylor wrote:Given that sewage is treated to remove the nasties, why isn't the "clean" water returned to the mains?
If that were the case, letting it go down the plug hole would be far greener than watering the plants in all cases?

If you live in London ISTR that the tap water you drink has been through 13 people before you on average. It also contains a fair amount of hormones from the birth control pills London women have been taking.

In short; it is. The real question is where does the water go that has been through 14 people? Why doesn't it go through peeps numbers 15 to 55? That would really save water.

Considering we aren't living sustainably, I think any environmental issue should be at the forefront of the political agenda. Water being one of them.

half flush buttons do exist in this country but only in newish toilets. afaik, most of them in austria and germany have them as standard.

JT, i don't know which stunningly green area of the south east you live in, but bedfordshire is officially semi-arid. we certainly need to water our plants in the summer to stop them dying.

even if you don't feel the need to throw bath water on your desert roses, they'll probably appreciate it anyway.
another thing you can do is put it in the composter, it will flush out all the already composted stuff into your soil, thus fertilizing and watering it, and making your composter more efficient. if you have a composter that is... (they're usually available free from your council...)

regardless of whether it would bring any benefit to your garden (it would), you would still be helping by reducing the amount of surfactants that end up in our waterways. unless your garden has a stream running through it, in which case don't.

I water our vegetables (courgettes, tomatoes, and french beans this year) in the evening and thepots every other day in the evening, otherwise they will die.

However, in a bed, most plants seem to be quite happy!