The hosepipe ban

Ours had a lid

Always keep a lid on a water butt- as larvae cannot develop in the dark. And of course to prevent birds drowning in it (very upset when I found 2 young sparrows almost dead- which is had to finish off )

Ah.

May depend on the species?

We used to have mosquito larvae in our water butt in Oxfordshire. I don't remember mosquitos being a problem though.

Oh, sorry, you said that already.

Newts eat mosquito larvae.

Yes they do, eat them, but I know no other way of preventing mosquitoes from breeding - so I let him have fish. Maybe if newts then they would eat mosquito larvae but i think only when they were in residence and most of the time they are off patrolling the parish.

No fish on ours either. Visiting herons would eat them anyway.

No fish in mine

Rule number one for a wild pond - no goldfish, etc! We have plenty of newts in ours and dragonfly larvae, which do eat some of the tadpoles - but the balance is natural.

I've always wanted a wildlife pond and when we moved here OH and SIL dug one but what we ended up with wasn't at all what I wanted so at that point I gave all rights to the pond to OH and now we have a pond full of fish , the frogs find their way in and the damn fish eat all the spawn... I don't like it but OH has fun taking care of it.. I don't think he even noticed that I have nothing to do with it...lol

depends whether you've got goldfish Bags

It's only a very small garden pond! In fact some of the local pot holes in the roads are bigger

Knew

Here ya go: pondconservation.org has some info that is interesting.

New I'd seen it somewhere, though none of the three pond books on my own shelves were any use .

It's strange really. We are told to grow our own - better for us etc etc - but now we can't water the produce without a lot of hassle and strength so...our produce dies and unless we use our gas guzzlers to get to the nearest shop we will starve to death or end up with bad backs in hospitals where we succomb to infection. Is this a Government plot do you think?

There is a school of thought that says you shouldn't top up ponds at all because in natural circumstances they do dry up and then refill. The wildlife has adapted to cope with this. I need to go and find where I read that now.

I suppose some garden ponds don't have much water draining into them naturally though

bumbles off to check stuff about ponds

No ban here! Anyway I'm on a meter and disabled. But I couldn't use a hose with two crutches

Since we moved into this house and now have a water meter, I have become a bit neurotic about using water. DH says it's supposed to make you conscious about not wasting water, not neurotic about using it! We have no hosepipe ban here, and my water butt is now empty, but I have taken to harvesting every scrap of waste water I feasibly can for watering plants. Of course, it's not enough; it takes ten gallons just to water my miserably small flower bed, and then there are all the pots, so I resort to the hose. I comfort myself by thinking of all the water that went down the drain when GS left the tap running in the downstairs cloakroom and no-one noticed for two hours!! I gritted my teeth, patted him on the head and asked him to make sure he didn't do it again!

Shysal I'm with Veolia Water here not Thames Water here is a link for them

https://southeast.veoliawater.co.uk/docs/drought-restrictions-explained-29-March.pdf

but as I said each company has different regs. No point in filling my water butt from the hose as I can just fill the watering can from the tap its at the side of the house.. I hope I'm reading the regs correctly it does say temporary displays and pots may be watered with a hose as long as they are on a meter or hand held at all times, I've actually just noticed it seems to include gardens as well.. now I am confused...

granjura sounds like you have yourselves very well organised.. night time rain would be perfect...

I can just imagine you out in the garden in your nightie at midnight - quietly dragging the hose in the right direction and then wait with a G&T - shhhhhhh gran's the word.

I know but no other option!

We had a drought for ages here in Queensland Australia and had complete hosepipe bans for a while, then later they gave us 4pm-5pm hosing allowance three days a week. No sprinklers though.

There were many solutions. You could get a government subsidised water tank - many folks did this, some had huge tanks plumbed into the laundry and toilet, as well as being there for garden watering. Of course, it had to rain to be any use!!

I just saved water. The dog's old water was thrown over plants near the door, I kept a bucket in the kitchen for vegetable water and clean waste water, I diverted the bath and shower exit pipes to the banana trees, attached a long hose to the washing machine outlet to water other trees, and used buckets or watering cans (permissable) for the rest.

Then we had floods. Another story.