"George.com" wrote in message
...
How are you jokers in the drought areas of Aus doing with your vege
gardens?
We read today that Sydney had a real downpour.

What arrangements have you ockers put in place during the drought for
watering the veges?
Stuff the drought water anyway?
Roof tanks (how have they stood up to the long dry?)
Alternatives like peeing in bottles etc? (I read an account of Mexicans
growing veges in containers and using nothing but urine to supply
nitrogen)

Just interested.

hm. at our place (outer woop-woop, no town water, hence no restrictions
beyond what we decide) we have various rainwater tanks (mostly not big
enough to be much use ;-) and two-and-a-third dams. we don't even use one
and a third of the dams at this point (the wildlife uses them though), and
one of the rainwater tanks is solely for kitchen, brewing & greenhouse use.
the house dam is for shower, outdoor tap, washing machine, washing the
dishes, toilet. one tank is mainly for the chooks' water, the other is very
small & i use it on the garden.

mostly, we use shower, kitchen & washing-machine water on the garden, and
it's plenty for what we've got atm (big veggie garden which supplies almost
all our veg - onions being the only exception atm), large yard with a number
of beds i'm actively working on hence need a bit of water, some fruit trees
& such). tbh, using this method we have more water than we really "need" for
the gardens so i often give shrubs & things some water where, were the water
not available, i'd just leave them to it & they could wait for rain. partly
this is because our washing machine uses a full bathtub's worth per load
(were i buying one now, i'd go for a frontloader).

i get pretty tired & exasperated sometimes bucketing the greywater around,
BUT, the garden is going extremely well, i had no losses from heat or
drought over summer, and my dream of turning a poor sad neglected & dry
property into a fertile and self-sufficient garden for food, birds & animals
is all panning out pretty well so far. i've got loads of worms now, the
soil's improving, it's getting more beautiful every day, and is definitely
worth the hard work! so if i can do that during a drought with my greywater,
all power to me, but honestly, anyone _can_ do it & more & more of them are.
people in towns are now becoming very interested in greywater systems (i'm
not likely to have the greywater police round, but they are, hence they're
obliged to make sure they do things properly, whereas i can let it pump into
a bathtub outside & bucket it around) and tanks.

we keep our showers short, flush the loo only for poos, & do things like
using the shower water for the washing machine, then bring the water back
for another load & such as that; and endeavour not to waste a drop so that
we'll always have it when we need it. these types of things are becoming
more common. i think the current drought has been a real wake-up call for a
lot of people & we will all learn a lot from current bad times.

which isn't to say there's not total greedy ninnies out there - of course
there are. but people are starting to realise more & more what's important,
what can be done without, & to just THINK about things more & act
accordingly. frankly, the populace is streaks ahead of the govt on this &
don't we all know it.
kylie