Allotment Water on Tap, or Maybe Not

As dry May ends the sun has transformed the allotment and turned a blank canvas into a busy plot full of fresh early fruit and salad. The plots are busy first and last thing each day with folk going back and forth to the water troughs and giving their crops that vital element – water.

‘Can I have a drink please?’ Lottie asks, ignoring the bench top and squeezing down under the shelter it provides.

‘Just a minute, I have the get the pot, ‘ I reply. The pots are kept in my shed and are old big Yogurt pots which once cleaned out by Lottie and washed are brought across to act as containers for some of the precious food as it makes its journey home and to the plate. I must thank the likes of Lidl in introducing us to those huge yogurt pots with proper lids. They truly have many uses around the plot and Lottie’s water bowl is but one.

I hold the ballcock down and fill the tub with fresh water which I present to Lottie and she laps up with great gusto. How dogs can lick up liquid remains a mystery to me, but they do.

For the next hour I water mine and my neighbour’s plot. She is in isolation, so I have two plots and lots to water. I soon will be competing with Popeye for arm muscles! I then collect our dinner salad and fruit.

‘Before we go can you top up my pot?’ asks Lottie with those pleading whippet eyes that no one can ignore.

‘Ok but you have loads of water still there in the pot,’ I reply.

‘That’s not fresh,’ she answers with a look as if I had offered her bad meat.

Lottie likes to see that water is fresh and always stands with a fixed stare when you fill any of her bowls. She wants to ensure she is getting ‘fresh’. She doesn’t care when its milk, but water has to be fresh.

I press the ballcock down in the trough, but nothing happens. There is no water. I look puzzled and move to the next trough which is the same. I then walk down to the trough in the other direction. The same.

‘What does a dog have to do to get a drink around here?’ I hear from a pair of eyes fixed on me from under the bench.

I do not respond but slowly walk along all the troughs in the direction of the water source and none are giving the slightest droplet. Finally, on the bottom plots I see and hear the issue. The water has already been taken and is being drawn upon as fast as it is filling. Most of the plot holders are queuing up with two cans to take water, and those who are not queuing are busy watering their plots.

So it may be nice to be up the hill but maybe not so nice when water is in high demand.

I trudge back to Lottie and try my best to explain. ‘The tanks are empty and busy filling up and with the water pressure it isn’t making it up here.’

‘Water is on demand - you just have to turn the tap. You must think I am an idiot,’ declares Lottie with a look of disbelief and frustration. ‘I am not drinking stale water and I am going tell Annie when we get home you didn’t give me my water.’

I realise it is time to go as this debate is going nowhere. I wave to the other plot holders and say goodbye and as I walk to the gate, I start to think how to avoid a repeat tomorrow. I could get here earlier but that does not guarantee success. I could get here later but the same applies. Is there a way I can siphon off the main pipe and get water to the trough before others? I soon realise this is a wasted thought and resign myself to having to accept the tank will be full when I arrive and may not refill itself while I am there.

Water is vital. Many of us have butts some even fancy water irrigation systems, but when it does not rain these soon all run dry. Some allotments do not even have water and we have a friend how has to fill big bottles and take them by car to the plot each trip.

Having arrived home and fed Lottie and given her some ‘fresh’ water, dinner soon awaits on the balcony in the glorious evening sunshine. Fresh green and red salad, rocket, spring onions, baby beetroot leaves, cucumber,  the first basil mixed with herbs from the balcony pots all accompanied by chicken and bread and followed by fresh rhubarb, yogurt topped with our first raspberries. Tomorrow we should have more strawberries and the first of our cherries.

You realise that the sunshine, heat and recent good weather has delivered a bounty of fresh produce with more to come. Watering the allotment may be testing and frustrating for Lottie, but there are many fresh rewards.

How do we Water the Plot?

Today the blue skies have turned to grey and heat and sunshine to cold and rain. One month we have the highest rainfall on record, floods and many find the soil just too waterlogged and heavy to do anything. Then a couple of months later we are basking in the heat and days go by without any rain and we find the soil has baked hard and dry. Such is the allotment plot holder’s lot.

If only we could have stored all that excess water into some enormous water tank to see us through the dry period.

Some allotments have water troughs which work brilliantly when they are next your plot but can be trying when they are expected to serve a dozen or more plots. My daughter had a plot where the end of the plot was some sixty feet away from the trough, but the other end of the plot was a further long and especially gruelling hike in the heat of summer when carrying two cans. Then when everyone was around and the water demand emptied the trough, a further hike was needed to the next trough. I called the game ‘chasing the water’ as all the troughs emptied in unison and queues formed to grab fresh water as soon as it started to fill in the trough.

I am aware of several sites who are lucky enough to have their own underground source via established wells or new bore holes. This is a great way forward but is only available to the few.

At our site we have lots of mains-fed troughs and everyone can take as little or as much as required. This however can have its own problems. Some plot holders elect to use an old big paint bucket not a can. In goes the bucket into the trough and like those large dredger buckets, water is instantly scooped up. It’s hard to direct buckets and water is often poured indiscriminately straight over the plot. For a brief moment the plot can resembles a paddy field. No sooner has the soil absorbed one bucket than another lands.

At our site we ban the use of hose pipes and siphoning water. We do have several additional mains taps available for washing, drinking or to aid taking tablets. It’s interesting that these are rarely used for filling cans as it take too long.

As a Society we all universally share the water bill, which is also highlighted, along with insurance and sink fund within the annual rent. Currently the water element is £10 per year. That equates to 12p a week, or 83p a month, and may be regarded as cheap. We do not switch off the water at any time during the winter or meter individual troughs.  

But in today’s environmental climate we all must constantly ask ourselves, are we doing enough? Do we, or should we incentivise plot holders to do more to collect rainwater and reuse it and for others to use less mains water?

The problem does not have a simple solution and sites will vary by location, topography and structure, size and layout and diversity of plot holders and habits.

It cost me over £50 to gutter my shed and install a water butt. The shed is 7x5 and frankly it collects some water albeit slowly and can soon be emptied just by the hungry greenhouse next door. Some sheds are larger and will collect more and quicker, but do we want larger sheds at the expense of land and as they are larger, they will also incur higher set up costs? Two plots have water irrigation from their rainwater collections. One has built a large loggia whose roof collects the rainwater and the other has a solar panelled pump attached to their butt. However, can we, or should we permit loggia type extensions to offset mains water and expect all to expend this amount of money? After all some would argue these systems can take up growing space, are clearly expensive and can only distribute what is collected and when empty need to be topped up.

So how do we move forward responsibly? How do we exercise some sort of collective responsibility?

When drought orders are imposed, allotments tend to be excluded.

Should we ration water to all and how would this work? Should we increase the revenue collected and offer cost incentives if water usage drops? Should we look at opportunities to collect soakaway and is it even practical? Should we insist that all new sheds, greenhouses, even polytunnels collect rainwater in order to get approval?

Our redeveloped Trading shed collects rainwater and we have plans now to collect rainwater and provide storage from our pavilion roof as part of a disabled beds project. These commendable incentives only tackle a small part of the overall issue and again only apply to ourselves.

Perhaps there should be a central sprinkler system which comes on automatically and covers all plots as if they were agricultural land? Any additional water needs would be down to the individual and yes, greenhouses and polytunnels could collect their own rainwater.

Perhaps the issue is that mains water is too cheap and while ever that remains the case, there is little incentive to seek alternative solutions.

We all have different issues, opportunities and challenges but perhaps it’s time to start a serious debate and a national, regional or civic research programme and initiatives on water at the allotments…