AIBU to ask you all to enjoy a better drought?

[Menier]

Posting here for traffic.
I've just come back from my dog walk and have noticed many of the street trees are suffering badly in this drought and heatwave.
So would I be unreasonable to ask you all to water them if you can.
I know many of you will be doing this already.
Every little helps and it's not actually possible to overwater street trees, even just a washing up bowl full every other day if you have a hosepipe ban in your area.

The grey water downpipe in our house is the same one as used by the toilet. In any case, it is rock solid cast iron.

You could always do what my dad did in the 60's and 70's and use a hosepipe to siphon water from the bath out of the window and down into a storage container below. Either that or use the jug and bucket combo.

Water butts filled from gutters are all very well, until you've used all of the water and it doesn't rain for weeks...

Doesn't this make you think about what you are putting in the water supply and next to your family's skin then (largest organ in the body absorbing all that)

Nancy Birtwhistle posted a video about siphoning bathwater using a hose from an upstairs window a while ago (late Spring /Summer) on Instagram

We don’t bath. And yes, ours is the same. So much better the old way!

It's true we can't save the wild trees but urban/street trees are far more vulnerable to drought for a number of reasons - they usually have inadequate/tiny water catchment areas around them that are baked hard and don't absorb water well (and some councils delight in tarmacking over even these tiny spaces); many are severely trimmed/pollarded which stresses them and gives them less leaf area to feed deep roots; street/pavement spraying with weedkillers badly affects them; and pollution and vandalism take their toll too. So absolutely we should look after our urban/street trees. They help us and we should help them back.

The water companies have lost the trust and loyalty of the public by failing to fix leaks and causing horrific pollution incidents, while paying their executives massive salaries and bonuses and failing to invest in infrastructure to manage water better.

While we've had a hosepipe ban in place for some time where I live, apparently football pitches and golf courses are still allowed to be liberally watered for hours on end.

Bucket in the shower! Product of two WWII babies here.

I am not stupid but I can’t! Building work (yes, even on a Saturday morning) means dust and shite is everywhere. It is driving me MAD that I cannot dry laundry outside in this weather.

In very slight defence of the water companies, leaking/burst pipes happen more often during droughts because the very dry ground shifts, shrinks and cracks, meaning anything that's underground is vulnerable to movement. I think I read it's particularly a problem for clay soil?

Yes, the water companies should be doing a lot more regular maintenance of the pipe network. But leaks will now be occurring at much greater frequency than usual (and a lot more home owners will have problems with subsidence emerging over the next year for the same reason!)

I have switched my cleaning products to Smol - all plastic free, biodegradable and doesn't harm plants or trees. So, when you use grey water from your washing up bowl, for example, no damage is caused by any leftover washing up bubbles! It is really reasonably priced and managed by a subscription. Would recommend!

Our down pipe is attached to a massive water butt with a tap and a planter on the top to look nice. We did it for selfish reasons because the hedge roots were growing up the down pipe searching for water and blocking it, but anyway it’s a no brainer and a win win for everyone.

@Glitterbiscuits , soap should be OK if it's a plain one (simple soap and dupes). Things like SLS (in shampoo, showergel, handwash etc) and surfactants are bad for the environment.

I've considered doing this but worry I'll just dribble water from the bottom of the bucket all the was down the landing and stairs. Is there a technique?

Nice idea but giving trees only a little bit of water is not good as roots stay shallow and de stabilises tree.

• none

But a little bit on a regular basis might help.

It is true that a good couple of bucketfuls at once encourages the roots downwards, rather than a little dribble more frequently. That’s why I do the little trees once a week with quite a bit of water rather than every day.

The sentiment is kind@Menier but I have multiple 100s of trees near me - possibly running into 1000s and many bushes too. I live in a rural hamlet in the shires near woodlands. Watering every tree even within one mile would be untenable.

They have the water table under the ground, (it's lower than normal right now but has some water still,) and also the trees can shed 1000s of leaves to preserve themselves. We don't need to water trees. Like we don't need to water grass/lawns.

As I said, you sound kind and thoughtful, but people don't need to be going around watering trees. (Unless they are freshly planted and new, then I would hope the person who planted it is looking after it and watering it...)

Basically, mature trees in the ground (7-8+ years old,) don't need to be watered.

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I was in my loft tonight trying to see if theres a way to divert the wastewater from my kids bath to my lawn & trees!!!

Sounds idyllic, and I agree many mature trees will survive. However I, like many others am in a city, the street I live on, like many others, has saplings planted within the last few years. They definitely do need watering, we have had no rain for almost 60 days now and many days of temperatures exceeding 30 degrees.
Street trees make a huge difference to the local environment.

One of the mature trees in my garden crashed to the grou d today. Never seen the lime before. Terrifying.

Typos...
Ground
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Sorry

It's infuriating. We pay the highest water bills, they're still pumping sewage into the rivers and sea despite the lack of rain, the shareholders and CEOs rake it in. I use the hose to fill up my water butt, then use watering cans, but apparently that's illegal?! I'm going to continue to fill up my water butt with a hose, and conserve grey water, to keep my pollinator-friendly plants alive. Because without the bees, we're buggered. Apols for the rant!

@Menier Ive PM’d you with details

A lot occasionally is far better.

You don't want to encourage roots to grow upwards to find water in the surface few inches.