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Grass cuttings and water

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  • midnightbluemidnightblue Posts: 66
    edited February 2023

    @nonenone I use home made compost and well rotted manure from our sheep shed.  My roses really love the sheep muck, you can almost see them growing!
    I have plenty of both, as it is a large garden and everything grows like mad. I can't keep up, so always end up with big piles of foliage when I do get to cut back. It may take a year or two to rot down, but there's always another one that is ready :)

    @nonenone I use home made compost and well rotted manure from our sheep shed.  My roses really love the sheep muck, you can almost see them growing!
    I have plenty of both, as it is a large garden and everything grows like mad. I can't keep up, so always end up with big piles of foliage when I do get to cut back. It may take a year or two to rot down, but there's always another one that is ready :)
    Thanks for your help - time I started collecting muck from the fields then - it will rot eventually!

  • Slow-wormSlow-worm Posts: 1,630
    There's a man on YT who shows you how to put in your own borehole - could you do that at all? Just a simple procedure which may be possible for you, basically a pipe and a pump, and a lot less than £26k! 
  • SkandiSkandi Posts: 1,723
    edited February 2023
    A bore holes cost is going to be hugely variable, how deep and what type of rock will vary enormously.  Parents in law had two put in (for agricultural use) one was 15m but the other had to go to 30m that one cost 3x as much as the first.  If your spring is starting to run dry from a lowered water table you need to tell the landlord because it won't get any better.

    I use grass clippings on my garlic, it works to keep the weeds down and it does help a bit with watering.

    I have a question, if you are using a spring how does using less water help? A spring flows it doesn't matter if you take that water or not it will still flow the same.

  • I mulch using grass cuttings to retain water - I find it works quite well.
    Sometimes I even wait for rain or dew before mulching...
  • Skandi said:


    I have a question, if you are using a spring how does using less water help? A spring flows it doesn't matter if you take that water or not it will still flow the same.

    Springs are rain dependent. More rain = more water from spring!
    Some flow all year round, some dry up in Summer.
  • JennyJJennyJ Posts: 10,576
    Is the landlord/property owner responsible for making sure that there's a reliable water supply, including getting a borehole put in if the spring is starting to run dry in summers?
    Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 55,117
    I think that would be worth @nonenone  looking into @JennyJ. Might be in the tenant's contract, or negotiable. I'd have thought a regular supply of water for a tenant was a given. It's different when you own the property of course. We had access to two supplies at the last house, not that it was really needed. 
    You certainly couldn't just go around putting in boreholes yourself. That's a massive court case right there!
    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
  • thevictorianthevictorian Posts: 1,279
    If it is for your vegetable beds then you can also look at how you water. If you add sunken milk cartons with small holes, so they water the roots and not the surface, you will save water. If you have a mulch above the cartons then this will help reduce the evaporation of that water.
    So basically I would try and get the water where it needs to go and use the mulch, like a lid, to keep it there. I'm currently mulching with chopped up leaves because they can hold 5-6 times their weight in water but easily let the water through. It's been a slow process, just adding a little extra everytime it rains, not that we have had more than a couple of drizzly days this year so far. 
  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 55,117
    "just adding a little extra everytime it rains, not that we have had more than a couple of drizzly days this year so far. "
    That's quite terrifying @thevictorian. I've just totted up our rainfall so far this year after reading your post.  172 mm for January, and only 20mm of that was in the 2nd half, as it was frostier for that fortnight. 78 for February, so very dry for here. 
    Just shows how vastly different conditions are around the country  :/
    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
  • JennyJJennyJ Posts: 10,576
    For comparison, my 2023 rainfall data so far is
    January 26mm (mostly in the first half),
    February 5.5mm. 
    Worryingly low, even for the drier east side of the country.
    Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
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