anyone's garden struggling with drought?!

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gavilan
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Re: anyone's garden struggling with drought?!

Postby gavilan » Fri Jan 21, 2022 11:30 pm

the lack of rain has been exacerbated by the over-planting of water hungry trees
'as always, it will rain in due course' ... it will take months of continuous rain to even half fill that reservoir .... 'has about a year's supply' ...already concern in local papers re heavy metal sediments gathering therein ... not good for human consumption or trees ... ?so we wait until the reservoir is completely empty before we take alternative action? ... by which time the dam itself will need repair as it was constructed to withstand pressure from much much more water!
Sid ... you keep feeding me lines which I have to respond to ... thus encouraging when you hoped to silence me!!!

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Re: anyone's garden struggling with drought?!

Postby Lavanda » Sat Jan 22, 2022 8:20 am

Gavilan, I am sure everyone will agree that thoughtful and reasoned argument is always a welcome contribution. I don't feel that Sid wants to silence you — or any one of us — he just wants us to keep on track. Gardens. Yes. There's no doubt that Nature's Garden will be taking a hammering in your part of the world soon if things continue as they are. Here, we have only had one actual drought since we moved here 15 years ago. The rains failed in the Spring and Autumn and the following Spring and the worst aspect was not the loss of my flowers and the veggie garden but the loss of some of the encinas (evergreen oaks) and the skeleton cattle in the fields. There was no grass but no hay either. It was horrific. However, then it rained and rained and we had floods. The last few years have been steady, reliable rain in both Autumn and Spring. Fingers always crossed.

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Re: anyone's garden struggling with drought?!

Postby gavilan » Sat Jan 22, 2022 2:42 pm

I dont think I have anything to say ... except to confirm one of Wicksey's comments which was how the mountains around here seem to deflect/divert any rain forecast ...

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Wicksey
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Re: anyone's garden struggling with drought?!

Postby Wicksey » Sat Jan 22, 2022 3:10 pm

I write about agricultural water and the planting of fruit trees around us as that is the system we are on, and it isn't just our garden that could suffer in water shortages as we rely on it for our home too. Our water doesn't come from Viñuela but it is the lowest I have ever seen it in 26 years. We recycle the water from our pool over the winter to irrigate and usually have to have a real purge of irrigating to empty it before refilling in the early summer. Already it is very low and at the level it would normally be in April, we've had to irrigate so much. Whenever we mention the water situation to the neighbours they just shrug it off. I guess everyone is just hoping that the monsoon will arrive at some point, but in the 1990s rains they caused so much damage, so we don't want that much all in one go!

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Re: anyone's garden struggling with drought?!

Postby Lavanda » Sat Jan 22, 2022 3:24 pm

Agree, Wicksey. Too much rain in one go flattens the flowers and runs off before it can penetrate into the ground. We have water butts under the guttering down pipes but they can fill up in minutes while the captured water only lasts three days. It's a problem.

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spanish_lad
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Re: anyone's garden struggling with drought?!

Postby spanish_lad » Thu Jan 27, 2022 7:56 pm

When we were looking around iznate and cajiz we saw lots of reservoirs that were big enough to feed whole towns.. and they seemed to be for private plantations. There were many fenced plots full of mangos with the trops sign on.

As for the guadalhorce, it's dry. You can drive down it.

We have no water supply 'yet' at the new house, we are hoping to get it reconnected, but at the moment we will be relying on rain and then topping it up with a delivery, either from my parents house in alhaurin (water is 1€/m3!) Or 20€ for 1m3 delivered.

We have many plants in pots that we will be moving, it would be a shame to lose them.
Alhaurin el Grande since 99, working at the airport since 2011.

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Re: anyone's garden struggling with drought?!

Postby El Cid » Thu Jan 27, 2022 11:16 pm

Wow that is seriously expensive! We get as much water as we want and it costs €33 for over 150m3. It’s very clean but as it is stored in a 300m3 depositó it doesn’t stay fresh. We could add chlorine but that is not good for irrigation.

Our contract with the agricultural supply gives us that much every 10 days for about €130 a year. Actually it comes from 15km away from a big well in Nerja. The potential problem we have is that the very large aquifer that it’s comes from is dropping and runs the risk of bringing in salt water eventually. If that happens it can have serious consequences.

Sid

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Re: anyone's garden struggling with drought?!

Postby Wicksey » Fri Jan 28, 2022 11:51 am

Delivered water is expensive. We used to pay 90€ for a tanker of about 8m3 back in the early 2000s but the other year we were charged about 250€ for water to go to a friend's house. We are charged 35c per 1m3 by our neighbour for water from the agricultural supply.

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Re: anyone's garden struggling with drought?!

Postby gavilan » Fri Jan 28, 2022 2:21 pm

On 21 January El Cid wrote: 'As always, it will rain in due course.' ... Today, 28 January El Cid writes: 'The potential problem we have is that the very large aquifer that it comes from is dropping' ...

also s-l comments ' As for the guadalhorce, it's dry. You can drive down it. ' ... so maybe it is not just the Axarquia that is concerned about water!

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Re: anyone's garden struggling with drought?!

Postby El Cid » Fri Jan 28, 2022 9:05 pm

The aquifer I was referring to is in Nerja which I think claims to be in the Axarquia. They pump the water over to us in Granada province. They use a huge pump which cost €60000 a year to run 10 years ago! That’s why we need the water from the Rules reservoir.

Sid

gavilan
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Re: anyone's garden struggling with drought?!

Postby gavilan » Fri Jan 28, 2022 10:33 pm

17th December El Cid wrote: '... Our garden is irrigated continuously. ..' ... so maybe be thankful that we, in the Axarquia, still have some water to pump across to you!

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spanish_lad
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Re: anyone's garden struggling with drought?!

Postby spanish_lad » Fri Jan 28, 2022 11:27 pm

El Cid wrote: Thu Jan 27, 2022 11:16 pm Wow that is seriously expensive! We get as much water as we want and it costs €33 for over 150m3. It’s very clean but as it is stored in a 300m3 depositó it doesn’t stay fresh. We could add chlorine but that is not good for irrigation.

Our contract with the agricultural supply gives us that much every 10 days for about €130 a year. Actually it comes from 15km away from a big well in Nerja. The potential problem we have is that the very large aquifer that it’s comes from is dropping and runs the risk of bringing in salt water eventually. If that happens it can have serious consequences.

Sid
Wow, thats super cheap ! My gf's water in alhaurin de la torre in a 2 bed apartment used to be 80-100 a month ! Maybe she was paying for the whole building :eek:
Alhaurin el Grande since 99, working at the airport since 2011.

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Wicksey
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Re: anyone's garden struggling with drought?!

Postby Wicksey » Sat Jan 29, 2022 10:31 am

SL that bill doesn't sound right at all. We used to have a flat on the Costa and it was about 100€ a year. Many years back now but surely town water isn't that expensive here?

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Re: anyone's garden struggling with drought?!

Postby Lavanda » Sat Jan 29, 2022 11:14 am

All sounds horrendous to me.

gavilan
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Re: anyone's garden struggling with drought?!

Postby gavilan » Sat Jan 29, 2022 1:09 pm

I find it difficult to believe that we humans are prepared to ... drain a reservoir dry, ... do similar with acquifers ... and streams ... resulting in heavy metal polluted water, salt water infiltrating the land and jelly fish encroaching the coastal waters (cos previously cold water from streams entering along the coast/sea were a deterrent to such creatures) ... we know where all this will lead ... yet we continue as if nothing is happening!

this will sound archaic but here I carry bucket loads of water from my washing up out into the garden to water as many plants and pots as I can reach ... ?has anyone got a system for recycling water from showers etc into their garden ... more sophisticated tha carrying buckets?!!!

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Re: anyone's garden struggling with drought?!

Postby Lavanda » Sat Jan 29, 2022 1:31 pm

We have a pipe directly from the kitchen sink that goes through a filter, along a pipe and is deposited near the vegetable patch for irrigation. I use eco-friendly washing up stuff. We also have a pipe from the washing machine into a deposito and ditto washing powder. We have guttering and down pipes into depositos — all the usual stuff.

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Wicksey
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Re: anyone's garden struggling with drought?!

Postby Wicksey » Sat Jan 29, 2022 3:02 pm

The dishwasher goes into the pozo negro but any other kitchen water goes into a basin and gets taken out and put on the plants. The hot water takes an age to come through in the shower so that goes into a bucket (until the hot runs) and out into the watering cans. I've written before how we lived without any water supply for several years, but that was when it used to rain! The washing machine water used to be caught in buckets and put onto the garden. I've always thought I'd like to have a house built so that all the grey water could be stored to go onto the garden.

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Re: anyone's garden struggling with drought?!

Postby gavilan » Sat Jan 29, 2022 5:26 pm

good to hear from Lavanda and Wicksey ...?but why so few of us doing anything to recycle precious water?

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Re: anyone's garden struggling with drought?!

Postby El Cid » Sat Jan 29, 2022 6:53 pm

Probably because no one actually has a supply problem at the moment. Have you ever heard of a hosepipe ban in Spain?

Has Spain ever run out of water yet? Nearly but eventually it rains and we forget about the risk of drought for another few years.

That attitude like the rains will eventually fail but so far so good so let’s plant another few 100 hectares of unsuitable trees. Spanish farmers clearly aren’t bothered about climate change and more interested in short term gain.

On the other hand, Spain is well ahead of most of Europe on green energy.

Sid

gavilan
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Re: anyone's garden struggling with drought?!

Postby gavilan » Sat Jan 29, 2022 8:38 pm

funny you mention hosepipe bans ... Alcaucin town hall issued such last summer ... cant find reference on their website ...probably on Facebook but I dont do Fb ...


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