The media, and fellow Wellingtonians, have been a buzz with “outdoor water use is banned” tales. Which means disaster both for my investment in my vege garden and my future grocery bill. I went looking for details on the exact rules of the ban, but encountered the current rules on the council webpage, and no sign of the future rules due to start on Saturday.

So, asked tagnet to call the council for me. Here’s what they found:

Katie from Wellington City Council has said that outdoor water use is fine provided it is for essential use only (such as watering plants). Hand-held hoses or watering cans are fine to use outdoors in these situations but non-essential use for things like cleaning your car, irrigation, water blasting your house, etc, are not allowed and are part of the current restriction.

Katie said the Council recommends re-using water as much as possible (such as a bucket at the bottom of the shower where the water can be re-used). In this case, other non-essential outdoor use if fine if it’s using grey or used water.

Let us know if you have any other questions about the restrictions.

so, hand watering is still allowed.

The other water conserving methods that seem to be working well in my garden:

Mulch: i got a brick of hay from bunnings for not very much. the plants mulched with it are doing well. sidenote though, there’s a few grass seeds in the hay so it needs weeding ofter

Plastic cover: I got a poly tunnel covering the weakest of the lettuce. it keeps the white butterfly away, but i’ve also found those lettuce aren’t dropping the way other plants are. So, that’s keeping moisture in well.

Update: the regional council has this afternoon published more info here. it contains the same phrase as media: “hose restrictions will come into force on Saturday in the form of a total outdoor water use ban.”.

I guess they just mean hoses?? contradicts what they told me this morning

not long now.

so we “dug up” some of the spuds… really we just tipped them out of the bag they were growing in.

worked really well – didn’t take up land (just left the bags leaning on a brick wall) and were easy to get out. Will do again

There’s something so very christmasey about new potatoes, freshly dug from your own garden.

Christmas was stinky hot all over the place — so we spent a chunk of christmas day in a swimming pool – had some fun with the water proof camera and a gopro.

check out this old lady – she was just chilling by the track in Zealandia.

Turatara are awesome because they’re dinosaurs — all their cousin are extinct but tuatara are still hanging out in the sun.

And because they have a vestigial 3rd eye in the middle of their heads… yes. THREE EYES.