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Hi Spitfire.  The water softener we use in our house uses salt in the process so the answer, if yours is a similar system, is no.  The softener company advised keeping water to the the cold water tap in our kitchen directly from the rising main, as with our outside taps to get round the problem.  Can you use the water for something else?

Thanks for your prompt reply . I have 3 waterbuts so I am quite well provided for. I will have to use it for cleaning instead. Yuck 

Yes, you can prune it as hard as you like, even down to a few inches off the ground if you want a shrub rather than a tree.

Eucalyptus can grow very fast, I had one in a previous garden and thought that I would keep it small; I swear I blinked and it was 20' tall.

 am looking for a bay tree where is the best place to get one.

I don't know where you live, but here in East Anglia even Plant Nurseries have lost Bay trees over the last 2 winters. So perhaps your question could be not 'where do I get a Bay tree?' but 'how do I keep it alive?' I have lost 2 standard Bays that I had had for 10 years and then lost 2 small bays after one year, a friend lost 2 five year old Bays last winter. I am putting my new Bay, which is tiny, in the greenhouse for the winter. As to getting a Bay, any reputable local Nursery shoud have one. One of my neighbours thought that their fairly big Bay tree had died this spring but 4 weeks ago they realised it had revived. Good luck with this.

thanks for the info artjak

What on earth is going on with this thread?