[Nigel Bolton]

Although water butts are not too expensive, retailing between £25 and £40 for a 200 litre jobbie, there are other containers that can be used. For instance I use my wheelie bin as a water butt as when I shop I make sure I obtain very little that needs to be thrown away either by recycling or by land-fill, and much ends up on the compost heap.

My wheelie bin holds 300 lites and is provided free by the council. It has a lid which can be easily closed to prevent the infestation by mozzies.

I have just given mine a clean, and I found a frog in the bottom as large as life. Considering the bin is about 5 feet high I am intriged as to how he got in. I didn't think frogs could jump that high. Or can they climb.

Another cunning way of using water if you have a standard water butt and pond, plus a sloping garden is this.

Keep eye on wx. If it looks like there is going to be several hours of steady rain, empty pond of old water, transfer fish and other aquatics to storage bucket. Run length of hose from tap on water butt to pond ( assuming pond is downhill from butt). Once rain starts, turn on tap on butt. Water will flow from butt to pond, and but will be topped up by steady collection from roof. Butt will also trap moss etc from gutter below the level of the tap, thus not passing through hose to pond. When pond full, turn off tap and recharge butt.

Return fish to their normal home.

N.

[John Mason]

Plastic tarp on a slope, gutter at end and two barrels in tandem sunk into the ground is a good method. Here's a couple of photos of it under construction. The capture end:

 

And the storage end:

 

This will hold a fair bit - getting on for half a ton when full - and I could add another barrel downslope. Built it last April but then didn't need it as it rained all summer!!

Cheers - John 

[Nigel Bolton]

Depends on roofing material. Perhaps it is not wise if your roof is made of slate, but then what falls onto roofs also falls into rivers and lakes.

N.

[scrapemedic]

You have given me a few ideas there Nigel. I have access to water on the allotment, but the area that needs the most watering is the furthest area from the trough. It takes a minimum of ten trips to and from the trough to water the entire allotment, and I can always get down there especially after a long shift. I need to come up with a wa of collecting water along a chain link fence line and work out a way of storing it, then drip feeding it to the areas around there.

[mrfizz]

Couldn't you sink a piece of guttering under the line of the fance to catch drips, covered with weed barrier material or the like to keep out debris, and then slope it so it runs into a bucket or similar stored in the ground? Might work! [y]

edit: You could throw a tarpaulin over a section of the fence to catch even more. The water would run down the tarp into the guttering. :D

[John Mason]

Today's steady rain has filled the first green barrel in the pix above and water is pouring into #2. This is good!

Cheers - John 

[scrapemedic]

Quote

mrfizz - 19/4/2010 09:06

Couldn't you sink a piece of guttering under the line of the fance to catch drips, covered with weed barrier material or the like to keep out debris, and then slope it so it runs into a bucket or similar stored in the ground? Might work! [y]

edit: You could throw a tarpaulin over a section of the fence to catch even more. The water would run down the tarp into the guttering. :D

I had been thinking of the guttering idea but adding the tarp might just do it. thanks!

[mrfizz]

Aaargh!!! I need rain!! This dry weather we've had round these parts is meaning i'm quickly exhausting my supply of natures sky juice. A few lawns around here (not mine!!) are looking yellow/brown and water butt no.1 is approx 2 inches above the tap, whilst water butt no.2 is approx 1.5 inches above the tap. All that will go tonight when i water the veggie plot and the baskets and pots.

What is the difference between using rainwater and tap water? Does it make a difference, other than to my water bill?

[Dave K]

Quote

mrfizz - 25/5/2010 15:27 Aaargh!!! I need rain!! This dry weather we've had round these parts is meaning i'm quickly exhausting my supply of natures sky juice. A few lawns around here (not mine!!) are looking yellow/brown and water butt no.1 is approx 2 inches above the tap, whilst water butt no.2 is approx 1.5 inches above the tap. All that will go tonight when i water the veggie plot and the baskets and pots. What is the difference between using rainwater and tap water? Does it make a difference, other than to my water bill?

Rainwater is said to be better because it has more natural nitrate content which can be released to plants in the soil as nitrogen.  Tap water has more calcium and (I think) magnesium ions which are not so good. I often read that tap water should be allowed 24 hours to "settle" before used on plants.  That said I have to use tapwater all the time and don't have storage so it goes straight on...

[pettinger]

You can use tap water to water plants with no problems, at least in the short term, and usually in the long term also. Tap water varies in its mineral content , depending whether it comes from a borehole or from a river via a reservoir. Also depends on what the water company does to it en-route to you. In small doses watering your plants with even chalky tap water won't make a difference, but if the tap water comes from a chalk or limestone rock aquifer, prolonged use may affect any plants sensitive to lime. In some VERY chalky areas, the water company has to treat the water to remove some of the lime in order to prevent all the pipes furring up, so its water ends up actually roughly neutral. In Sutton, Surrey, the water company sells the extarcted chalk to make toothpaste! Your water company will be able to tell you what the PH of your water is: its part of their legal duty to give you the analysis of their water. In fact , in some areas, it can vary over time, if the supply is switched between borehole and reservoir. as certainly happens in part of East Sussex: you can actually taste the difference from time to time.

[Nigel Bolton]

Heaving it down with warm rain here in Tiv, sooooo,

Bucket of soapy water and cag, gave the car its first wash in months. Soil and rook shit nice and soft, so came away easily, and heavy rain washed away soapy bubbles.

Job done in 10 minutes and car looks spanking (by my standards anyway).

N.

[Nigel Bolton]

Fairly recently discovered, that when a huge icicle detatched itself from the roof guttering, falling and sliding down the porch roof, it broke a small section of porch roof guttering. This piece of guttering, rougly U shaped, can be removed and replaced, as part of this piece latches in underneah a gutter joint. The broken piece also resides some 30cm away from the down pipe off the porch that leads to the land drain.

By producing a 'dam' between the broken section and the lower down pipe, I can now capture all the water off half the house. Once I have enough water, the broken piece is then replaced, the dam removed, and excess water goes to ground.

I can now derive several tens of lites of water from a fairly light shower.

N.

[Peter H]

Where I work has a quite large shed (say 20ft *20ft) and I set up a water butt to collect rainfall - a fairly heavy shower will fill it. It's rained here on several days over the last month but not enough to gather more than a inch or two in the butt :(

[John Mason]

Quote

Nigel Bolton - 7/6/2011 17:46

Fairly recently discovered, that when a huge icicle detatched itself from the roof guttering, falling and sliding down the porch roof, it broke a small section of porch roof guttering. This piece of guttering, rougly U shaped, can be removed and replaced, as part of this piece latches in underneah a gutter joint. The broken piece also resides some 30cm away from the down pipe off the porch that leads to the land drain.

By producing a 'dam' between the broken section and the lower down pipe, I can now capture all the water off half the house. Once I have enough water, the broken piece is then replaced, the dam removed, and excess water goes to ground.

I can now derive several tens of lites of water from a fairly light shower.

N.

Canny stuff, Nigel! You share my sense of questioning and attempts at innovation, and it's great when they work :)

Cheers - John

[Nigel Bolton]

I know John. All I need now are some showers!

N.

[Nigel Bolton]

Just tested.

A shower giving less than 1mm of rain has yielded me 45 litres of water. Now distributed on the herbs under the kitchen window.

N.

[PK2]

Quote

Nigel Bolton - 9/6/2011 12:45

Just tested.

A shower giving less than 1mm of rain has yielded me 45 litres of water. Now distributed on the herbs under the kitchen window.

N.

That's a good capture rate [y]

[Nigel Bolton]

Quote

PK2 - 9/6/2011 13:00

Quote

Nigel Bolton - 9/6/2011 12:45

Just tested.

A shower giving less than 1mm of rain has yielded me 45 litres of water. Now distributed on the herbs under the kitchen window.

N.

That's a good capture rate [y]

I know.

Found a couple of litter bins, that hold around 40 lites to stand under the gutter.

Tomorrows steady rain should in theory, allow me to collect enough water to totally recharge my two water butts, and have some left over to give the goosegogs and backcurrents a thorough soaking.

A steady, and eventually warm rain. Should do the veg loads of good.

N.

[rosskesava]

Quote

Nigel Bolton - 11/6/2011 22:16

I know.

Found a couple of litter bins, that hold around 40 lites to stand under the gutter.

Tomorrows steady rain should in theory, allow me to collect enough water to totally recharge my two water butts, and have some left over to give the goosegogs and backcurrents a thorough soaking.

A steady, and eventually warm rain. Should do the veg loads of good.

N.

You can buy used IBX tanks (anything upto a thousand litres) quiet cheaply if you hunt around on websites like ebay. I have a 500 ltr one in my van and I paid £30 for it.