A water butt is an absolute necessity in winter when the rain seems to keep on falling .
Such a shame to let it run down the drain.A staggering 100,000 litres of rainwater falls on the roof of every UK home every year.
You can buy a water butt from most garden centres or DIY stores - here are some installation tips:
- You can collect rainwater in any watertight receptacle as it falls.
- Fit a lid to prevent small animals from falling in and drowning.
- To make the most of your butt, connect it to the downpipe from your guttering. Many water butts come with a simple connection kits and is really easy to do.
- A water butt can be plastic or wooden. Some have a tap at the bottom of the barrel which makes it easy to fill a watering can or fix a hose.
- If your barrel doesn’t have a tap, you’ll have to scoop water out from the top. A lid of fine mesh will stop leaves and small animals from falling in – you don’t want to feed your garden guests in one place and drown them in another!
Simple maintenance
- Sometimes algae grows in the water, but avoid using chemicals to get rid of it as they won’t be good for wildlife. You can scoop it out by hand, or even empty the whole lot every now and then and give it a good scrub.
- If you don’t put a lid on your butt, remove leaves and twigs regularly and put in a plank so that animals can climb out.
- Next time there’s a hosepipe ban and not a cloud in the sky, your garden will thank you for a soaking!
There are hundreds of other web-sites where you can find out more about choosing and fitting water-buts and buy them on-line. Here are just a few you might find useful:
http://www.waterwise.org.uk/reducing_water_wastage_in_the_uk/house_and_garden/water_butts.html
http://www.waterbuttsdirect.co.uk
http://www.thebarrelcompany.co.uk/
http://www.waterbuttwarehouse.co.uk
PS I updated this blog from earlier this year which means some of the comments are from previous months but still interesting so I have left them in - enjoy!
May 19th, 2009 at 7:01 pm
Ah, a question without an answer. It is surprisingly difficult to find information on whether your butt is big enough. Sooooo, consider the following.
I remember reading and/or hearing that effective watering requires approximately 1 gallon of water per square yard, lets say 7L per square metre. In the middle of dry weather I suspect you need more than this, especially for vegetables.
Another reference I came across recommended 40L per square metre for Mediterranean climates. Cripes, that’s a lot of watering cans.
Your average butt size, which Joe/Jane public seems to buy is roughly around the 200ltr size. I would suspect that small gardens/wallets would attract 100ltr butts, while 300-500ltr butts/tanks go to larger gardens/budgets.
So how much garden will the ‘average’ 200ltr butt water?
Well, 28.6 square metres at 7ltr per square metre, and a mere 5 square metres at 40ltr per square metre. Yikes!!!
Now, 28.6 square metres is a patch of ground roughly 5.3m x 5.3m or, in old money, 17.3′ x 17.3′; a couple of borders and a vege patch. 5 square metres would be 16.25′ x 3.25′.
In a British drought (or our occasional hot summer) we approach or exceed Mediterranean temperatures, with many weeks being rainless.
Grim. One 200ltr butt isn’t going to last more than about a day or week.
So what can we do?
One measure is, naturally, to have more and larger butts; and there are some truly gargantuan butts out there! However I have a number of issues with this
1. They are very expensive.
2. Many people just haven’t the room to install them
3. They are incredibly environmentally unfriendly, being made of plastic, even if recycled.
1 and 3 can be addressed in part by making, essentially a pond; I have seen designs for raised version - essentially substantial slats of wood, supported vertically in a circle, with a liner.
3 is difficult, even with my way around it; except to have underground tanks.
So what else can be done?
1. Well, there have been many discussions of using grey water, and it should be used. This will supplement your butt size.
2. You’ll have to be selective in what you water: Don’t water the lawn, it will come back stronger; Plant drought resistant plants, and only water those being less resistant; Maybe only reserve water for vegetables; Mulch like crazy, and water into buried pipes/plastic bottles which deliver the water directly to the roots, etc, etc.
A water butt is useful, almost mandatory, but I hope from my simplistic calculations you see that you may need far more water butts than that single 200ltr or so example sitting next to the wall.
Me? I’d go for the raised one built out of salvaged materials. Turn it into a feature. When we have lots of rain, perhaps grow watercress in it.
Interestingly I came across this 210L water butt. Seemingly a great bargain. However, I wouldn’t know what grade or thickness of plastic is used or if it if UV stabilised. Caveat emptor!
http://www.wilkinsonplus.com/invt/0101019
MadmcFungus
May 20th, 2009 at 8:42 am
Correction: The line
3 is difficult, even with my way around it; except to have underground tanks.
should say
2 is difficult, even with my way around it; except to have underground tanks.
MadmcFungus
July 28th, 2009 at 1:45 pm
You might be interested to know that there are 700 litre water butts on sale for £249.00 and a huge 1600 litre water butt for only £306.99 at http://www.SimplyWaterButts.co.uk
I have just bought the 700 litre and am going to bury to put it behind my shed - problem solved!
Apparently, you can also bury these in the garden
George
October 19th, 2009 at 3:50 pm
The other place to harvest rainwater is your greenhouse. When i researched this some suppliers offer special rainwater collectiion kits to fit their greenhouses. These guys offer them: http://www.blueworldgardener.co.uk/store/index.php?cPath=345. I thought it sounded like a good idea to start as i meant to go on!
keith
November 30th, 2009 at 10:20 pm
We have 2 500 litre rainwater butts, in a Mediterranean climate. I reserve that water for pots, and acid loving plants that don’t like grey water. Over about two years, I have almost made it last thru the summer.