What do you use as a water butt?

otterspasm

Hi all,
We are working hard on our allotment at the moment preparing the structure of it for the coming growing season...putting in beds, paths etc. At the moment we take water from a stream closeby but our allotment is at the top of a terraced site and the stream is at the bottom so we would prefer water butts on the allotment this year.

The problem is that we have a budget of £0, so in usual allotmenteer style we are re-using discarded/donated items. We do have a black rubbish bin which we can put up on the site to fill with rain water but we'll need more and I was wondering what containers some you use for rain water collection? I would lay good money (if I had any lol) that there are some creative solutions out there :-)

All suggestions gratefully received.

Thanks
Tess

Zazen999

All sorts....

A proper water butt attached to the shed. When it fills up over winter we decant to a big blue container that was on the lottie in the ditch when we got there.

Throughout the plot I have all manner of buckets, watering cans and plastic containers with no holes in the bottom which collect the water. My fave is an old plastic box with two hinged sides to the lid. The water collects on the lid and pours into the box and because it is covered, it doesn't evaporate so gives us late season water when the butts are full.

I'd say have one or two main collection points, and decant from those into other points.....we have no other water sources on the plot so i only water seedlings when they go in, and the tender stuff in the very hot summer.....the rest is used to water down nettle and comfrey to fertilise the plants.

otterspasm

Great! I like the idea of having loads of little containers all over. Sounds like it would be watering the plants easy.:)

We have no shed otherwise we would set up a bin under the guttering. I have wondered about setting up some guttering on the back wall of the wooden compost bin and having it empty into a bin....needs thinking about.

Cheers

Zazen999

otterspasm wrote: »

Great! I like the idea of having loads of little containers all over. Sounds like it would be watering the plants easy.:)

We have no shed otherwise we would set up a bin under the guttering. I have wondered about setting up some guttering on the back wall of the wooden compost bin and having it empty into a bin....needs thinking about.

Cheers

Yup, you could do that.....make a lid for the compost bin and attach guttering to that and it will run straight off into a bucket [if you fix it at an angle].....

Alternatively, do the same with some pallets - you can fix some plastic sheeting across to collect the rain and have it folded so that it runs off one corner straight into an awaiting bucket......or get some large containers, pop a pallet on the top and a compost bag over it....and pierce a large hole in the bag so that it drips through [into the container]. You need a large surface area to collect the water which is why a pallet works.

otterspasm

Brilliant . Plastic sheeting would be a good way to go for us I think. Am planning a Heath Robinson style contraption as we speak :rotfl:

frivolous_fay

My O/H thinks [EMAIL="I@m"]I'm[/EMAIL] crazy... I have been stashing water in an old dustbin on the patio for a while. (Lid has to be on so that the cats don't jump in it!)

When it snowed I shovelled snow into it so it's pretty full now :j

(We are on a water meter)

Optimisticpair

I use a plastic dustbin with a lid at the mo and there is a pond in the garden. The pond is in an inconvenient place so I'm going to fill it in but I'm going to save the pond-liner sheet back to create a well that I can cover to stop evaporation and catch rainwater.

A trip to your nearest recycling centre might be worth a go to find either a large plastic barrel - we got one that had been cut into half (freebie plant or rain collecting pots). There might be old loft water tanks or similar.

I also have smaller plastic containers to dot round to collect rainwater.

Wookey

If its easier to gather rain water at home and transport it then consider setting up a downspout collector and have it run into 5 gallon drums. There are plenty of types of sealable drums that can be sourced for free and if you have a larger water butt or tank on site you can top it up.

sunflower76

I've got a collection of water butts, old glue drums (a bit like oil barrels but plastic), dustbins and anything else that sits still and holds water!

On other plots on my site there are baths and old kids' sandpits.

Have you thought of asking on Freecycle?

ScratchandSniff-->[X]

Baths - just ask a plumber. Look for the ones with the plug hole still in (if not, fill with soil and use for carrots) and if possible the stand. Will need propping up and putting on firm base.

Industrial site often have large blue containers (we have ones around here doing abrasives) that can be cleaned out well.