Water butts - MERGED

seed_and_weed

Anyone have any ideas on a good source of plastic containers suitable for water butts .I have a allotment and would welcome any ideas for sources that are free or as cheap as chips .i try to reuse stuff as much as possible but water butts are defeating me.

Gardening-girl_5

seed_and_weed wrote: »

Anyone have any ideas on a good source of plastic containers suitable for water butts .I have a allotment and would welcome any ideas for sources that are free or as cheap as chips .i try to reuse stuff as much as possible but water butts are defeating me.

You could try asking on freecycle or advertising in your local shop for old baths, i have seen lots of them on allotments... seal the plug hole up with sealant first though, or make sure you have a tight fitting plug! they are great for collecting rain water and hold loads! Other containers are old cleaned out oil type drums with the tops removed and also water storage tanks that you use in lofts! Basically anything that hold water is suitable! :cheesy:

unrich

IBC tanks if you can get them, 1000 litre. Here and Here also sniff about your locality. ABout £50 each. Call it £65 delivered. = 6.5p/litre

Also ask our local (ish) farmers supplier they have 1500 litre black tanks.
They deliver in our county for £15 flat rate. They cost about £100 each. The tanks used to have orange juice concentrate in. 7.6 /litre.

seed_and_weed

thanks i will try this advice

System

I seem to recall reading elsewhere that farmers have them by the score and readily sell them off, they are coloured plastic barrels that have had feed I think in them. It might be a case of keeping your eye open when out.

daska

Has anyone experimented with making their own waterbutt. We live off the mainland so have to pay through the nose for delivery. I wondered if I could stick an old dustbin on some bricks and fit a tap somehow - or is it not worth it? Pros and cons please

Lotus-eater

You can make it out of anything that will hold water. One person I know never bothers fitting a tap, but just dunks the watering can in the top.

daska

I'm not very mobile and the grip in my hands isn't always very good, so getting down the the bottom might prove tricky - I fell into my son's cot once and couldn't get out (we now have one where the side slides right underneath) so I'm a little nervous of that option

daska

(yes, you're allowed to laugh!)

Larumbelle

A dustbin sounds fine! I have one proper one and one that's an old wheely-bin. Make sure whatever you use has a strong, secure cover, you do hear terrible stories about children and animals managing to get in them otherwise.

And I wouldn't dream of laughing at another's amusing misfortune :whistle:

daska

but how do I get a tap at the bottom - can you buy screw in ones or something?

hey, I laugh at it and it was me banging out SOS on the wall and being ignored, enjoy... :-)