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water butts
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water butts
"Sena" wrote in message t... said... Hello, I would like to buy some water butts. Where is the best (cheapest?) place to get them? Is the water company the cheapest? They seem to sell them for about £35. I think in B&Q and such places it is £24 for the butt, £10 for the stand, and the diverter is on top of that, so I guess the water company is £10 cheaper but obviously there is a big wait. Big placcy dustbins? Old water tanks being removed from houses? The latter's what my parents used to use, anyway. The ideal is a large capacity one with a tap at the bottom to fill smaller vessels such as watering cans. To get the vessels under the taps you need the butt to be on a suitable - and strong - stand. Water is heavy. Then you need a proper, well fitting but easily removed lid. Ideally it will have holes/slots to let in the rain. The lid is to keep out foreign bodies and daylight - which will quickly encourage algae to grow. The best butts have a gizmo (a 'diverter') which diverts water from the fall pipe from the roof gutter to collect the water. When the butt is full the water goes down to the drain and doesn't just overflow onto the ground. Proper butts can be connected with properly fitted hoses so that when one is full the water will go to the next, and so on. Modern butts are well designed and far, far better than a dustbin (I know, I have one) or any other tank which will fill with water, have to be baled out and will overflow - possibly where you don't want it to overflow. Been there. Wouldn't again. My 'overflow' dustbin will be replaced a.s.a.p., the dolly tub will stay because it's part of the family but it's fraught with problems (and algae and mosquito larvae and the occasional drowned bird), the other 'barrel' outside the greenhouse will stay because it's the right size for that position and Spouse has fitted it with a hose from the gutter and a properly fitting lid. I don't mine baling water from that with my small watering can for the greenhouse. I believe that the design, production and encouragement to use these butts is one of the best environmentally friendly moves of our time. Mary |
#4
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water butts
In message , Sena
writes To get the vessels under the taps you need the butt to be on a suitable - and strong - stand. Water is heavy. Bricks. Come to think of it I think my mother's existing waterbutt is on bricks. each of my butts has a beer crate (used to get home delivery and then bricks and a paving stone. Been fine outside for ~7 years. d -- dave or stella @ stejonda |
#5
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water butts
In message , Mary Fisher
writes Proper butts can be connected with properly fitted hoses so that when one is full the water will go to the next, and so on. My garden slopes upwards away from the house. Tired of carrying cans of water up the garden I've mounted two barrels next to the gutter down-pipe but raised higher than usual (and need to be another 6-9 inches higher with hindsight). Then I have another barrel at normal stand height off the ground 2/3 of the way up the garden (around 35ft away). The three barrels are connected by two syphons made from lengths of hose. While watering the strawberries this evening it was a nice feeling that the water filling the can was being brought uphill by gravity. d -- dave or stella @ stejonda |
#6
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water butts
"dave or stella @ stejonda" wrote in message ... In message , Mary Fisher writes Proper butts can be connected with properly fitted hoses so that when one is full the water will go to the next, and so on. My garden slopes upwards away from the house. Tired of carrying cans of water up the garden I've mounted two barrels next to the gutter down-pipe but raised higher than usual (and need to be another 6-9 inches higher with hindsight). Then I have another barrel at normal stand height off the ground 2/3 of the way up the garden (around 35ft away). The three barrels are connected by two syphons made from lengths of hose. While watering the strawberries this evening it was a nice feeling that the water filling the can was being brought uphill by gravity. As long as you're doing something and you're happy with the aesthetics of the device and it works that's fine. In some ways I'm idle, I admit it :-) Mary |
#7
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water butts
In message , Mary Fisher
writes I believe that the design, production and encouragement to use these butts is one of the best environmentally friendly moves of our time. Especially as the ones made by Blackwall products are made from recycled plastics. d -- dave or stella @ stejonda |
#8
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water butts
Mary Fisher writes
"Sena" wrote in message et... said... Hello, I would like to buy some water butts. Where is the best (cheapest?) place to get them? Is the water company the cheapest? They seem to sell them for about £35. I think in B&Q and such places it is £24 for the butt, £10 for the stand, and the diverter is on top of that, so I guess the water company is £10 cheaper but obviously there is a big wait. Big placcy dustbins? Old water tanks being removed from houses? The latter's what my parents used to use, anyway. The ideal is a large capacity one with a tap at the bottom to fill smaller vessels such as watering cans. To get the vessels under the taps you need the butt to be on a suitable - and strong - stand. Water is heavy. Much quicker to dip the can than to wait around for it to fill from a tap. The requirement then becomes for it to be not so deep that you fall in when scooping up the last water from the bottom! -- Kay |
#9
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water butts
"K" wrote in message ... Mary Fisher writes The ideal is a large capacity one with a tap at the bottom to fill smaller vessels such as watering cans. To get the vessels under the taps you need the butt to be on a suitable - and strong - stand. Water is heavy. Much quicker to dip the can than to wait around for it to fill from a tap. The requirement then becomes for it to be not so deep that you fall in when scooping up the last water from the bottom! That way lies back trouble ... :-( Mary |
#10
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water butts
Mary Fisher writes
"K" wrote in message ... Mary Fisher writes The ideal is a large capacity one with a tap at the bottom to fill smaller vessels such as watering cans. To get the vessels under the taps you need the butt to be on a suitable - and strong - stand. Water is heavy. Much quicker to dip the can than to wait around for it to fill from a tap. The requirement then becomes for it to be not so deep that you fall in when scooping up the last water from the bottom! That way lies back trouble ... :-( Back trouble comes from lifting with your body bent forward. If you're upright when you lift, no problem. So a standard water butt on a couple of rows of bricks works well for me - about chest height, so I'm not bending as I heave the watering can out. But I do have to be careful when I'm balancing on a tree branch bending down into the butt trying to get out the last few inches of water ;-) -- Kay |
#11
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water butts
In article , K
writes Back trouble comes from lifting with your body bent forward. If you're upright when you lift, no problem. So a standard water butt on a couple of rows of bricks works well for me - about chest height, so I'm not bending as I heave the watering can out. But I do have to be careful when I'm balancing on a tree branch bending down into the butt trying to get out the last few inches of water ;-) Actually I'm pretty strong but trying to lift a full Haws can of water from lower than halfway down the 350gll butt we have is incredibly strenuous! I can only just lift it! I do have or will when it arrives, one of the siphoning gadgets shown on Gardeners World a few weeks ago. This should mean I can get the water to travel down a hose pipe to water the potatoes at least. Janet -- Janet Tweedy Dalmatian Telegraph http://www.lancedal.demon.co.uk |
#12
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water butts
"Mary Fisher" wrote in message t... "Sena" wrote in message t... said... ,snip. I believe that the design, production and encouragement to use these butts is one of the best environmentally friendly moves of our time. Mary Handbags at dawn. I can't see the connection between saving water and the effects on the environment. I agree water is precious in that it is essential but it is not in short supply. The means of distribution and storage are poor and any attempt to rectify the problem would impact on the profitability of the suppliers. |
#13
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water butts
"Rupert (W.Yorkshire)" wrote in message ... "Mary Fisher" wrote in message t... "Sena" wrote in message t... said... ,snip. I believe that the design, production and encouragement to use these butts is one of the best environmentally friendly moves of our time. Mary Handbags at dawn. I can't see the connection between saving water and the effects on the environment. Um, I don't think I mentioned *saving* water. It's the USE of water which has an effect on the environment. If we don't use tap water when we don't need to that saves a lot of processing which is not environmentally friendly at any stage although the processing is far better now than it used to be. If we use roof water to grow vegetables (or even flowers) rather than it just running into the drains that saves a lot of processing ... see above Mary I agree water is precious in that it is essential but it is not in short supply. The means of distribution and storage are poor and any attempt to rectify the problem would impact on the profitability of the suppliers. |
#14
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water butts
In article , "Rupert (W.Yorkshire)"
writes Handbags at dawn. I can't see the connection between saving water and the effects on the environment. I agree water is precious in that it is essential but it is not in short supply. The means of distribution and storage are poor and any attempt to rectify the problem would impact on the profitability of the suppliers. And I can't understand why few people mention the fact that aquifers get their water from groundwater NOT sewage treatment plants! That being the case in about 25 - 50 years (However long it takes to percolate) we are going to have no water in the aquifers as all the gardeners will not be able to water more than a smidgen and paved over front and back gardens are going to mean a lot less water soaking into the soil! Janet -- Janet Tweedy Dalmatian Telegraph http://www.lancedal.demon.co.uk |
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