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Andy I wouldn't want to have anything actually touching the tunnel as friction would mean you'd have a tear there pretty quickly I think... opinions anybody? I just can't think how to do this!

Garden Organic reckon water butts are overrated anyway since they are expensive and overflow quickly in rain. They reckon having containers dotted around where you need the water is a better idea, with simple rain catchers (funnels) in them. Not sure about that.

I don't agree with that! Water butts shouldn't overflow anyway as you should have a widget thingy that makes the water flow down the downpipe when the butt is full. If they are not connected to a house downpipe such as the ones from my chicken shed roof then you can connect a length of hose so that the excess runs away somewhere else - or to another water butt.

They aren't that expensive given the price of metered water and you will be using them for years and years to come.

Gotta go with m3 on this one! we have had 2 x 2275 litre water tanks on the back of the garage for over 20 years, must have saved us a motza over the years!

Nev

hedgewizard wrote:Andy I wouldn't want to have anything actually touching the tunnel as friction would mean you'd have a tear there pretty quickly I think... opinions anybody? I just can't think how to do this!
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I was thinking of making a sort of skirt using some spare plastic and some PVC repair tape to join it on with ( from maplins). Stick the skirt along the side and tie out in 2 or 3 places like an awning on a tent.Then just have something to catch the water is it falls off.

Yep, that might work - although it would be worth checking with the manufacturers to make sure the adhesive on the tape doesn't react with the plastic. I'll do that on Monday I think - they might even have some suggestions!

Okay, okay - I'll install a barrel on the carport. Happy now chaps??

My current arrangement: Leaky guttering, overflowing in several places, buckets underneath. Doesn't catch a lot, but then - we don't need a lot here, either... Everything very wet, now that the snow is slowly retreating. I also filled the buckets with snow while we had a lot of it, so all containers are full just now.

I do want to get a butt, too; you can buy "rainwater diverters" for £4.49 - can't quite see yet how they work, but I thought for that price it's worth the risk buying one and then figuring it out! (Seeing that we have our own free water, a whole loch full of it, my neighbours think I'm a bit off wanting a butt as well!)

I curently have two 190 litre butts catching the run-off from my bathroom roof (one each side!). The main roof (I have a semi-detatched) it turns out has only one downpipe! Which goes straight into my neighbour's soil stack. What a waste! I'm pricing up having a second downpipe on my side, which goes into a large (depends on what I can afford!) tank which is raised a foot or so to get maximum pressure, to which I attach soaker hoses buried in the front garden. I'm *hoping* this arrangement will mean that the front garden pretty much takes care of itself.

Last year the two butts ran dry fairly early on It's amazing how much water you get through, but then I have a lot of pots on the patio...

Alcina

I'd love to collect rainwater from the gutters but our house was built in the '20s and the gutters are in pretty poor shape ... just thinking about all that lead paint in the rainwater!

Brisbane's got a hose ban in effect at the moment, but it only applies to town water. They really don't care what you do with your own water. Near my place there was a house where they'd done some major landscaping, including turf, just before the water restrictions came in. Mum, Dad and kids were out watering the turf most nights with a sign saying "own water".

I'm just about to be given a big barrel which I plan to use as a waterbutt. I've never used one before and I don't really want to start playing with our guttering (I live in a 1900s tennament and I don't think the other residents would appreciate me fiddling with the aging guttering!) - will it be effective just to leave it open in the garden?
Thanks! Great website & forum btw!

Have you got a garden shed? I've got two water butts - one captures the run off from one side of the shed roof (not a massive area but about 5x as much as just leaving the water butt open on it's own) and the other is primarily a place to empty the first butt when it gets full in wet weather (to avoid wasting the surplus).

I also keep the lid for the main water butt upside down - that can caputure more water but retaining the lid stops too much stuff I don't want getting into the water and reduces evaporation.

You could also use a number of other containers sitting round the garden - after a night of rain, go round and empty them into the butt.

Wulf