Selfsufficientish.com

with all this talk of hosepipe bans then this could become a pretty useful thread for some. Perhaps an article is in order?

1. Get a water butt attached to you house guttering
2. put bickets on your plot and when full of rain stick them into a big barrell.

3. Put large plant saucers on top of the piles of plant pots waiting to be washed out and every day (when it is raining) tip the water into a bucket/container. Every little bit helps in a drought!

4. Fit guttering to your sheds, garages, chicken houses, barns, etc etc!

Use your sink and bath water (make sure you use biodegradable detergents).

Could I put in a warning about open buckets left to fill with water - make sure wildlife can't fall into them as well. I found a poor drowned hedgehog in a bucket behind my shed once. It had fallen into the rainwater that had collected in it, and couldn't get out again. Since then, all buckets left outside have been upturned. Maybe put a couple of bricks in, so that anything that falls in has a chance to climb out.

In the event of heavy rains and the water butt overfloweth, I fill up plastic bottles from the barrel and put them in the greenhouse to warm up.. This idea could come in handy in winter as a basic frost protection measure.

As well as having a water butt, we do have a plastic boat (which is really a sandpit) that fills up really well! I never intended to use it as a rain catcher, but it's pretty useful.

We are getting an overflow water butt as ours fills very quickly even with a short shower and the over flow pipe from it gushes out lots of excess water ~ what a waste!

8. (i think) when running tap for a cold drink, don't run water to get it really cold. Buy a filter jug & keep it in the fridge, top up with water as it comes out of the tap.

9. When running hot water don't waste early cold water, collect it in a jug & top up filter jug in the fridge.

Are we doing "saving water" rather than "rain water" specifically? Once you get your grey water collection going, you'll find you get a range from potable (eg. warming the tap) to pretty disgusting (eg. washing up leftovers). Store the good stuff and look for places to use the dirtier stuff quickly - for example, down the back of large ornamental shrubs that will appreciate a good drink but don't need particularly clean water.

Wulf

10. Use biodegradable washing products (I use soapnuts and Ecover) and unplumb the washing machine outflow and collect in a large container and use to fill your watering cans (I use one of my unused fermenting bins as they have a handy tap on the bottom too)

ps make sure you're either there, or the vessel has a large enough capacity or you'll-go-a-paddling!

kind thoughts
Deb

wulf wrote:Are we doing "saving water" rather than "rain water" specifically? Once you get your grey water collection going, you'll find you get a range from potable (eg. warming the tap) to pretty disgusting (eg. washing up leftovers). Store the good stuff and look for places to use the dirtier stuff quickly - for example, down the back of large ornamental shrubs that will appreciate a good drink but don't need particularly clean water.

Wulf

I guess it is really saving water.

I am guessing that the plants in pots in my back yard are not ideal for usign grey water on, perhaps just the rosemary and lavendar bushes. maybe the potatoes in tyres?

Sorry,
My fault for confusing saving rainwater with saving water. It's my CFS (well that's my excuse & I'm sticking to it), by the time I've read several posts I've forgotten what the initial title was...

Andy Hamilton wrote:I am guessing that the plants in pots in my back yard are not ideal for usign grey water on, perhaps just the rosemary and lavendar bushes. maybe the potatoes in tyres?

You could always filter it (not with an expensive filter - just a bit of cloth will do!) to get the big lumps and most of the grease out.

By the way, I had a friend round last night who was talking about the work he does with WaterAid - check them out!

Wulf

any paddling pool/playpit type thing left outside in a shower will amazingly fill up, when all water barrels or bucket remain with but a trickle. The tricky part is beating your toddler to it.

Susan

A large plastic bowl, which I keep outside to catch rainwater has had the added advantage this week of catching 2 vine weevils. I'm just hoping they drowned before they laid eggs in my planters.

l made my 5ft x3ft raised bed with wilko cheap 2 ft green garden troughs, when it rains they fill up with water.l then scoop the water out (cut down pop bottle) to water the vegs in the plot.l did this this yr and its worked a treat.As lm disabled its help me a lot for ease of watering my plants.l also store & keep some potted herbs on the front to make it look pretty ie mint and just lift the pots out to scoop the water out.mint doesnt mind its feet in water and the rest of the trough'edging' l store my other plastic pots ready or use in my little greenhouse.As l have tiny garden every thing has to have a dual purpose.

A pond
Line an old wooden barrel with pond liner and use to make a water feature/water reservoir.
The recycling box (every week it fills up with rain as the dustbinmen always leave the lid off when they've emptied it

Zoe