...where do you have yours?

im finally starting to take a bit more of an interest in the my yard space and after having successfully completed 'operation rescue pot plants' last week, i realised how much i really need a sensible water source in the yard.

the only place i think i can have it is from the guttering from the offshoot kitchen, however this may interfere with the piping from the kitchen sink to the drain.

can anybody offer any advice re siting water butts and how to install them?

thanks

sophie
x

I have one of those adaptors inserted into the downpipe that collects water to divert into the butt, but when it's full it also acts as an overflow back into the downspout :)

We have just fitted a water butt on the down pipe from our garage. It was surprisingly easy to fit (well, I thought OH did it very competently!). We bought a Sanky butt from B&Q and also an adaptor kit like Stix mentioned. It was possible to site it 50cm away from the downpipe, and I am sure that with a bit of a longer piping you could put it even further away and avoid the kitchin sink drainage.

I've just fitted a second, about 7.5m away from the diverter, but had a devil of a job finding appropriately sized hose to do it properly (in a financially viable fashion), so have opted for bodging it with a piece of ordinary hosepipe. It seems to be working fine, but I did have to do a bit of an experiment with heights and head of water to ensure it ran properly before making the cut through the drain pipe

This might be a really stupid question, but do water butts have closed lids? I've been scouting on t'internet and that's what it looks like... I want to put one on my allotment, and obviously there isn't any guttering to collect the water from!
Maybe I should just head down to B&Q and have a look :)

I use a standard dustbin, works fine. Only issue is if it's left the miggies use the water as a breeding ground. Closed ones are better for that reason.
Also it would need to rain a hell of a lot for you to catch enough water to fill it if the water is not being divereted from somewhere.

Can I ask a really dumb question? How do you fit one of the diverters from the downpipe? I want to get a waterbutt and have the perfect place for it, but wonder if it's something super-simple I'll be able to do myself?? What, exactly, do you need to do?

Saw off a bit of the pipe with a hacksaw, fit the thing, then push the bit you chopped off into the bottom of the thing!

Very technical explanation ;)

I use a standard dustbin, works fine. Only issue is if it's left the miggies use the water as a breeding ground. Closed ones are better for that reason.
Also it would need to rain a hell of a lot for you to catch enough water to fill it if the water is not being divereted from somewhere.

If only I'd got the allotment a week or two earlier then :hihi: