Hosepipe bans

Morning all.

Tortuosa, it's nice to know someone is planning an underground cisterna. It's not like it's rocket science. More people should investigate this and it should be mandatory in a new-build. Besides rain water.

I've also heard of grey water recycling where you re-use your bath / washing machine water. We are contemplating this in addition to collecting rain water.

Rain, what is that? We've had one day of drizzle since the beginning of April ... lots of threats but none of the wet stuff. We are under a threat again and is grey outside and very windy so I'm keeping my fingers crossed because if we don't get anything by the end of June, we may as well forget it under October or November. I'll sympathise with the holidaymakers but the land comes first.

Have a nice day, one and all!

 

Tortuosa, I agree very much. Big tanks should be installed in all new houses, not only for gardens but for non-drinking purposes in the house as well. It's amazing how much water we have in winter.
I have 4 water butts in my garden, 3 medium size and 1 extra large one at the top of the garden, which I can fill from the other 3. If I had more I could avoid using the hose pipe completely. There are still at least 2 more places where a water butt could be installed, but an integral system would be much neater!

 

For some time I have been using grey water, as Monty Don showed in Gardiners World. It is not major but makes a useful contribution. It is surprising how many bowels of water you use in the kitchin - washing up, washing the vegetables, even just washing your hands. Very little is allowed to go down the drain. I have over 30 large pots - watered everyday, and this supplies about three quarters of their needs.

 

I would love to have a water butt but I can't! We live in a terrace, we are the middle, and the water from the roof is coming down in pipes on the neighbouring properties. We do not have a pipe from the eaves coming down on our bit of house!
How much would it cost to have a plumber install a pipe down from the eaves, so we can have a butt? I would really love one because every time it rains I feel it is such a waste - and the neighbours do not collect it either!

 

Installing one isn't very difficult but you do have to think where the overflow is going to go. Normally a trap is fitted so that when the waterbutt is full, the overflow will go down a drain rather than spill on the ground. If you have a drain from your sink or bathroom that will do.
Also if you have a garden shed, or even a handy bit of fence or wall, it's very easy to fix a lengh of gutter, and drain it into a water butt. In this case the overflow can go on the ground as it would have done without the gutter. My greenhouse came with gutters, but I have fixed guttering round my sheds, didn't need a ladder, just drill, screws and handsaw and the bits of gutter which DIY places sell cheaply!

 

Liz, I would not hesitate to try and install the butt itself myself - it is more about fitting the down-pipe onto the gutter on the two storey high house - that's a place I do not want to have to climb up to and rather leave to the professionals!
I have been thinking about fitting a piece of gutter on the shed but somehow I am thinking that it may not be worth it, small pent shed and all that... :confused:

 

You would be surprised how much water can run off your shed in a good shower. Maybe not enough to fill a butt, but enough to run it directly onto a bed for a watering like I have. Our flat roof extension used to run into a soak away now it runs onto the bamboo bed. And before I knocked down our shed the bed in front got a direct watering from this method. Just need a few DIY gutter bits and an angle pipe exit onto the bed. :D

 

Wishaw, I only meant the shed, I wasn't suggesting you do the house gutter yourself unless you don't mind heights etc. But as BM says it is surprising how much water you can collect from a shed- my smaller shed has an 8' run of gutter and the water butt overflowed several times this winter. Mind you Wiltshire is very wet....
Sometimes you can find containers as well if you don't want to spend a lot on a water butt for a small bit of gutter.

 

Wishaw, We've a water butt, about 60 to 80 gallons capacity, taking water from the GH roof which covers a horizontal area of about 12 by 7 feet. A couple of days ago we had a night of rain and just under a half inch fell (you probably had the same) this was more than enough to top up the butt which had been just over half full.

 

I'm not sure how much my water butts hold
Probably about 50 or 60 gallons, I usually end up refilling with the hose during the summer, but due to the leakage from the victorian water mains that we have in the UK, combined wiyh the overpopulation, I cant this year.
I'll just have to use buckets, it'll take me longer but I will use the same amount of water.