Hand operated water pump

If the available water is in tanks or butts located at a slightly higher level than your plot you could siphon water through a hose pipe. You just need a short piece of pipe to start the siphonic action, then connect that to a longer hose running down to your plot. Pumping water by hand sounds like very hard work.

I asked a similar question a while ago and Snadger suggested one of these:

Online Pumpshop :: Industrial hand pumps :: PATAY ROTARY BARREL PUMP

Hope that helps?

You want something like Pumps by W Robinson and Sons > Hand Pumps > Semi Rotary Wing Pump

They have gone up in price a lot since I last looked. We have these installed on site and they can pump huge volumes of water with relative ease. I can pump 600 litres in 30 mins.

Be warned though you need a lot of work to get it installed. You'll need a housing to mount your pump such as a brick structure, a pipe with a filter that reaches into your water source and then a pipe to get the water from pump to destination. I use a 60m 1" hose that I got from ebay (koy carp habby shop).

Alternatives are petrol powered pumps but these come in at over £100 and you still need the hose. You can also get a submersible electric pump but you'd need a generator to drive that - again a big initial outlay.

There are much cheaper varients such as mini pumps that attach to a power drill but they really don't pump much volume and won't really work on a battery drill. If you have mains power it may do what you need and is worth investigating.

Ok - I've just re-read your initial post. I recon my latter suggestion is worth investigation first. Either that or mount your barrels on a plinth. I have 200l barrels on a 1' high platform and this head will push water through a regular hose no problem. Its not fast but it doesn't matter. It saving me walking the 20m each way! I just leave the hose leaking out and move periodically.

[QUOTE=Matt.;405897]You want something like Pumps by W Robinson and Sons > Hand Pumps > Semi Rotary Wing Pump

.When me and old gal marley moved into this house in 1968 that was the water supply one of them mounted on the wall by the sink in the kitchen the only supply in the house it pulled water from down a deep well and worked very well but the well got contaminated and we then got main's water....jacob

My Dad had one of those pumps they have on Robinson's. His garden beds were all raised inside brick walls but the "patio" area alway flooded in heavy rain, not from draining from the beds but because there was no drainage on the "patio".

As a 5 year old (44 years ago) my job was to crank the handle back and forth to pump the water onto the garden.

Makes my shoulders ache just thinking of it.

Plants won't need watering every day. I tend to do mine once a week in the summer, unless something is wilting. And I am on free-draining sandy soil.

Some folks go up every evening with the hosepipe, but they don't get any better crops than me.

Do what you can to minimise watering: mulch a lot.

Water the roots, not the soil surface (which will simply evaporate). Inverted pop bottles planted next to thirsty plants like squash & beans are terrific.

Thanks guys, you have given me a lot to think about.

Regards

Kim

Take a cordless drill and a chuck pump...

I had to pump water uphill to the top of one of my plots from one of the mains fed troughs. I used a 12v bilge pump bought from the local boatyard for £20 with 25m of 3/4" hose (another £20). Because it's 12v I can either run it from the car fag lighter socket or from a stand alone car battery which I keep topped up with one of those solar car battery chargers. The pump is just dropped into the trough and pumps into a plastic dustbin with four taps and hoses running off it going to whatever needs watering. That way I can get on with something else without knackering myself humping water uphill. It only uses 20w but pumps at 20l/minute and will run for hours without flattening the battery. The only drawback is that it pumps faster than the mains feed to the trough so I have to periodically turn it off to let the trough fill up. Otherwise it's brilliant.

having trouble watering my veg too

I have been looking around to try to find a way to water my plants
I don't think siphoning is good. If you're not careful the water butt gets emptied !
I think I'm going to try one of the wing pumps
I found this link Watering and irrigating alloments, gardens and vegetables online-pumpshop.co.uk: to some alternative pumps but I'm still not sure which one I will use.

I'm shopping for the school garden, and just found my favourite bath/butt pump for only £15: Buy WaterGreen Bath Siphon from Wiggly Wigglers

I use mine all summer to empty our bathwater onto the back garden. If I attach a longer hosepipe I can reach the front garden too