Filter for rainwater harvesting from greenhouse

[Organo Pleno]

this year I have had my garden completely re-designed and as part of that have had a new greenhouse installed. I bought it with rainwater downpipes as I have 3 rainwater collecting butts to use. When I installed the downpipes into holes in the side of the butts, I realised that the butts were fairly deep and could collect leaves and other debris in the bottom which could be difficult to clear out.
In order to stop this happening I asked my wife for a pair of her old 'pop-socks' which I then placed over the ends of the downpipes, and attached them with rubber bands.
The greenhouse became functional in the last two weeks. In that time there has been quite a lot of rainfall, and also leaves from the trees in the public open space to the rear of the garden. I have just been out to check the efficiency of the 'filters'. They had stopped all of the leaves and tree seeds from falling into the water butts and I was able to clear the filters and re-install them. Hope this small tip will be of use to others to keep the water butts clean.

[Ms-T]

Hello , and welcome , great tip , thank you . hope to see more of your posting.

[burnie]

A further tip for water butts(it works with ponds as well) is to float a ball or block of polystyrene on the surface through the winter. If we get a heavy frost and the water freezes, it then crushes the ball or float when it expends, thus stopping the water butt from splitting.

[Ms-T]

Now i know what to do with all the balls that come into my garden.....hee hee