Saving water for the summer

[sparkyaj]

Next plan............. I'd like to design a storage system that will hold 2000L of water at the top of our garden. I'd then like a feed from the tank to go to a tall slim tank behind the green house at the bottom of the garden.

Lastly, is it poss. to run an irrigation system from a water tank without mains pressure?

I'm after ideas on sizes and shapes of tubs to store the water.........
May have to work on a pumping system.

[andrewo]

Collection

You need to decide how you can collect the water, you can irrigate from a tank because of the water pressure that is built up there (especially if you decide to go for drip hoses you will naturally being using the gravity from the tank nozzle to the hose which could be anything from 2' to 4' below). You could also go ancient, set up a series of canals and let the water flow into it.

Andrewo

[sewer rat]

Water Storage

I have see several large white traslucent water containers on farms I have visited - these are contained in a wire mesh cages, and I reckon they hold about 1000 litres each. I have seen a magazine article which says where they came from so will have a look in our tea hut on Monday - hopefully there will be a supplier near you. I should add these are second hand and they don't seem to be reewed so should either be free or only a couple or three quid.
Rat

[nick the grief]

Sparky,

Try DASH (the devon assoc of small holders) they mya be able to help with a source for the large tanks.

[sparkyaj]

thanks for that! thinking about it, I've seen a few of those white tubs on the farms........cube like tubs.yeagh.....I'll check it out.

Ali

[sparkyaj]

I've sent a few e-mails out. My main concearn is that I will need more pressure in the irrigating system than I am going to get direct out of the tank.

Have any of you installed irrigating drippers from a water but?
What sort of stuff have you used?

[Jaxom]

Bob Flowerdew uses a whole host of water barrels dotted round his garden.
They form a siphon irrigation system that keeps all the barrels at the same level. The first barrel stands under the water source, in the first barrel a hose pipe is put in, from the top until the end foot of pipe lies on the bottom of the barrel. The hosepipe then trails along the garden to a second barrel and the hose pipe is cut to allow the end foot at this end to lay on the bottom of the second barrel. Keep on doing this until you have as many barrels forming a circuit in your garden as you need. The distance between barrels can be quite some distance.
When the first barrel fills up, go to the second barrel in the chain and fit a funnel to the end of the hose. Pour water down the funnel until the hose pipe running back to the first barrel is full. Next remove the funnel and put your thumb over the end, then lower the hose back into the bottom of the second barrel, laying the end foot on the bottom.
Water will start to fill the second barrel until the level in Barrels one and two are the same height/depth.
Repeat the same process between barrel two and three. Now you will have three barrels each with one third of the water that was in barrel one at the start.
As water collects in barrel one. The water levels in barrel two and three also goes up. Remember the levels in each barrel will always be equal.
If your garden is on a slope some barrels will have to be partly sunk into the ground or others could be placed on bricks to increase their height to be equal to those at the highest point of the garden. It would be best to treat the first barrel as the height to regulate all the other barrels to.
This method would save you ever having to carry water round your garden or lottie ever again.
Jax

[Lesley Jay]

Does it all depend on the amount of rain that we get?

[sparkyaj]

no, I want to recycle water from our hot tub.at 2000L it's a crying shame to poor it down the drain and then use the hose for the next 6 months to water th garden

[Berr]

Jaxom,
That's very useful info. I take it that it came from a Flowerdew book? If so, could you tell us which one, please?

[Jaxom]

Bob Flowerdew's book info

the Book is called the "no-work garden" ISBN 1-84509-132-9
cost £14.99 and published by Silverdale books.
The information you want is on pages 100 and 101.
here is the link for an Amazon page. http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/...951932-7027063
amazon are selling it for £9.89 but there are second hand copies for a little less.
Hope this helps
Jax

[Berr]

Thanks, Jax.

Berr.

[nick the grief]

Sparky,
You could try someone like NA Kays or Two wests as I think they sell an irrigation kit that is based on a water butt. If you've got 2000l a couple of feet above the highest point inthe system I would have thought they would work OK as that equates to about 4.5 hundredweight of water, so you'll need a good strong base .

ntg