Water collection ideas

[BrideXIII]

YEEEHAAAW we finally filled our water butt yesterday.

now this may seem like a daft reason for celebration, but...we dont have a downpipe. so..........

due to the exessive amount of flower buckets we have free from the co-op, we have been using them to collect water, my garden looks ridiculous but they are serving a double purpose, they are killing the grass, and collecting water.
three weeks late we had enough to fill the first water butt

now all i have to do is put them all back again

anyone else have odd water collection ideas?

[vicky]

Congratulations!
How about your bathroom window? If it's near the water butt you can use a hose to siphon out the bathwater?

[BrideXIII]

Congratulations!
How about your bathroom window? If it's near the water butt you can use a hose to siphon out the bathwater?

nope, bathroom is at the front, waterbutt is at the back, no room out front.

[Snadger]

Not really an odd water collection idea but.............I have a large water butt INSIDE the chook run. The water runs off the roof, down an odd shaped downcomer (resembles the game 'mousetrap') to allow it to get into the chook run. Each night I fill both there water troughs from the butt using a bucket, which means I don't have to go back out the run and risk them escaping.
With the amount of rain we've had lately I haven't had to resort to mains water at all for 3 months!
Chooks seem to prefer rainwater as well!

[Flytrap]

Chooks seem to prefer rainwater as well!

Sorry slightly off topic but, one of my cats will only drink rain water.
He waits by the back door to be let out and goes to a platic container full of rainwater. He won't touch the water next to his food bowl as that has fresh tap water. The other day I washed out the rather dirty rainwater bowl and replaced it with fresh tap water. Next time he went for a drink, he sniffed it, started huffing and puffing, wanderered around the garden returning to the bowl ever now and then and got really quite distressed
Poor cat. We did rescue him from being a street cat almost a year ago so I suppose he is used to rain water.

Flytrap.

[Snadger]

Sorry slightly off topic but, one of my cats will only drink rain water.
He waits by the back door to be let out and goes to a platic container full of rainwater. He won't touch the water next to his food bowl as that has fresh tap water. The other day I washed out the rather dirty rainwater bowl and replaced it with fresh tap water. Next time he went for a drink, he sniffed it, started huffing and puffing, wanderered around the garden returning to the bowl ever now and then and got really quite distressed
Poor cat. We did rescue him from being a street cat almost a year ago so I suppose he is used to rain water.

Flytrap.

Might have an aversion to chlorine? Don't particularily like the smell of the stuff myself!

[BrideXIII]

all my cats prefer rainwater, fresh clean water indoors gets ignored if there is any outside in a puddle or bowl.

[SteveMort]

Hi
A Friend got some water butts for me stright from the Matthew Walker site.
Found some had industrial Port Wine in, managed to get 14 litres out, not for consumption warning on side, but makes geat gravy. 2 of the butts had a clear liquid in, turned out to be industrial Vodka, just like paint stripper - it has made some wonderful liquer with a bit of sugar and fruit from the lotty.
Found if I cut a top off and turned it upside down it will sit in the barrell collect rainwater and feed it down the hole in the top. because the light stays out the water does not go green.
If you need something to get water out of a butt but dont have a tap look out for a "wiggle" tube on Ebay.
Its a copper tube with a marble inside, attached to a length of hose, you place it in the butt and jiggle it up and down, it acts like a syphon and water flows into a watering can.
great little gadget.
Sorry for my ramblings!
Only found you all tonight.
Happy Gardening

[snohare]

Ta very much Steve, much appreciated solution to a problem that has been vexing me !

[Snadger]

My 1000Ltr container had citric acid in it. The watering can used to froth a bit until I'd ran the first 1000 litres through it!

[Two_Sheds]

How about your bathroom window? If it's near the water butt you can use a hose to siphon out the bathwater?

You can't store used (grey) water. It's going to be full of bacteria (think where it's been! )

[Snadger]

You can't store used (grey) water. It's going to be full of bacteria (think where it's been! )

Mine aint grey, its usually nearer to mud coloured! That reminds me..........is there a 'R' in the month?

[janeyo]

(My cat prefers the loo to drink from, prob as she's too lazy to walk down the stairs.)

Could you not rig up some sort of drainpipes to collect water from? Shed? Garage? Greenhouse? I know that last sumemr I emptied my small water butt in 2 waterings. Gonna be a lot of effort to fill it up for you if it all gets used in one or two goes.

janeyo

[BrideXIII]

I asked my brother about putting in a downpipe at the back, he reckons with labour about £150

I know that even at that cost i will make a saving in time, but that's a lot of money in one shot.

[Mcbee]

Have you got a green house? The roof normally has an aluminium gutter and you can bodge something off that to feed into a butt.