Grow Bag with two tomato plants– approximately 3 litres / 5.5 pints per day in warm weather. Assume in the region of 200 litres during the growing period. When estimating the size of water butt best for your situation don’t forget that you can start with one water butt and add another one later. You simply need a connector kit which can be found here. The hose which connects the two water butts can be as long or as short as you want. Installing guttering on a shed roof will provide a method of rainwater collection which can then be diverted into a water butt or water storage tank for storage and future use in gardening applications. For the diverter to work properly, it is important to fit it at the correct height. This is lower than the top of the water butt, but higher than the inlet into the butt itself, to ensure that there is downward fall from the diverter to the butt.

If costs are important then it is often the case that buying online is not only more convenient, it is often cheaper. A trip to a DIY store may well work out more expensive compared to the delivery charges of a reputable online supplier, see here for example. QUESTION:We have a split of a garden (our property is a house conversion) with a planted area that needs watering. Unfortunately our garden is far away from the building and there is no ground level tap we can access (ours is the upstairs flat). Any suggestion on how to have a device to collect rainwater without gutters and down pipes? Step 12: You’ll undoubtedly need to jiggle the pipes around a bit, to get them to seat properly. Remove, trim and reassemble if necessary. Now attach the downpipe to the drain outlet – you may need to include offset bends in the downpipe installation to direct water away from the shed and into a water butt.You can then add further water butts / connectors etc. using the pre-drilled holes. If you drill a hole into a water butt incorrectly it can be repaired with silicon sealant but the join will never be totally reliable. SETTING UP A WATER BUTT

The smallest water butts sold have a capacity of 100 litres; the largest ones are generally in the range 1,500 to 2,000 litres. The larger tanks can be as high as 200cm / 80in with a base 120cm / 48in. The smaller tanks are typically 130cm high (including stand) and 35cm / 14in wide. Water butts are a great way to collect rainwater for your garden. Not only are they eco-friendly, but they can also save you money in the long run. If you're looking for a small water butt that won't take up too much space, then we have the solution for you. The average rainfall in the UK is about 80cm 32in each year. On that basis, and assuming you can collect 75% of that rainfall, a roof of 2 metres (6ft) width and depth will collect 3,200 litres of water each year. Much of this will be collected in the period October to April.

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The only other comment i will make is about mulching. To reduce the need for pumping water from the stream, much of my allotment is heavily mulched. This reduces the need for watering hugely, far more than you would ever imagine. We got our water butt from Aldi. He’s a handsome green chap – slim-line and stylish (at least as stylish as a water butt can be), with the capacity for 100 litres of finest rainwater. Ours came complete with base, tap assembly and a down-pipe diverter for those wishing to install directly to an existing drainpipe.