Welcome to the second post in our ‘Gardening Basics’ series. Each week we will take you through the questions we asked when we were first introduced to the world of gardening. This week we’re going to delve into the importance of water saving and why investing in a Water Butt will benefit your garden…
Water is a source that many believe to be unlimited, but as water consumption increases, supplies are decreasing. Installing a Water Butt can help households to make conscious decisions about watering their garden based on water usage, and sustainably store water for other household activities.
Water Consumption in the Garden
Making the conscious decision of how much or how little to water your garden can be a tricky task, particularly if you are planting new seeds or lack confidence when it comes to your green fingers. To make the task easy and environmentally friendly, we recommend watering your plants using collected rainfall from a Water Butt.
Using a Water Butt instantly aids decision making about watering plants as you can visually see the amount of water that is being used.
But how often should you be watering your plants? Unfortunately, there is no straight forward answer to this as it depends on the size, environment, and season, but checking your garden regularly can help you to make this decision.
One great way to account for external factors like extreme weather or temperature changes is to check your garden each morning. Plants that are healthy (not under or over-watered) will have similar properties to the plant below.
Check your garden each morning and assessing the overnight rainfall and the appearance of your plants. This should give a good indicator of whether your plant will need feeding that day.
Also, by watering your garden in the morning, you are discouraging slugs and pests and allowing the water to draw up through the roots before being hit by the midday heat. This encourages growth and keeps your garden healthy.
Why do I need to think carefully about the water that I use in my garden?
Water supplies across the globe are depleting as population grows and production lines increase.
Most people live less than ten kilometres from a fresh water supply, such as a lake or reservoir but experts fear this will not always be a reality. Valuable water resources are increasingly drained and demolished to make way for new innovations.
The remaining water supplies then serve an increased number of households to account for those that have been depleted. This leaves households with less and less fresh water per person.
By using a Water Butt and harvesting rainwater, instantly less water from the tap is being used. As long as rain continues to fall (which in the UK never seems to be a problem) a continuous supply of water is available. This water can then be used to complete household activities, such as watering plants or cleaning windows.
Water Butts prevent more than just excess water consumption, they also save each household money. Experts believe that by switching off the hose will save £1.50 and over 1000 litres of water each hour, making a Water Butt a great all-round solution to water waste.
Why is a Water Butt great for the garden?
Besides the financial and environmental benefits of a Water Butt, adding a water saving system to your garden returns some control of water distribution.
Have you ever found that after prolonged rainfall those plants near your house are drenched and damaged? This may be due to overspill from your gutters. When plants are exposed to too much water, it can overload the soil and plants consume too much liquid as a result. This can cause plants to blister, tear, and rupture in places: this is known as edema.
When a Water Butt is fitted to the drainpipes, it filters the water straight into the Water Butt and takes excess water quickly away from the gutters. This reduces the chances of overflowing pipes and prevents the overspill from landing in the plants below.
This is particularly useful in winter but Water Butts are designed to be useful year-round: their advantages are just slightly different during the summer season.
To combat underwatering plants during dry spells in the summer, Water Butts provide enough water for any garden. This will ensure that all plants receive the right amount for growth, even when hosepipe bans commence or rainy days are few and far between.
Which Water Butt is best for my garden?
Just like there is no set rule for how much water to feed your plants, there is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to choosing your Water Butt. When choosing a Water Butt, consider the size of your garden and how much water you think that you will need to store at any given point.
Small Gardens
Anyone with limited outdoor space can benefit from a Water Butt: simply choose a kit that provides a water saving system that is tall and thin to ensure that it will take up as little space as possible.
Evengreener recommend the Mini Rainsaver 100L Single or Double Kit to anybody starting their water saving journey due to their compact size. It is also possible to continue to add extra Water Butts as your garden grows using a ‘Water Butt Link Kit’. Made from durable materials, the Mini Rainsaver range are made from recycled plastic and come with a five-year-guarantee, offering an eco-friendly solution to water wastage for any garden.
Large Gardens
If you are looking to place a Water Butt in a large garden or communal area, such as an allotment, consider a Water Butt that maximises water storage with a rounder shape.
Evengreener barrel-shaped Water Butts can store 114 – 227 litres of water at a time. To truly amplify your water saving capacity in a larger garden, Cloudburst’s 200 litre Water Butt Double Kit will hold 400 litres at a time.
Decorative Gardens
If your garden resembles something from an RHS show or you pride yourself in the aesthetic appeal of your back yard, you may want to find a Water Butt that aligns with your garden’s existing design.
The Kingspan Water Columns can hold a staggering 300 litres at any time and are disguised as an ornamental gardening feature. The brass tap is conveniently located at the bottom of the column and can easily be hidden from view if needed. Standing at 1.6m tall, this Water Butt is ideal for those that want a water saving system that can become a stylish stand-out feature in their garden.
For more information on choosing your Water Butt, compare our bestselling water saving systems or use the chat icon to speak to a product specialist.
I have plumbed my water butts into 22mm copper pipe, to a garden tap. Can you recommend an automatic pump to provide good pressure to sprinklers, etc?
Hi David, thank you for your question. It may depend on the type of water butt that you have so please reach out to our Customer Care team ([email protected]) or use the chat function on our main website so that we can assist you with the right information.
What happened to the amazing 330 litre Harcostar butts you used to sell? They were the best available!
How long can the water be stored? The water I get in the butt smells of eggs.
Rainwater is generally fine to store for years if it stored and treated properly. If you are struggling with odours it might due to build-up of materials in your gutter (or wherever you have attached your water butt to) that is contaminating your water. To reduce this, we recommend using the ‘Be Green 500ml Water Butt Freshener’- it is a safe non toxic treatment that keeps the stored rainwater free from algae, scum and unpleasant odours and this would help to minimise the smell. If you still have trouble after this, consider emptying and cleaning your water butt and gutters before collecting more rainwater.
I have 3 cloudburst 200L water butts, 2 cloudburst 350L water butts and 1 mini saver 100l water butt and still run dry from time to time.
I do grow lots of veg and flowers, also my pet dog regards water butt water as doggy champagne as do many other dogs near us as we put a fresh supply outside our gate every day.
Thankyou for your comment, we are very pleased to hear that your dogs are enjoying their ‘doggy champagne’ and that the water butts have been a success in your garden!
It’s surprising how much water is used in the garden. I have in total now about 2500L of storage over a dozen barrels. (Mostly cloudbursts). Half in the upper garden and the rest around the veggy patches. This year has been much wetter and thus this water storage hasn’t been any where near exhausted but it gave the opportunity to progressively clean them out. Usually they are close on empty come August. The garden is both ornamental and vegetable plus a greenhouse. Sad to see though that the price of water barrels has risen dramatically over the last few years. But they do save on water bills! Cest la vie!
Thankyou for your comment Brian, we love hearing about the vast water storage people are able to fit into their gardens!
This was a very helpful article. Managing water is becoming ever more important in gardening. With sudden heavy rainfall more likely, drainage is vital. And building in soil improvers to make the soil retain moisture, and a thick mulch (eg leaf mulch) to prevent evaporation. It’s amazing how much water comes off the roof when it rains.
I would be interested if you come up with ways to divert excess wafer from a water burg when it is full. I recently bought three of your kits, but the pipe is only a metre long so of little practical use. But I am looking at a longer hose to carry the water away from the but into the garden.
Have you had a look at our Rain Diverter Kits or we have a range of Extension Hoses that may be useful for this. If you need any assistance choosing which kit is best for your water butt, feel free to contact our Customer Care team using the chat icon or by emailing [email protected]
I have guttering along my garage but it drains into my next door neighbours drainage, over a tall fence. Is there an attachment that I could get to attach to the junction of the down pipe to divert rainwater into a water butt on my side of the fences but keeping my neighbours pipe attached so that any overflow drains down the original system?
A little ingenuity and one of our Rain Diverter Kits or Extension Hoses would probably go a long way in this situation. If you would like some information on which one would be best for your specific water butt use the chat icon on our website to speak to a product specialist or email [email protected]