What about designing a water butt that has a dual purpose? For example, a hollow plastic bench but somehow with a tap maybe on the arm? Or an attractive planter shaped butt? Even hollow plastic fencing? Or design something that allows you to direct sink or bath water to a butt that could be sold to house builders?
I've got 6 water butts dotted round the place, including a slimline one next to the greenhouses which fills off the gh guttering. The plug ugly standard ones are away from the main part of the garden, and I have 3 'beehive' butts in there, which are ridged terracotta plastic and do look like big garden urns ( ish).
I've seen other 'decorative' ones as well, meant to look like Roman columns.
The beehive butts blend well with the rest of the terracotta pots. When I'm watering/ liquid feeding the pots I often fill a big garden trug with water, sometimes adding liquid seaweed feed. I submerge the manageable sized pots in the trug, and leave them there until bubbles have stopped rising. Then I drain them in another trug, and pour that back into the first one. I know it might sound a bit of a hassle, but there's minimal loss from water running out of the bottom of the pots, and I know they've had a good drink. I used to be concerned about the possibility of transferring pests/ diseases, but have never found it to be a problem.
I guess it takes as much effort as lugging round watering cans.
Again thanks for the discussion and points raised they're all really helpful. We have a moderately sized garden and have two large water butts fed off the garage gutting. As I said previously I'm probably not in the same league as some of you gardeners but we often find that we run dry quickly and it does, in our case, seem to be the pots/hanging baskets/window boxes that are the main draws.
The butts are ugly, but again probably like most of you they're stored out of site. The issue my Grandad has is because of his small garden the butt has to be on show 24/7 and he grumbles about the space it takes up. I'll maybe suggest giving up the gardening hobby!
I'm going to have a look into the more decorative types for inspiration.
Tootles/Gardening Grandma thanks for your idea suggestions; things I'd not even considered. I might use some of them as part of my proposal document if that's OK?
Thanks again everybody for your time and feedback your posts are really appreciatedl!!!
Posts
Or how about a planter with a rainwater water storage feature? Water butts are not beautiful and can tend to dominate a smaller garden.
I've seen other 'decorative' ones as well, meant to look like Roman columns.
The beehive butts blend well with the rest of the terracotta pots. When I'm watering/ liquid feeding the pots I often fill a big garden trug with water, sometimes adding liquid seaweed feed. I submerge the manageable sized pots in the trug, and leave them there until bubbles have stopped rising. Then I drain them in another trug, and pour that back into the first one. I know it might sound a bit of a hassle, but there's minimal loss from water running out of the bottom of the pots, and I know they've had a good drink. I used to be concerned about the possibility of transferring pests/ diseases, but have never found it to be a problem.
I guess it takes as much effort as lugging round watering cans.
Again thanks for the discussion and points raised they're all really helpful. We have a moderately sized garden and have two large water butts fed off the garage gutting. As I said previously I'm probably not in the same league as some of you gardeners but we often find that we run dry quickly and it does, in our case, seem to be the pots/hanging baskets/window boxes that are the main draws.
The butts are ugly, but again probably like most of you they're stored out of site. The issue my Grandad has is because of his small garden the butt has to be on show 24/7 and he grumbles about the space it takes up. I'll maybe suggest giving up the gardening hobby!
I'm going to have a look into the more decorative types for inspiration.
Tootles/Gardening Grandma thanks for your idea suggestions; things I'd not even considered. I might use some of them as part of my proposal document if that's OK?
Thanks again everybody for your time and feedback your posts are really appreciatedl!!!
Paul
I live in the west of Scotland.
We don't need water butts...
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...