Water Butts

Are you a keen vegetable gardener or are you just about to start growing vegetables for the first time? Well if you have not got a water butt then you really should consider getting one, for several good reasons.

Firstly there is the cost of watering your vegetables, which in a dry Summer can be very high indeed, and indeed as food prices are ever increasing many more of us are growing more and more of our own vegetables, and as such we are needing more and more water for them. Just note that water prices are only ever likely to go up and not down, so why spend a penny more on water than you have to?

Secondly there is the water quality, whilst your tap water is filtered, it is also heavily treated with chemicals that may be good for our bodies, but this extra processing may remove essential minerals that are good for your vegetable crops.

Rainwater is one of the best things that you can water your plants with, so the best thing that you can do is store of much of it as you can when it rains for use when it is not raining.

So if you want free water this summer then now is the time to think about a water butt, buying one now will prove a cheaper option as they do go up in price in summer, and indeed in the past couple of years in summer water butts have been in short demand with manufacturers struggling to keep up with demand as many more people turn to growing their own vegetables.

Typically water butts come in a standard size of 250l but you can also buy space saver ones that are only around 12-14” square yet still hold 100l of water. You can also buy kits that allow you to link two or more water butts together, which is ideal and recommended if you have a very big garden.

Personally I prefer the space saver water butts as in a small garden a 250l water butt can look awfully big. A space saver water butt is ideal for a small city or courtyard garden.

You can now also buy electric pumps for them, which enable you to have pressurised water from then just like you would with a hosepipe. This is useful as because unless you have a very steep garden then the water pressure from your butt is likely to be negligible thus meaning you will only be able to use it to fill watering cans.

You can get stands for all water butts that allow a watering can or a bucket to be easily filled from them.

They are very easy to install and you can get drainpipe kits that allow you to tap drain water off in to your water butt, and the drainpipe kits feature a valve so that when the water butt is full it shuts off so the butt does not overflow.

So in conclusion rainwater is not only the best thing to water your plants with but also it is free to collect year after year once you have bought a water butt, so buy one today.

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