Welly's Gardening thread revival Bank Holiday update

[steve_earwig]

Anyway, speaking of compost, my mate James is on the scrounge https://www.buzzbnk.org/GreenhamReach I'm not expecting/demanding you stick your hands in your pockets but it would be much appreciated. Btw that's James playing on the soundtrack, he even made the accordion. Clever bugger.

James on the Beeb http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05tbf5c#auto

And in The Independent - http://www.independent.co.uk/environmen ... 72429.html

[Welly]

Fast forward nearly a year (how did that happen?)......

Been meaning to come up with a water collecting solution for the shed roof; it's parked right next to the garage and I installed an L-shaped channel at the bottom of the roof section to divert water away from the brickwork. I noticed the channel diverts quite a stream of water when it needs to.

I sourced a car mechanics oil/fuel funnel from that Amazon for a few quid:


And that Screwfix provided 6mtrs of 32mm Black Push Fit waste pipework/fittings:


Amazon also provided a 100ltr water but for £26.00:


Excited, I made some rain with a hose pipe:


Then, as is traditional on Bank Holiday's actual rain happened:


And only blooming nearly filled the thing


Even managed to frig up a free 'tap' from my plumbing box, screwed into the water but with a nice rubber washer seal my plumbing box also provided a weird cup/filter/basket which fits perfectly in the funnel outlet to stop the waste pipework blocking with shiz

I dunno, small things but I feel like a rain collecting champion

[PeterN]

Your garden looks a lot tidier than mine Steve. I did cut the grass yesterday and was hoping to clear a lot of wood away today where I've been cutting trees down, but apart from the rain this morning I had a priority job

We have had rats getting into the kitchen and they have eaten through a cable behind the sink unit resulting in several loud bangs and putting the worktop lights out, on investigation I found a puddle of water under the units due to a hole in the cold water pipe caused by the cables arcing. So today I have been taking the kitchen to bits, plumbing and rewiring - the rat man is coming next week!

Prior to this we had a water supply failure due to the well water pump failing, I fitted a secondhand replacement which had been a slurry pump at the farm - I cleaned it out well! Of course all the connections were different so I had to re plumb it all, I then found that the pressure switch which shuts the pump off when the tank at the top of the field is full was also faulty so I had to replace that as well, we now have a water supply again - at the moment.

So you see why I don't get a lot of gardening done.

Peter

[Welly]

Our garden was a square patch of nothing for years whilst the kids were growing up and then we found ourselves with more spare time and turned our efforts to the front and rear gardens. It's hard on my poor back but very satisfying to have a pleasant garden and its become a bit of a hobby. First thing I do when I get home from work is to check and water about 20 pots with various flowers and shrubs.

[steve_earwig]

When I was a lad a rat got into our Bendix push button washer/drier (made in the US of A) through the air vent and wreaked havoc. More recently Camila's been bringing in young rats here (when I say young, they're way too big to be mice but not yet full grown) Camilla weighs 2.25Kg (5lbs), go figure...

I keep meaning to take pictures of Ollie but our garden's an embarrassing mess. It's not just that stuff from the loft has had to go into the shed and stuff from the shed is now outside, it's usually pretty bad anyway but it's even worse now.

So, having installed your water butt, what are you going to do with the water? I have a couple here, the one by the boiler house I mainly use for rinsing off the car and maybe watering houseplants if I remember/can be asked to go outside to bring it:

I think this one's about 250L

The one around the back I sometimes use for watering but I always worry that, if I use it up, they'll cut the water off for a day again and all the plants will whither and die:

This one's about 500 I think, it's actually a bucket for making wine (squish, squish, squish). I made the diverters myself as you've got no chance of buying anything like that here. I even had to buy the taps from the UK as all they have here are brass taps, which are heavy and expensive.

[Welly]

The water? well diverting it to a tank* firstly saves the garage wall getting soaked and secondly I will use the water for watering my plants and the conker tree I grew. Thirdedly the water meter won't be whizzing round £££££

The tap I made runs just slowly enough to fill a second watering can while I go off watering....come back and another full one is ready.

Obviously now I've done all this we'll have the longest hot summer of ever with no rainfall. See also: Winter Tyres

[highlander]

Obviously now I've done all this we'll have the longest hot summer of ever with no rainfall. See also: Winter Tyres

Cheers Welly, looking forward to a bit of sun!

[PeterN]

Fortunately we have a well that can supply 500 gallons a day, at the moment, it did go dry about five years ago but I don't think there is much chance of that happening this year.

Peter

[steve_earwig]

That's pretty useful, what's the water like? There are lots of wells around here and you're meant to be able to drink it, but I don't think I'd be happy about that. Mate Max has one but it's not been used in years, we chucked a weight down it a couple of years back but it just came up muddy.

[PeterN]

Its pretty good generally, I have an ultra violet system installed which kills any bugs but there don't appear to be any. The water is rather acidic and also high in iron but I had it tested and its fine to drink. The well is about 300 years or more old but very well built from stone.

It hadn't been used for about 60 years but with a couple of friends we cleared a ton or more of silt, stones etc from it and apart from the first year when it went dry its been fine. Its about 25' deep and at the moment has around 9' of water in it, goes down to about 3' by the end of the summer.

I have a 500 gallon tank at the top of the field, about 70' above the well and that lasts us for 5 days or so but the pump comes on every day at about 6.00 am so it uses off peak electricity, its switched off by a pressure switch when the tank is full and the ball valve closes.

Peter

[Doggy]

Obviously now I've done all this we'll have the longest hot summer of ever with no rainfall. See also: Winter Tyres

Brilliant work Mr Welton. I should be able to benefit from the Mkt H'boro drought this year!
(As all those who went to Pugfest '15 know, prospective SIL Vaughan's a dab hand with the BBQ).
Happy days.

[Welly]

[quote="PeterN"]it uses off peak electricity/quote]

Peter do you use a lot of off-peak power? storage heaters etc? I used to have a dual meter but was advised to change it to a single rate meter as the tariff of charges is lower for daytime use and to be fair it does seem better for us overall.

[steve_earwig]

That's mighty impressive Peter, nice. Makes me wonder how I could get to the water table here, there's meant to be a stream outside the front, well there is but it's been covered over for about 40 years. God alone knows what the locals tip into it though. Must be worth investigating though, the water co. couldn't rip us of for using our own water anyway.

Or could they? I wonder if I'd need a license or some other stupidity

Btw Max had his on/off peak switch jam on days for a while, he noticed quite quickly because his bills suddenly doubled.

[PeterN]

We are fortunate to have an aquifer up here as we are 500' ASL but there is obviously some sort of imperviable layer beneath us, don't know if its clay or rock but it seems to do the job, I can fill the 500 gallon tank in one go should it need to, which I don't very often, and the next day the level is as before.

There is no mains water supply as it only comes up the lane as far as our next door but one neighbour, but that is about half a mile away, the pressure is insufficient to push it any further. We did have a supply from the farm as they have a water tank in the next field but the water is not as good as ours as it comes from shallow springs and easily gets polluted in heavy rain. We can still connect to it in an emergency though.

Welly

We don't have storage heaters now, they were here when we moved in 46 years ago but only kept the house warm until about 10.00 am as its an old stone cottage with 18" thick walls but no cavity. We replaced them with a solid fuel Rayburn cooker which we had for many years. I do make good use of the off peak though as its about the cheapest way to heat water, no gas here of course, we are to far from civilisation. We do have an oil fired boiler though and at the moment that is by far the cheapest energy - until the oil price goes up again. Costs about 4.5p per kw hour which is cheaper than off peak at the moment. The oil is about 30p per litre now, three years ago it was 60p+.

We also have a multifuel stove in the lounge and a bottled gas cooker so we are covered for most eventualities. We also have a wind turbine and solar panels.

I think we have most services backed up.

Peter