The Butt Stops Here

I bought a water butt when the council were running a special offer on them 4 or 5 years ago but never had the nerve to cut into the fall pipe to install the rain-catcher device. Paul the gardener is here again this morning and he gets the job done in just ten minutes. Just think how much water I could have saved in the last few years!

Putting guttering on the greenhouse and shed takes a bit longer. On the shed we have guttering down either side of the roof, taking the rain water to a butt at the gable end (at the moment, that's a spare plastic dustbin).

Making Connections

The greenhouse has a sloping roof so needs just the one gutter and, with a connector, we turn the fall pipe into the greenhouse so that I can put water tanks under the staging. There is nowhere to screw on brackets so Paul uses thick wire, pushed under the glass and wrapped around the aluminium struts of the greenhouse to make supports for the guttering, with thinner wire wrapped around a couple of external glass clips to support the ends of the gutter.

A Pane in the Butt

Cutting a corner off one of the panes of glass proves to be the most difficult job. Old glass cracks in unexpected directions. Luckily this is one of the smaller panes, so Paul can cut another piece from some damaged sheets of glass we saved when we were revamping the greenhouse a few weeks ago.

Having the water tanks inside the greenhouse has two advantages:

1. An external water butt would block the narrow path around the greenhouse.

2. Water stored inside the greenhouse will be tepid - better for watering the plants.

We've looked at water butts in DIY stores and you can pay £25. The two header tanks I'm using came from a local plastic recycling depot and cost me just £3 for the pair.

The guttering, fall pipes, brackets and joints cost me a little more than £40.

Richard Bell, richard@willowisland.co.uk