Garden Watering Tips & Advice | Rainwater Solutions

A rainwater harvesting system is invaluable during drier months and when we tend to garden more but when the weather changes, we garden less and our once often used water butt can become neglected. This season is as important as any when it comes to maintaining and caring for your water butt so that you can use it all year round. For it to survive the temperatures and lowered usage just follow our handy hints and your system will still be at its best come summer time.

The Best Water Butts for Small Gardens

Water butts are a great way to do your bit for the environment by collecting rain water, and it’s also a great way to save money and help your plants to flourish. If you’re not particularly blessed with space in your garden, you may be wondering if installing a water butt is still an option, but let us reassure you that it is! As your one stop shop for rain harvesting equipment, we have plenty of tips and suggestions when it comes to finding the best water butts for small garden spaces.

This year’s Hampton Court Garden Festival was blessed with great weather and soaring temperatures. If you watched the coverage on BBC, you probably noticed how beautiful the weather was. Along with typically good weather, garden festivals and shows are traditionally the time to showcase beautiful gardens and trends within gardening. They have also become a time to push the boundaries slightly and have areas that are installed to create debate and shock. This year’s Hampton Court RHS show was no exception. Whilst similar fashions and materials were used in the displays that were in the Chelsea Flower Show 2019, a few different themes were explored.

Water Preservation is a Hot Topic at RHS Chelsea Flower Show

The RHS Chelsea Flower Show has been one of the most prestigious flower shows in the world since its inception in 1912. Known for inventive displays and outrageous exhibitions, the show is at the forefront of showcasing fashion, beauty and pushing boundaries in the gardening world. 2019 was no different.

Given how this show is known for having the latest styles and trends, it was perhaps unsurprising that with the recent attention in the media focused on the environment, some of the themes centred around water preservation, sustainability and finding eco-friendly ways of living. Many of the displays were either made from eco-friendly resources, revealed inventions to help green programs across the world or were trying to raise awareness.

Making some small and affordable changes around your home can have a huge effect on the environment. These changes can help to reduce your carbon footprint whilst also saving you money.

In this post, we’ve put together our top-tips of eco-friendly changes that you can make in your home. We’ve left out recycling as you’ll likely be doing this if you’re interested in living an eco-friendly life.

Water butts are most commonly used to recycle rainwater for use around you garden, and that’s a great way to save water and money on your household bill. However, the water you use for your lawn is doesn’t even scratch the surface of what you could be saving by having a water butt.

How much can you really save?

We all have to pay for the water that we use but rainwater is free, if you can collect enough of it then you have the potential to reduce your water bill by up to 34%. There are a few things that influence how much rainwater you will be able to harvest. CAT Information Service give this basic formula to calculate how much you could be collecting:

The Dangers of a blocked gutter

A historic issue with the operation of guttering on a house is and has been the build-up of debris, moss and leaves in their gutters. The main cause of this has been the standard practise of roofing contractors or DIY people of fitting what is called a bell or balloon type strainer in the top of the downpipe to prevent debris, leaves, moss from going down the downpipe. This may be done with good intensions; however, the leaves and moss collect around the strainer and block it. This means someone must climb a ladder to clean it, with the inherent danger of falling off the ladder.

Dirt getting into your tanks and barrels leads to complications as it blocks up the flow of water leading to an inefficient and ineffective water harvesting system. This is where the Gutter Mate Diverter & Filter provides you with a simple yet effective solution.  Find out more today...

As we all could have guessed, our British summer has brought us both the highs of scorching hot days and the lows of the more customary wet ones.

This unpredictable nature of our weather means that we should always be prepared for the inevitable downpour to ruin the BBQ plans!

Whilst that might be enough to make people move abroad, some that will be thankful for the rain include your garden plants.

So, have you ever considered how a water butt could make a difference to caring for them (and you!)?