Another day, another step towards being (slightly) self-sufficient. Today my good friend Joe and I installed a water butt on the shed by the vegetable patch. The patch is a bit of a walk from the house, and the shed is right next to the patch, so it was something I’d considered from the start. Harvesting rainwater rather than using the mains is also of course the much greener (and self-sufficient) option. I was browsing the garden section of a shop a couple of weeks ago and saw they had water butts reduced from about £35 to £12.99. I considered getting one there and then, but I thought I’d best check with my neighbour first, as we share the shed, and it would mean attaching some guttering.

The next time I saw my neighbour I asked whether he’d mind (and of course offered the shared use of the water too). He said he wouldn’t mind and also said that there had been some builders working on our houses that day, who had replaced some guttering and had asked him whether he had any use for the pieces they had taken down. If he had known that I would have use for it, he would have taken it. Unfortunate timing I thought, but not a disaster. My friend Joe works on building sites and can often reclaim used materials that would otherwise go to landfill. I texted and asked him to keep an eye out for some guttering.

A couple of days later, Joe texted me back to say he had a length of guttering, some clips and a downpipe. The day after that I saw my neighbour who informed me that he had seen the builders again and asked whether there was still any guttering going. They had given him some and he had left it by the shed for me. So I suddenly had spares for almost every part I needed. However, they will not go to waste, as my dad and I are planning to build a shed at the allotment, and we were going to connect a water butt to that too, so we will use them there.

I revisited the shop and bought my £12.99 water butt on my way home from work a few days later, and this evening after we had both finished work, Joe and I attached the guttering and connected it to the water butt. Joe had an ingenious idea for connecting the downpipe to the water butt (at least it will be if it works, I can’t help but think that it will). Joe’s idea was to drill a hole in the lid of the butt that is as wide as the downpipe. Then, when we sawed the downpipe to size, we measured it to reach the bottom of the butt. We attached a reclaimed right-angled bend to the downpipe, as can be seen below.

Downpipe with a right-angle attachment

The idea being that having the downpipe down the entire length of the butt should improve stability in these early days when the butt is empty and light. The bend will prevent the end of the pipe sitting square against the base, and therefore still allow the water to flow in. Below are some before and after photos. I’m aware that the roof felt needs some attention. the strip going along the apex is torn. Joe is currently re-felting his own shed roof, he says he will save me his choicest strip that he takes down. A quick check on the BBC weather website doesn’t forecast any rain until Sunday, but the Met Office predicts there will be some as early as Friday. Here’s hoping!

The shed before we installed water butt…

…And the same shed after the installation.