[Tigerhair]

It's been a dry spring and on our new allotment site we are faced with a large water bill.  Those who have sheds must have water butts on them but are there any other ways of catching more water and storing it?  I can get hold of 1000l IBCs for £30 so that's not a problem, but how to catch the water?  Give them each a lid?

[SnooziSuzi]

I'm assuming you don't have a shed to add guttering to? 

if not then I guess you would just have to position it somewhere that isn't sheltered and add a lid that slopes in toward the centre in order to direct the water in, but it would take an age to fill it or even get enough to be worthwhile... 

[Trillium]

On previous threads, folks have put up 4 stakes spread apart, stretched a sheet of poly to each corner then adjust it so that the 'catch' runs into a big bin or water butt. Of course, you need rain to make it all work.

[stompy]

Even if you put a lid on to catch the water it will only make a difference if the lid is larger than the area of the container top?

How deep is your water table in your area?

One guy on our old site dug down 3ft and had water all year round from his well, he had a bucket on a rope and filled his watering cans from there, by time he had emptied the cans the well had filled again.

It was rather nice looking too, he built the sides up to around 18" high with 4" x 4" wooden blocks for safety.

[JayG]

You obviously need to devise a larger catchment area than just the opening in your container otherwise you will only get an inch of water for each inch of rain that falls.

A basic rule of thumb, assuming you manage to collect every drop, is that an area 1m X 1m will collect about 25 litres (about 5 1/2 gallons) for every 1" of rain which falls on it.
 
With average rainfall where you are probably around 25" per year that would fill a 1000L container about 6/10ths full, so you would need to almost double the collection area just to fill it once per year.

[stompy]

Even if you put a lid on to catch the water it will only make a difference if the lid is larger than the area of the container top?

You obviously need to devise a larger catchment area than just the opening in your container otherwise you will only get an inch of water for each inch of rain that falls.

A basic rule of thumb, assuming you manage to collect every drop, is that an area 1m X 1m will collect about 25 litres (about 5 1/2 gallons) for every 1" of rain which falls on it.
 
With average rainfall where you are probably around 25" per year that would fill a 1000L container about 6/10ths full, so you would need to almost double the collection area just to fill it once per year.

Thats what i said.