I just got a 300litre barrel from my MD second company. It's sealed at both end at the moment, but on one end there are two caps that I could use to let rainwater in through, however I do not have a shed or other building to divert water from into it, will not have in the future. Everyone else on my allotment site seems to have similar barrels, but with no top on at all presumably for similar reasons, but I wondered if there would be any value in leaving the top on the barrel before I dive in to sawing it off (but I would remove the caps to let rainwater in?
If I do leave the top on the barrel I assume it will take longer to fill as there will be less top open to collect water, but am not sure that is realistically a problem in our climate.
Also we do have running water from April through to September.