[stompy]

Can anyone tell me the best sort of place to get those blue barrels from. :?

At the moment i have to walk 200 yards to fill my watering can, it takes about 17 trips back and forth to water my new fruit trees and bushes.  :cry:
God help me when i start to put my vegies in.

So as you can see, i realy need to find some butts.

Shouldnt moan too much i suppose, at least we have tapped water on the site.

[noshed]

In Walthamstow you can get them from a scrap yard next to the council depot (around £6). Might be worth ringing around. I've also seen them loafing about industrial estates so it might be worth looking around - although you'd need to check what's been in them. I believe they're often used for foodstuffs so that should be OK.

[stompy]

Cheers noshed, will ring council tip tomorrow

[Jerry]

Sometimes you can find that the local council website will have offers on for things like water butts and plastic compost bins, I notice that Hull council do, for about £35 they do a 190 litre water butt with lid, stand and divertor for your downpipe (suppose this may be more suitable for the back garden really) not as cheap as the blue ones mentioned.

[John]

I heard that the water companies in some ares - perhaps the drought hit ones? - offer them cheap as well, got to be worth a phone call.

[comic_muse]

Any Factories around you who process fruit / fruit puree's.....jam, fruit-filling's, soft drinks anything like that ? They treat them as pretty much a waste product of the importation of fruit for processing, the blue butt's are what they ship the puree's in.  We used to have  soft drink company in a nearby town & all their Lemon's, Mango's etc. used to come in them.

[oggy]

Hi Stompy

I have apx 200 ft of blue mains water pipe 32 mm going spare.

I have converted our tap into a "well head " - which now contains 4 taps and have run water to my plot ( not totally finished yet ) leaving spare taps for other allotmenteers.

Oggy

[mellowmick]

One of our allotment holders works for the local bus company and they get some kind of cleaning fluid in the big blue ones. Once they're empty they rinse them out and he brings them up. You just have to saw the tops off.

[stompy]

That sound great oggy , but we arn't alloud to use hose pipes on our site .

I have rang my local council tip, but they don't have any barrels.

just got to keep looking.

[noshed]

Another possiblity would be ordinary plastic dustbins - about £6 I think. I was thinking of trying a siphon system round the plot so the butts would be linked. Looks simple...

[Basil Fawlty]

lots of suitable containers on ebay.  Many with Buy it Now of about £10.

45 gal capacity food containers.

Also 1000 litre square things (1 metre x 1 metre x 1 metre) for about £35.

I've just built a tower to stand a couple of butts on so I'll let you know if I find anything cheaper.

[Martin]

You might also try "The Tank Exchange" at http://www.thetankexchange.com/ .
The do a 220gallon recycled rain tank for £76 or so, and a 400 gallon tank for £163.
I got a smaller tank from them and was very satisfied with it.

[stompy]

Thanks for that Martin, i was hopeing for something a bit cheaper though "Maybe free"

[noshed]

ask the other plot holders where they get theirs from. Maybe someone's brother-in-law's friend's cousin can get them for the price of the petrol. Failing that - have a look round some industrial estates and ask.

[stompy]

Yeh noshed i will do, can't get out at the moment as i sprained my ankle 3 weeks ago, :cry:  and it's still not healed.

Soon as it is, i'l be out looking.