[savbo]

I'm looking to install rainwater harvesting at our new office and was surprised how cheap used ibc containers are  - only about £100... and that's cleaned and ready to use

[Kristen]

You're paying too much! I paid £20 from people I know, and £40 from people I didn't.  Had to go get them though.

[Kristen]

we're in the Midlands and on the top of a hill, so hopefully plenty of rain - such good ideas! And I'm very impressed with all the maths...

This may be a bit nurdy ...

Go to

http://www.wunderground.com/

Type in your nearest town - best to let the little list appear as you type and pick one from the list (it seems to be a bit fussy on spelling - "Saint" instead of "St" and "United Kingdom" rather than "UK" etc)

Click on "Station Select" button

If you have a nearby airport suggest you try that (they tend to have the most complete records), but you may find an amateur who is collecting data very near to you, which will be better for rainfall - however, you may find that their data collection started on 25-Dec-2010

Under "Current conditions" you will see the name / town of the weather station. Click on that.

You should then see "History for XXX" page (make sure its the weather station you want)

Click on the YEARLY tab, and then change the YEAR in the list and press VIEW

The "precipitation" in the summary will show you the total for the year.

(You can use CUSTOM tab and pick Start and End dates to get a total for a longer period - but I haven't found a page that has a simple summary per month, year-by-year, or long term averages)

[GreenOwl]

And the one thing no one's mentioned..... don't water things! 

You can run an allotment on no water.  You do tend to get a reduced yield but a lot of plants don't need as much water as you might think.

I run a minimal water allotment.  We do have water at our allotment but I hate watering so I only water things that really need it eg transplants.  I try and give the beans a trench with newspaper on the bottom.  I mulch as much as I can. 

[snowdrops]

Green owl- someone who thinks like me. I see others watering all the time & I'm sure they don't do much better than me produce wise.I think they have nothing better to do.Also it makes for plants that rely on being watered as they develop shallow roots &  don't put roots down to find water. I water the drills before I sow, I water transplanted plants really well to begin with & then wean them off. Things that do need water- tomatoes,courgettes etc I sink 2 litre pop bottles next to each plant /2 plants with the bottoms cut off, this takes the water down to the roots & helps to stop the water evaporation in hot/windy weather. Like others I dig in lots of organic material & do a bean trench.All in all I do reasonably well at harvest time.

[bailey]

blue barrel or similar with upside down large umbrella, fishing umbrella or old garden one 
(try freecycle) covers a quite large area and funnels it into container..

[GreenOwl]

Green owl- someone who thinks like me. I see others watering all the time & I'm sure they don't do much better than me produce wise.I think they have nothing better to do.Also it makes for plants that rely on being watered as they develop shallow roots &  don't put roots down to find water. I water the drills before I sow, I water transplanted plants really well to begin with & then wean them off. Things that do need water- tomatoes,courgettes etc I sink 2 litre pop bottles next to each plant /2 plants with the bottoms cut off, this takes the water down to the roots & helps to stop the water evaporation in hot/windy weather. Like others I dig in lots of organic material & do a bean trench.All in all I do reasonably well at harvest time.

Absolutely.  Tomatoes taste better with less water as well.   We didn't have water for the first 3 or 4 months of last season (new site) so I used to take down a 2L pop bottle of water if it was really dry or I was planting something and that was it.  Did fine.  Fantastic cucumbers too and they're supposed to be really thirsty.

[Carollan]

I`m just grateful to have an allotment!!

We have never had water down there,so I have 3 big water butts down there,which I try to keep filled with water I bring from home every day when I go down in the summer.

We have 2 plastic stacker tubs filled with plastic milk bottles in the car,and fill them with the hose from the house.Sounds fiddly and time consuming,it is,but when you have plants dying,you`ll do  ANYTHING!! 

[JayG]

blue barrel or similar with upside down large umbrella, fishing umbrella or old garden one 
(try freecycle) covers a quite large area and funnels it into container..

Oh goody, more sums!   

A 5' golfing umbrella has a potential rain-catching area of about 20 square feet so if you managed to trap all of it (and it didn't blow away!) you would collect about 10 gallons of water per inch of rainfall!

[Kristen]

Oh goody, more sums!   

Well ... just on the off-chance that anyone else is wanting to do sums, rather than just the two of us!, sticking the following into Google and it will give the answer:

For a circular area 2.5 feet in radius (i.e. 5 feet in diameter):

2.5 feet * 2.5 feet * pi * 1 inch in imperial gallons =

and for a rectangular (or square) area - e.g. a 10' x 8' greenhouse:

10 feet * 8 feet * 1 inch in imperial gallons =

Change values and units according to taste

[Yorkie]

Huh?  

I got maths A level and still I'm     

[JayG]

Huh?  

I got maths A level and still I'm     

I only got as far as "O" level Maths but I think I'm getting to the age when I'm more likely to remember that "pie are square" than what I need to buy when I go to the supermarket! 

[Kristen]

Huh?

Put this

2.5 feet * 2.5 feet * pi * 1 inch in imperial gallons =

in the search box on Google (you don't normally have to even press the SEARCH button to get the answer).

It understands some unusual units, like:

26 in bakers dozen =

[plum crumble]

SOB!

[Togalosh]

Hell..it appears I've been over watering..but all the same , if we didn't have a communal stand pipe I'd not bother..or else I'd get into water dowsing & Bore Hole drilling.