[trev_pulsecity]

I was wondering if anyone had tried creating a sort of reservoir on their allotment as a water source and whether it worked. The whole well digging thing scares me, but with such a big and slightly sloping plot. I wondered if a reservoir might work.

The site is so overgrown at the moment mind that I insist in taking someone else with me everytime much to their dismay, in case I fall down a hole in the ground or something.

[trev_pulsecity]

To elaborate a bit more, what I was thinking of doing is making use of a natural dip at the bottom of my plot and putting a pond liner in it, so it would collect the run off water from my allotment.

I guess this would rule out being able to use weed killers, but I am hoping to never need to use them anyway.

Or should I be digging a well? I have no idea how deep the water table is, but the plot is on the side of a hill, about a third of the way up. In the valley there is a stream the river Wye, which in parts of town is dry.

[Alastair-I]

Run-off would carry silt with it, so your reservoir would slowly silt up over time.  It's a devil of a job to dig out a butyl-lined pond without puncturing the liner.

How about a partially raised butyl-lined reservoir (using sleepers, blocks, etc to raise the sides) and directing winter rain from the shed roof into it for later use in the summer?  You can easily collect a couple of thousand litres from even a modest shed roof over a few wet winter months.  A raised pond is safer and easier to bucket water out of.

[trev_pulsecity]

Alastair you make a good point, I was intending to put the shed at the top of my plot and the pond at the bottom. Although with plenty of drain pipe that could still work. I know where I can find a lot of drainpipe.

Failing that I could put the pont further up the plot.

They are yet to mark the boundaries so I am not actually even sure how big the plot it.

[Spana]

We have an underground reservoir that is filled by a natural spring.  Its made from concrete blocks and rendered inside.  It fills most of our cattle tanks out in the fields by syphon.  If thats the kind of thing you are thinking of  let me know and OH will answer any questions if he can.

[Paul Plots]

trev... something much easier might involve having a number of water barrels / butts to catch water from a shed roof. The barrels could all be linked together with the overspill feeding a pond if you want one.

The barrels could be partially sunk into the ground and makes use of over-winter rainfall.

Just a thought as I'm always looking for the simple solution. 

[ex-cavator]

Can't help thinking a pond or reservoir might be overkill - how are you going to fill it? You say 'runoff from the plot' - but how will you capture it, as it will soak down through & be lost either to the water table or to evaporation long before it gets to your pond - unless you lay half the plot to concrete 

Even a pond is not the most efficient, losing water to evaporation because of a high surface area / volume ratio. You're better off with containers - barrels / butts / or IBCs. These can be located at the point of collection (adjacent to the shed roof, for instance) or elsewhere on the plot & connected by pipe if necessary to avoid the need to carry water too far (but bear in mind, wherever you site them, you'll still need to carry it to the plants).

The biggest problem will be knowing how to maximise use of the available rainwater (everything you DON'T collect in the winter months, you'll wish you had come summer time). Look up monthly rainfall averages for your particular area & work out what volume that would give you from, say, October through to April from the area of shed roof you have available for collection. This will give you the amount of storage you should need, though it might be useful to allow, say, half as much again.

Supposing for the sake of argument (I don't know if it's realistic) that gives you 3000 litres. You might decide to go for, say, 4 x IBCs (4000 litres storage). You could connect these together to fill / draw simultaneously, but maybe fit valves between nos. 3 & 4 to prevent them filling until there's enough water to do so, as in a dry winter there may not be enough water available to fill them all. If you get to, say, January and the first two are full, then you could open the valves to the others in turn, to maximise your storage.

Just a thought 

[Alastair-I]

Supposing for the sake of argument (I don't know if it's realistic) that gives you 3000 litres. You might decide to go for, say, 4 x IBCs (4000 litres storage). You could connect these together to fill / draw simultaneously, but maybe fit valves between nos. 3 & 4 to prevent them filling until there's enough water to do so, as in a dry winter there may not be enough water available to fill them all. If you get to, say, January and the first two are full, then you could open the valves to the others in turn, to maximise your storage.

I always link water butts to over-spill into each other from high level.. any two butts that are linked at a low level will fill together, draw together.. but also leak together!

[Paul Plots]

Linking water butts is easy.

It could be done so all have the same level of water in them. Disadvantage to this is they will all be equally "low" when you most need to take water from them so over-spill is probably the best solution with linked water-butts.

Filling a pond from surface water where there isn't an exisiting natural pond is not a practical solution. If you did manage to fill it in the winter evaporation in the warmer months (as someone has already said) would leave you with an empty hole that needed topping up.

Someone with loads of money and their own land might consider a properly constructed sump for rain-water collection from the house roof. Lottery tickets needed. 

[trev_pulsecity]

I have no shed presently, and although I can have one I suspect it could be very quickly vandalised. So although I intend building one, I intend to find it on Freecycle or the like. I don't see any point paying out money to have something demolished or torched.

Once I have a shed I think the IBC's idea would work really well. As if the shed and IBC containers were at the top of the plot I could use a hose off them. They would definitely give more presure than my hot kitchen tap at home.

I would also like to find the IBC's as cheap as possible as knowing the area, I would not be suprised if Oik's came and split them.

[trev_pulsecity]

Slightly further from the topic, but still related.

I have found a stand pipe 300 metres from my plot, on the site.

I can't find / afford a hose pipe that long, any ideas?

I have seen trolley's that look like an extremely large galvanised jug on two pneumatic wheels with a metal frame, I could fill one either at my flat or the standpipe and push it to the plot. But where on earth do you buy one / what are they called, cant find one online anywhere.

[Paul Plots]

I think, if I were you, I'd talk to other people who have their plots on your site. Ask how they manage for water supplies.

When there hasn't been sufficient rainfall I top up my barrels with a hose but I hardly ever use one for watering my plots. I prefer to put the water exactly where I want it with a watering can.

Next time you see the trolley that looks like a galvanised jug wandering by I'd ask the owner where it came from. 

[trev_pulsecity]

It was mains water by the way. My dad did the get soaked test.

The jug like trolley was not on site, but at the school where my dad works as caretaker, used by the gardener, who has apparently ended up inside it head first on one occasion.

Not found out what it is called or where one can be got yet.

There is only three other plots on the site let, and 2 are only accessible from the back gardens of those tenants houses, I do keep an eye out for them in case I see them there to talk to, had no luck yet. I think they probably get the water from their houses/ back gardens though. The same might apply to the third plot but it is very well enclosed and doesn't seem to have been touched recently.

Off topic: Learner, did I see somewhere you made your own cycle trailer?

[Paul Plots]

It was mains water by the way. My dad did the get soaked test.

The jug like trolley was not on site, but at the school where my dad works as caretaker, used by the gardener, who has apparently ended up inside it head first on one occasion.

Not found out what it is called or where one can be got yet.

Off topic: Learner, did I see somewhere you made your own cycle trailer?

I didn't make my trailer - the biggest of the three types that we own was imported from Denmark. It can be folded flat to fit in a car (not that I have one) or for storage if space is limited. It holds 100kg (so would hold 100 litres of water in a container).

There are several trailers on the market but I think it is the largest and most robust also with the largest cargo weight.

I guess making one wouldn't be too much trouble and there are some designs on the internet. Biggest problem would be keeping the trailer light but strong. I have, on many occasions, exceeded the 100kg recommended cargo weight without problems. It's such a useful bit of kit I bought two - one for the plot and mucky jobs and another for weekly shopping and cleaner removals. 

How about this one? The bees knees but hellish expensive I bet!!

[ex-cavator]

I have seen trolley's that look like an extremely large galvanised jug on two pneumatic wheels with a metal frame, I could fill one either at my flat or the standpipe and push it to the plot. But where on earth do you buy one / what are they called, cant find one online anywhere.

Strangely, I saw one of these at a nursery today & thought what a brilliant idea it was - I'd never seen one before. But i was something rediculous like £150 or so 

As for the IBCs - try asking at a large water or sewage treatment works - they use them for various chemicals & often have old ones laying around