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Hi,
I've just joined this forum and have questions about a water
butt which fit in with some of this discussion so I wondered if anyone could
help.
I've just got a water butt and haven't fitted it yet. The problem I have is that the pipe I thought
to be the down pipe from the roof turned out not to be that (I am blind and
when someone looked at it for me they said that pipe comes from upstairs' bathroom,
not the roof). Anyhow so basically the
place where I'd fit it if I connected it to the down pipe is right by my front
door and given that I'm also a wheelchair user it may be tricky for me to
squeeze past the butt. There is also a
slight slope out there and I worry that the butt may not stand up properly even
though it comes with a stand, I'm not convinced it's a good idea and worry it
will fall over and pull the whole down pipe with it.
So I'm thinking instead of connecting to the down pipe why not
just leave it standing on my patio with no lid and collect water that way? From what I have read I understand there could
be three problems with this. 1) birds falling
in, 2) algae and 3) mozzies and various creatures breeding in the butt.
1) For birds falling in - if I cover it securely with fine mesh
of some sort would that be ok? If so where
would I buy that sort of mesh and what specific material/product am I looking for?
2) I am in two minds as to whether algae actually matters. People seem divided about this. Any thoughts? I certainly wouldn’t use the water on seedlings.
3) For the mozzies and the algae I have read that getting a goldfish
could help. I could do this but wonder –
when you fill a watering can from the butt could the fish get into the can as well?
Do you just have to keep an eye on it and
make sure the fish doesn’t get put out of your can onto the plants? If so I’ll just have to have a feel around in there
and make sure there aren’t any fish. Or perhaps
the fish can’t escape – I actually don’t have a watering can at the moment I use
milk bottles filled up with tap water; but from what I remember last time I felt a watering can they have sprinklers
and a fish couldn’t get through there anyway. So maybe I’d fill up the can, sprinkle the plants
and empty any left over into the butt?
I suppose the algae and the mozzies/breeding things can cause
the bad smell but I could try the various cleaning methods people talk about here.
Any thoughts on any of this would be welcome :-)
Thanks
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