In Praise of water butts.

 It's summer, and all the lovely summer rain is a timely reminder that one day soon, there will be another hosepipe ban (!) so now is a good time to look at your water collection arrangements.

 

 

I've had several questions on this topic, unsurprisingly: and everyone with any sort of house has room for at least one water butt - I have six, on my small house (but then, I am a bit evangelical on the subject) - so here is what you need:

1) a downpipe

2) a rainwater diverter kit

3) a water butt

4) a stand: they usually come with a 3-part plastic stand.

5) a spirit level

6) a fine-cut saw (or a helpful neighbour) to cut the downpipe

Put the stand next to the downpipe, make sure it is level and on a firm base (a single concrete path slab is perfect), sit the empty water butt on top of it and look at where the inlet is - the only tricky part of the job is getting the diverter at exactly the right height...

 

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Berberis: I have nothing good to say about it.

As a garden owner, there are some plants I dislike, and won't have in my garden - not just the obvious ones such as Ground Elder and other spreading weeds: proper plants, which other people love and cherish, but which I would put straight in the green waste bin, ie not even worth composting.

And as you know (because I am always going on about it), I love composting, and am evangelical about the subject. So for me to reject something from the compost pen, it must be bad! ("In my opinion...")

Euphorbia is one of those: ugh, shudder, horrible things: I don't find them attractive, the so-called flowers (actually, bracts) are like sinister little satellite dishes, watching me... I would swear that they turn on their stems, to follow me round the garden..... and they all contain rather nasty sap (latex) which many people find to be a skin irritant, and which, if you get it in your eye, means a trip to the hospital. Nasty stuff. So I won't have them in my garden, and I won't have them on my compost, either.

Forget-me-Not are also on that list: I don't find the flowers particularly attractive, although I will concede that after a spring full of yellow, it is quite nice to see some blue... but there are other blue flowers to be had, which are much more manageable, which don't spread all over the entire garden, and which don't leave my entire body covered in seeds:

 

Talking about blue flowers in spring, I also won't ever have this in my garden, either:....

 

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Tools: they don't make 'em like they used to...

 

Yes, I know everyone says this... but honestly, they don't.

As a professional gardener, I had the same border fork and spade for over ten years, in daily use, and they were old when I inherited them from a much-loved Grandfather. (Not mine, someone else's, long story.)

Foolishly, I over-used the fork one day and bent the tines, so I had to buy a replacement, but I didn't like it very much, the handle was not very nice, so I found, in a Client's old shed, a border fork with a broken handle, and they were kind enough to give it to me. I took off the handle, learning a new skill as I did so ("How To Drill Out Rivets"), trimmed the handle on my own one to fit, and lo! and behold:

 It's back! I had my dear little border fork back!

Alas, two months later: .....

 

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