Some time ago I had a leaking metal water butt so fixed it with what seemed like the crude expedient of putting a couple of shovels of concrete in the bottom. Hey, it worked!
So when two more butts sprang leaks it seemed like the time to repeat the trick, but with mixed results this time. The metal butt has been completely repaired but the plastic one, which in truth is a discarded Sheffield Council wheelie bin, still leaks. I think the problem is that as the water fills the bin the plastic distorts and lets water out round the edge of the concrete plug. I may have to put a liner in it.
But for the moment I have six lovely, FULL, water butts and one empty one, and of the seven I only bought one in a shop. Now that's allotmenting!
But for the 3rd year running it's been me who has had to excavate the winter's silt from around the tap and hose connection so it is usable. The tap & hose connection are in a box set slightly below ground so it fills with silt in winter and has to be dug out. It's a grubby, dirty, uncomfortable job and some of the other plotholders on this site need to step up to their responsibilities a bit, methinks.
On plant-related matters, lest you think all I ever do is repair water butts & dig out silted up taps, the cherry is starting to flower, plum ditto, blackthorn has finished, lovage is rampant, asparagus is just starting to show and the grapes are on the point of bud-burst. Needless to say the weeds are "active" too!!
Horrible stuff. I'm not convinced I got it all so may need to go back and do it again, conscious that even then I probably won't get it all! The stuff at the end of the bed is sorrel, and it seems indestructible - probably because it bears more than a passing resemblance to dock.
9 comments:
ugh I feel like I spend most of my time digging out bindweed :/
Horrible stuff isn't it.
Do you ever get out all the bindweed.
As for other plotholders stepping up to sort out the silt - dream on - they can read the label on your forehead. In my experience if they see someone else will do it they retreat into the shadows ;)
Bindweed really is the pits, I've been fighting running battles with it since we took on our plot! Had to lift up a whole bunch of paving slabs to get at the awful stuff.
Do you cook with sorrel? I put it in salads, but haven't found a way to cook it that didn't result in an overly astringent result.
I think you're right Sue; no evidence of any of them emerging from the shadows! And, no, I'm reconciled to never getting all the bindweed out. It's particularly bad in that section because it didn't get properly dug last year, just "stirred" with a fork. What I sow, I reap!
Hi Lee. No I don't cook with the sorrel. I use it in salads, but sparingly. It's packed full of oxalic acid, hence the sharp vinegary taste, which I don't want to crystallise into calcium oxalate (aka kidney stones). I like a nice sharp salad but not so much that I want to give myself kidney stones!!
I bought two of my water butts...however none of mine are leaking!!! But I do only have 6 at the allotment. Glad you are getting that bindweed under control...though I suspect that we never really have a handle on it! Nice to see the blossoms coming out...lets just hope nop late frosts cause us to loose all our fruit!!
Himself's just done a major rejig of our water butts/old dustbins so that instead of 4 behind the greeenhouse (2 of which had to be filled by buckets from the 2 lower ones and I couldn't reach!) and one on the almost falling over black shed, we've now got a string of 3 connected ones behind the black shed and 2 at accessible ground level on the greenhouse. He's also bought a little Karcher pump which is strong enough to work our sprinkler...life is so much easier all of a sudden!
Hi Liz. Sorry to be slow in replying (distracted by this Facebook thing you know!). Your new water butt arrangement sounds just the ticket, and so much easier.
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