Morning all! How goes it?

The first thing I want to talk about is water. Now, I don’t know about you, but I’ve found that every time I’ve used tap water my plants have hated it. Really, truly, thoroughly hated it. They’ll die, or they won’t bother to grow at all. It’s horrendous. I hate it, and they clearly do too.

Now, I don’t know how many of you will be reading from the UK, but here in Britain we’ve been having real problems with the water in recent years. It’s a combination of sketchy water companies + inadequate infrastructure + excess migration that will soon mean we won’t have enough water to sustain our population. The government is trying to catch up by building more reservoirs, but then, they’re trying to invest in more AI, which sucks up a lot of water…

So, with all that being said, here is my advice to you all:

Water security matters more than you think.

In Britain we’re so used to complaining about the rain and how miserable it is here that we don’t stop to think what it could be like to go without. But then, we have hosepipe bans every year. Our rivers are trickles compared to what they used to be. Our crops are struggling because one year the fields flood and the next they drought. We lack the infrastructure needed to ensure our water security is maintained.

And don’t even get me started on the sketchy horror show that is the water companies… For anyone interested, watch the Channel 4 docu-drama Dirty Business. It is grim.

Now, I’ve already made several mistakes with my waterbutt, but I at least have one in place. My current mistakes are:

• There’s only one
• It’s plastic
• It’s located on the wrong side of the house
• There’s no water pump/fountain system to stop mosquitos laying eggs
• It’s not drilled into anything

Now, the problem with having only one waterbutt is that it won’t collect anywhere near enough water for my household’s needs if we had water shortages. Ideally, I’d have several.

The issue with it being plastic is multifaceted. As you can see, it doesn’t have a lid on it, because the plastic has already warped. The lid won’t fit anymore. That’s a big problem. I check it regularly, and thank god that none of the local cats are interested in trying to jump in it. There’s also the concern that the plastic will inevitably decay and leave little microplastics in the water…

The waterbutt is also on the wrong side of the house because I’ve not yet been able to secure it down. We get strong winds and a lot of storms around here, strong enough to send trampolines and little sheds flying. If I want to move it, I need to get something to secure it in place.

The lack of a solar-powered water pump is also my bad. Call it laziness or lack of priorities, but I’ve just not done it yet.

I’ve also not drilled it into anything as, as per the strict rental rules, it’s not allowed. Which sucks massively.

My advice RE waterbutts is simple:

• Optimise location
• Optimise numbers
• Optimise materials
• Limit opportunities for pests to lay eggs.

The ideal would be to have several old whisky barrels. The whisky fumes keeps it clean, they’re sturdy, they’re already great at holding liquid, they’re wooden (eco-friendly and health-friendly), and they have built in taps. Have something like 10 of those around the edge of your house or garden and you’re in a far better position than most.