No ifs, no buts - butt

This post's for Rose and all of you on the other side of the pond who've been rather puzzled when I refer to my water butt. I'm not being rude as over here I'm not talking about cigarette ends or my bottom, though NAH says I talk out of the latter sometimes. It's simply a way of storing water. This one's on my allotment, about half way down the plot. I'm the furthest point away from 2 water standpipes and as my plot's on a slope, I choose to fill my butt up from time to time and water from a central point on my plot instead. Much easier! It also means I have a water supply over winter when the standpipes are turned off.

One of the projects on my ever growing list is to fix up some guttering on my shed, so that I can use rainwater instead of the limey tapwater supplied. This means I'll be able to water my blueberries using my butt instead of leaving out washbowls to collect the rain for these. However, before I can do that, I've either got to move my second largest compost heap or get rid of half a plotfull of nettles that my plot next door neighbour is growing on the other side of the shed. If I did the latter I'd technically be putting the butt on his plot, so it looks like moving the compost heap might be my chosen solution. Then there's getting the guttering and fixing it to the shed so that the shed doesn't fall down etc. etc. *Sigh*

Thanks to those of you who've left supportive comments re the state of my allotment. I'm afraid there's still work to be done. One of the results of the weedkiller on my nettles incident is that a whole new pile of rubbish has been uncovered from the time before I got my plot :( Plus the weeds are growing ever taller :( And I've got plots to prepare and stuff to plant :) I've also had a word with Mr Allotment Warden and clarified what's needed to be done - unfortunately it includes my drying rack (which you can see in the picture above - behind my butt!), something I inherited with my plot and I find very useful at onion and garlic drying time. However, the plot is looking a lot better and fingers crossed we don't get the bad weather that's forecast for the rest of the week, so I can crack on with what's left to do.

It also looks like I'll be getting a swanky new water tank for my garden. NAH's just agreed that a 555 litre (approx. 110 gallons) one would be just the thing to go down one of the paths at the side of the house. I have a 190 litre (40 gallon) one similar to my allotment butt in the back garden at the moment, which lasts about a week when we have dry spells. The larger tank will also mean I can be extremely generous with my watering instead of the measly measures I usually give my plants. The garden's noticeably more lush this year owing to last year's rain - I'm aiming to keep it that way.

Comments

  1. Monica the Garden Faerie28 May 2008 at 03:10

    I like your water butt--is butt short for something? Also love your red bell shoes in the previous post. Do they keep you from sneaking up on mice and birds, then? ;-)
    ~ Monica

    ReplyDelete
  2. Rose28 May 2008 at 04:04

    VP, Thanks so much for explaining this for me! I didn't want to seem impolite in asking what a water butt was, but you can imagine the images that were going through my head when I first saw that term:)
    I've always been interested in language and the different expressions used in English-speaking countries. I'm a big fan of Martha Grimes' mysteries, and it took me years to figure out what a digestive biscuit was or a jumper. Of course, that's still easier to catch on to compared to understanding teenagers' slang.

    Your water butt looks like a very practical solution, but I hope you can get gutters on your shed. And bravo to NAH for agreeing to a new water tank. I have a long list for my husband, Mr. Procrastinator, but it may take awhile to get them done.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Zoë28 May 2008 at 09:50

    I keep meaning to connect a water butt or 2 to the cottage's down pipes, but I an struggling to find any that arent too utilitarian; they stand out like sore thumbs on the white render. I know too fussy by half.

    You asked about how I was going to celebrate 50. The plan is to go to SA as it will then be their spring, and split our time between a jaunt around the Kruger National Park, and then onto Kirstenbosch and the Fynbos, which will hopefully be in full flower by then. All health permitting though, everything is on standby at the mo :(

    I love that you still have traditional celebrations in Chippenham, so often our culture seems to be disappearing. Its one thing I love about being here too, all the old English customs are protected, Wassailing and Mummers plays are fun in the New Year, as are the barmy Morris Men who dance up and down the A30 much to the consternation of commuters at the Christmas Fair and Market!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Esther Montgomery28 May 2008 at 10:46

    'Allotment Warden'!

    Sounds like the chap in 'Dad's Army'!

    If he gets too pernickety he'll take the fun out of it.

    There are several allotment sites round here - and they each have a particular atmosphere.

    I like the ones which are relaxed without being overgrown. I thoroughly dislike those which are so neat and regimented they have become a vegetarian version of factory farming.

    There's more to growing vegetables than 'growing food'.

    Esther Montgomery
    ESTHER IN THE GARDEN

    ReplyDelete
  5. themanicgardener28 May 2008 at 19:26

    I've got an inadvertant water butt under a downspout; it's one of the big Jack Daniels casks sold (in halves) at local gardening stores for (major) container gardening. Reading your post, though, makes me realize that I should set one up on the north, where the water just goes where it wants to (horrors!) and where it would be in the shade, & less vulnerable to evaporation. (I don't have covers. Hmm. Now there's a project. As if I didn't already have plenty. Thanks, VP.
    --kate

    ReplyDelete
  6. Mr. McGregor's Daughter28 May 2008 at 20:30

    My, my, this post is getting naughty with all this talk of "butts" and "racks." ;^) I'm so glad I don't have to deal with an "Allotment Warden." (Me & authority figures just don't mix.) Maybe you should offer the Warden chocolates & homemade bicuits at the next review.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Matron29 May 2008 at 07:57

    My niece is American but she was born in England. Her school were doing a project on how to conserve resources so she told the class about our water butt - the teacher thought she was being rude and accused her of making it up. I had to take a photo and email it to her for the teacher to make an apology!!

    ReplyDelete
  8. HappyMouffetard29 May 2008 at 19:27

    I think you'll find this is a water butt...
    http://www.waterbutts.com/Butt/index.html

    ReplyDelete
  9. VP3 June 2008 at 12:10

    TGF - I don't think it's short for anything. Unfortunately the shoes aren't mine - could be an idea for the cats though!

    Rose - only too glad to help!

    Zoe - checkout the butt at the bottom of my post! Your trip sounds fab - much jealousy here. I hope they closed the A30 before they started Morris dancing!

    Esther - our site is usually very relaxing as it's usually only me there!

    Kate - I like the idea of your JD butt. They sometimes sell whisky casks over here for the same purpose.

    MMD - hmmm, must go and look up rack in my American dictionary...

    Matron - I love your story!

    HM - I've put a link for you back at your place...

    ReplyDelete
  10. themanicgardener3 June 2008 at 22:43

    VP, I suspect most dictionaries won't help with MMD's use of "rack"; you need a slang dictionary. But surely "Check out the rack on that babe" isn't exclusively American?
    --kate

    ReplyDelete
  11. VP23 June 2008 at 20:51

    Kate - thanks for clearing that one up!

    ReplyDelete
  12. themanicgardener24 June 2008 at 05:31

    Any time, VP. My store of crude Americanisms is yours to command.
    --Kate

    ReplyDelete
  13. VP2 July 2008 at 20:03

    MG - You're on!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

I love hearing from you and welcome thoughtful conversations :)

Comments aiming to link back and give credence to commercial websites will be composted!

Your essential reads

That blue flower: A spring spotter's guide

Image
Spring is a prime time for blue flowers and my daily walks currently have several from the same plant family* lining the local footpaths. As I walked past the Donkey Field the other day, I overheard some children ask their parents** what the pictured blue flower was. It reminded me it's often mistaken for those other familial blues and this time was no different, as they said it was forget-me-not, instead of the green alkanet it actually is. As well as similar flowers, most of these plants are hairy in their nature, flower around the same time, and favour damp, shady places. Many of them are great for pollinators too, especially bees and this week's warm weather has certainly drawn them to these flowers. This makes it even more likely for these plants to be mistaken for each other and it's a great opportunity for me to put together a spotter's guide in case you find the same flowers on your outings. Staying with green alkanet, the key features which set it
Read more

Jack Go To Bed At Noon

Image
Last year this rather exotic looking flower appeared on mine and several other allotments for the first time. Having been stumped (again) by Mr Allotment Warden as to its identity, I rushed home to find out what it was. It's salsify, aka the marvellous Jack Go To Bed At Noon - named as such because its flowers always close by midday. Here you can see both open and closed flowers - making it seem even more exotic and alien than in the first picture. I think this must be the cultivated version because the flower in my Francis Rose Wild Flower Key looks exactly the same in form, but is bright yellow in colour and called meadow salsify . Its other common name is Goatsbeard, which must be a nod to the fantastic dandelion-like clock which forms the seed head. With 'parachutes' like those shown above, who knows how far our plotted plants came from. I rather like the photographic dissection of the seedhead found in this link . Salsify is edible: its lateral shoots and fl
Read more

Salad Days: Mastering Lettuce

Image
I've decided one of my salad challenges for this year is to grow as many lettuce varieties as I can, ready for the publication of my planned Factsheet* later on. The idea is to grow as many of the Tried and Trusted lettuce varieties last year's Salad Challengers helped compile, then provide a visual guide and as many lettuce facts as I can muster. So far I've found around half of those listed**. Then naturally whilst I was out searching - because such is the way with seeds - a number of other varieties found their way home too ;) A couple of weeks ago I sowed 22 varieties***. Just the simple act of sowing them has me intrigued. Why are some lettuce seeds black and others white****? They split into about half white to half black in my sample and as far as I can tell it's nothing to do with whether they're a type of cos, iceberg, or whatever. I sowed them indoors and popped them into a propagator on the windowsill. The soil's too cold outside for sowing
Read more

Red Nose Day - Gardening Jokes Anyone?

Image
The nation goes ever so slightly bonkers on Red Nose Day - hurrah! Previously, it's been very easy to join in - usually via a dress down day at work plus lots of people up to mad things at the station and in the office. Everyone smiling for once - it's a real feel good day and all in a good cause. This year's different - every day's a dress down day for me now - my friend L suggested yesterday that perhaps I could have a dress up day instead and whilst that's a good idea, I confess that ballgowns and tiaras don't really feature in my wardrobe: scruffy student's always been my favourite look. So my Red Nose Day contribution for this year is to compile a list of gardening related jokes. For each one (clean ones only please) you leave in the comments below, I'll make a donation of 50p to the cause. Here's a few for starters just to get you warmed up: Q Why do potatoes make good detectives? A Because they keep their eyes peeled. Q What did the grape
Read more

VPs VIPs: Derry Watkins of Special Plants

Image
Last week I had the pleasure of visiting Derry Watkins at her home, garden and nursery - the acclaimed Special Plants - just a few miles along the road from me. I first met Derry at one of her open garden days last year and was keen to find out more about her wonderful garden and running an independent nursery. She specialises in tender perennials and regularly goes on plant hunting trips to find new treasures, particularly in South Africa. As well as running Special Plants and opening her garden under the NGS scheme , Derry holds day courses at her nursery, hosts Special Tuesdays from April until September, lectures and has written a couple of books. How did you find your way from Connecticut to the UK? I'd started a biodynamic vegetable garden in Connecticut and we used to have people come along at weekends to help out. A particular young man turned up: he returned many times and at the end of the summer I married him. So it was all down to love? Isn't that the
Read more

The Resilient Garden

Image
  Part of Tom Massey's Resilient Garden at RHS Hampton Court I've been pondering VP Gardens a lot lately. Last year's drought conditions set me off initially, then our harsher than usual winter combined with this summer's flip and flop weather means the thinking continues. It's a huge topic which I freely admit I'm struggling to get my head around. Tom Massey's Resilient Garden  at Hampton Court recently  tackled this topic brilliantly and was a timely interlude which gave me much food for thought. There he encapsulated the detailed research he'd found which informed both his show garden and book of the same name. I think it's one of the most important show gardens I've ever seen. It's clear the way I garden needs to change so that I have my own resilient garden. I haven't worked out the exact details yet, but Tom's book plus a couple of others (see below), alongside the rainwater management handout from the show garden's  sponso
Read more

#mygardenrightnow: heading into summer with the Chelsea Fringe

Image
Ahhhhhh, that's better! I love walking through dewy grass in bare feet, not that there's much in the way of grass on my back lawn this weekend. My wild and woolly lawn has morphed into meadow of sorts this month, which even NAH admits looks attractive*. It's also proved a great source for my Flowers for mum project so far, yielding self-sown perennial cornflowers, lamb's ears, and lemon balm in addition to the blooms you can see. These originated from elsewhere in the garden, the ox-eye daisies must have blown in from the A350 nearby. * = he got very stroppy about the weeds aka self-sown foxgloves in the lawn one year, so he's come along a bit since then. Skimble's demanding to say hello to you too. He does enjoy the patio when it warms up. If the embedded video doesn't work try this link instead. The Nectaroscordum are a revelation. I planted the bulbs around 2 years ago, but it's only this year they've bloomed properly. The bee
Read more

Testing Times: Tomatoes

Image
  I've run a couple of tomato trials this year. The first is a revisit of the biochar trial with Oxford University I attempted some years ago (with a different organisation this time), and the second is a trial of a water gadget called Plantsurge which I was given to try at Malvern Spring Show earlier this year. Most of you have probably heard of biochar already and the claim that this inert, carbon-rich material can help soil fertility and plant health. The RHS information in the above link says results can be mixed, with reduced effects found in alkaline soils. This may help to explain the lack of difference I found in my previous trial as VP Gardens is on a lime-rich soil. Plantsurge is a different beast altogether. It's a strong magnet which is attached to a hosepipe as shown in the photo above. It's claimed that it softens water, with the result more like watering with rainwater. The higher nitrogen found in rainwater is thought to be beneficial to plants. Gardener
Read more

Chelsea Fringe 2014: Shows of Hands - Episode I

Image
The gloves NAH used to build the raised bed . The effects are L to R, top to bottom:  Original photo, Warhol, HDR, Green tint, B&W, Posterize, Boost, Cross process and Sepia Welcome to Shows of Hands - my Chelsea Fringe project for 2014! As you can see I've been having a bit of a play around in Pic Monkey for my first contribution. You're welcome to join in between now and 8th June 2014. The idea behind this year's project is to highlight the tool most precious to a gardener: their hands. How do I take part? It's simple. All you need to do is take a photo of hand(s) in a gardening context and then share it via your blog or other social media (such as Twitter or Facebook), then make sure I know you've done so. I've set up Mr Linky below for your blog contributions. The Chelsea Fringe photo on the right sidebar links to this post, so you can easily find it again when you're ready to add your contribution. If you share your photo on Twitter,
Read more

Make Use of Mildew

Image
On my garden patrol this morning I spotted some powdery mildew on a couple of my new Verbena bonariensis plants. I suppose it was almost inevitable as I prefer to grow my plants hard - this means no water for them unless they look absolutely desperate. This approach means plants root themselves more deeply and have a better chance of survival during spells of dry weather like we've had lately. However, it also means I run the risk of problems like today's, especially with any garden newbies planted late in the season. We've had a good drop of rain overnight, so this should help my plants survive. I'll mulch them later today to help lock in the moisture as it's water stress which encourages the mildew to take hold. I've also removed the infected leaves and sprayed the rest with a milky drink.* I'm also pleased to find there's a use for my infected leaves. Oliver Ellingham at Reading University has started a PhD - sponsored by the RHS - researchi
Read more