Most water butts come with all the essential parts, instructions and basic accessories to get you up and running - but there are plenty of other handy extras you can buy to really get the best out of your new water harvesting container.

Water butt connecting kits are available if you want to install more than one water butt to a downpipe.As a business journalist, Camilla has researched articles for many different sectors from the jewellery industry to finance and tech, charities, and the arts. Whatever she’s covered, she enjoys delving deep and learning the ins and out of different topics, then conveying her research within engaging content that informs the reader.

Place the water butt on its stand and using a spirit level, level it with the bottom of the hole and align it with the water pipe and draw a line. The morning and evening are the best times to water your plants as the water doesn’t evaporate in the heat of the day before it can reach the roots Camilla Sharman has worked in publishing and marketing for over 30 years and has covered a wide range of sectors within the business and consumer industries both as a feature, content, and freelance writer.Drill a hole in the side of the water butt, 8cm down from the top. The hole needs to be just the right size to fit the connector fitting of the diverter through. Fit the connector piece in place by pushing it through the hole you just drilled and screwing the supplied washer and nut on. Connected in this manner (as illustrated above), when the first water butt ( Butt 1) in the chain is full, water will start to flow into the second water butt ( Butt 2). It is essential that the water outlet from Butt 1 is below the height of the rainwater/greywater input (arriving from the diverter), and that it is also a couple of centimeters above the water input hole of Butt 2. You can either cut off the downpipe and place the water butt directly below it, with the cut-off pipe going through a hole in the lid, or you can install a rainwater diverter. This is often a better option as it means that an overflow pipe is not required, and it gives more flexibility for sitting the butt. If your water butt didn't come with a stand, or you made a do-it-yourself butt from an old plastic wheelie bin or other suitable container, there's the option to buy a stand separately. A stand is crucial to allow you fill a watering can or other water carrier below the tap on a butt. It will also help to create a tad more water pressure by way of gravitational force. Insert the diverter into the slot. The design of the rainwater diverter assures that your water butt will never overflow as any excess water will continue to flow into the downpipe.

Attach the diverter to the water butt with the piece of pipe supplied. Fit the lid onto the water butt and wait for it to rain! If you have a traditional cottage garden and don’t want a big plastic barrel to spoil the look, then you can buy genuine oak whiskey barrels. Plastic butts in the style of terracotta pots, stone containers and wooden barrels are also available. If you have a large roof and need to store a lot of water, you can connect two or more butts up together or invest in a really large storage tank. More and more homes are now fitted with a water meter, which means that they are now charged by the amount of water that is used rather than a flat rate. Although we think that we have plenty of water, with the dense concentration of population in the U.K., particularly in the South East, we have less water per person than most Mediterranean countries! Further water butts can be added to the chain in exactly the same way. Five 200 litre water butts connected in this way would give around 1,000 litres of water storage capacity for far less than the cost of one 1,000 litre water storage tank. There are also plenty of cleaning accessories available for cleaning the interior of a water butt. The products available to buy for reducing smells, scum, algae, harmful bacteria and green water come in liquid or tablet form. There are also silver and copper anti-microbial water cleaner discs which use industrial silver which is also found in water purifiers and other cleansing devices. These tablets can destroy fungal and micro-organisms and are also safe to use in ponds, fish tanks, horse troughs and bird baths.Connect the tank connector for the adapted into the top of the water butt (one washer inside, one washer outside). Your plants will certainly thank you for installing a butt, as rainwater is much better for plants than tap water. A water butt can be fitted to any downpipe where there is space to sit a container either directly underneath or nearby. They are easy and cheap to fit and can be an attractive feature in the garden. Choosing a Water Butt Let's not forget the old faithful watering can that's found in just about every garden in the UK - we feature several types of plastic and gavanised metal cans to cater for all your trips from you butt to your flower beds and greenhouse.