Water Butt #2

A few days ago I bought the second waterbutt to go next to the shed. I still need to put guttering on the shed to actually collect the water, but the main task was clearing out the ground at the end of the shed.

There was a lot of mess that had been left by the previous occupants. I moved some large pieces of wood from behind the shed, and some bags of 'stuff'.


There was also a mound of 'maybe soil' at the end of the path along side the shed. This is ultimately where I wanted to put the water butt.


The stuff in the bags turned out to be more slate chippings, some very muddy soil with a brick in the middle, and general yuckyness. The pile at the end that I hoped would be soil with some chippings in it, turned out to be a large pile of chippings with some soil in it.


I started by clearing all the things from the bags away and cleared much of the pile of chippings back. As I was clearing this I came across many worms which I carefully moved into my veg beds to help with the working in of the manure. I then put a board across where I wanted the edge to be and filled it with chippings.


This extended round behind the shed for another couple of feet and managed to use up all but a couple of buckets of the chippings. I then covered it with some of the blue bags of soil left over from the sifting of the veg beds. And then started to build up the front of the board with some of the large stones that I'd taken out of the veg beds originally (and which had been having a temporary home under the arbour).


Next I built the stones up some more and put the remaining wooden posts across. They didn't quite reach all of the way, so I made the left end up with some more stones. I then filled this area with more soil and built a small raised area of soil on the right side so it was roughly level with the railway sleeper.


I then put in the water butt and its overflow. I'm not expecting to get much from the shed roof - only half is even in the open as the rest is covered by trees, but its the principle of it.


I still need to level them up at some point - probably just before putting the guttering on the shed - but that'll do for now as it means I've tidies the areas behind and next to the shed. I've also managed to use up a lot of my leftover soil, chippings, posts and large rocks, which is great.


Finally I put a load of soil in amongst the rocks to try and bed them in a bit, but made sure that the rock imediately below the water butt's tap was removable so that I can create a space for a watering can when I need it :)

A lot more effort then the photos may make it look - but as well as getting the water butts in place, it's just so much tidier now and there aren't any dumping grounds still left, which feels great.