Water storage in garden - how much?

[Caspianberg]

How much water do you have stored in garden in water butts?

Does anyone know if there’s a website or calculation to approximate how much we need based on garden size/ climate?

Garden is fairly large, sloped, and hot summer climate zone. We have one water butt that’s 350L but it was often empty last year due to lack of rain here, so ideally need them to fill up in spring and last a bit longer, topped up with occasional downpour . We have raised vegetable beds and fruit trees and bushes I mainly aim to water if no rain. Last year we had to use hose and mains more than I would like.

I have space to add larger tanks attached to main house down pipe. The biggest I have seen is around 800l, and can tag additional tanks on later as needed.

Rather depends where you are in the country. If south east, as much as possible! If north west, wouldn't worry as much.

Presuming you're in UK ...

If storing for a long time you need to be careful about cleaning (annually) and avoiding risks from stagnant water like listeria
Good guide on rhs website

www.rhs.org.uk/garden-jobs/water-collecting-storing-and-using

As to how much depends on the garden, what's planted in it, location and other factors

We've had 2 large ones for years (one diverting from the roof, one from the greenhouse roof) but are adding to this, this year as we have a huge plot and we struggled in the height of summer

No not uk. Southern alps. So hot summers, and they will need to be emptied in winter so not to freeze.

When our 350l butt is full, that’s only our 10 L watering can filled approx 35 times. And I easily fill 10-15 watering cans watering veg/ fruit bushes and trees. So only really 2 decent waterings worth. Most years it’s just dry for maybe 2 weeks, then rains overnight so garden watered and butt topped up. But last year we had about 3 months without a single rain shower.

So I was considering 1 of the 700-800l ones from main house roof, plus the one I already have. Just wondering if that’s way to much or too little still? I could fit 3-4 of the 700l in a row eventually if needed

Just checked and ours are currently 800l each but we have over an acre of garden

I have 4x220L water butts - I would have more (or a couple of 1m3 tanks) if my wife didn’t object to them. You can’t have too much imho. I enjoy watering the garden on a warm evening. My back garden is about 20m x 10m and the front is 10m x 12m. Both are lawned with borders on 3 sides.

Thanks both.
@wonkylegs how many 800l tanks do you have for an acre? Ours is about 1/3 acre I think (1500m2).

I accidentally bought a 60cm round planter during lockdown (unexpectedly large!) which according to online calculators can hold 150l or about 30 gallons of rainwater (just checked, was interesting to calculate). Last spring it was nearly full, thought between rains it would be enough for my tiny back garden, growing tomatoes, peas, corn, courgettes etc all in containers and it didn't even last until July in the end. I didn't realise just how dry especially the SE region can be.
Agree with PP you can never have too much capacity for storage!

@creamedcustard yes it’s surprising how quick it goes isn’t it?

It just seems like world over it’s getting drier and drier, it’s been pretty dry all winter also tbh. So I feel like it’s time to try and save water more whilst also trying to keep homegrown food alive. The water butts should last years and years

I have space to add larger tanks attached to main house down pipe.
I am no expert so can't really comment but I have heard it said that you want to site water containers near where you need to water i.e. you don't want to be collecting water at one end of the garden and lugging it to the other!

@Caspianberg we've got 2 but it's not really enough so planning more for the garage roof and shed.
We don't water most of the trees (only new ones) or grass only fruit & veg and flowers outside
Greenhouse is watered via a mains timed trickle feeder just for ease.

@senua
Makes a really good point
Our most used butt is the one attached to the greenhouse because it's at the right end of the garden, so we are adding another one up here on the shed.
Get a decent amount of rain in it from a surprisingly small roof.
We could put more on the house but we don't water that much down this end of the garden so less attractive

We are planning to install an underground rainwater harvesting tank that will be connected to the house downpipe. There's a small cover in the lawn that you lift and then attach a hose and an internal pump that then pumps the water. Would something like that be an option?

@Brieandbeetroot - yes I have seen we can add a pump to water butts to use hose for high up if needed. maybe adding an underground pipe from butts, up to a garden tap middle way up. I need to look at logistics of that. It would be far easier having a tap near raised beds if I can get the water but water there somehow.

Our current water butt is at the top of the garden attached to guttering from shed. But there’s no more space up there really.
Most of the raised beds are in the middle so it’s either up or down regardless.

We have just had a 1000 litre IBC installed near our house, it catches the rainfall runoff from an outbuilding.

The garden slopes down slightly, and the IBC is raised on pallets. We have attached a pipe which takes the water to a tap in my veg/flower garden, and the flow is very good.

We have 3 x 500l, two in parallel feeding off the house and one off the garage. I have three veggie beds as well as a lot of flowerbeds to water.

My garden rises towards the veggie beds. I have a slave water butt by the veggies which is fed by a length of hosepipe from the other butts, which is concealed at the bottom of the hedge. This works brilliantly but only because the relative heights of the master/slave enable the slave to fill up without overflowing.