rain barrel

I fitted one 100-litre butt under my shed gutter just to catch the summer rain: after the first storm, I understood what was going straight to the drain

by
I fitted one 100-litre butt under my shed gutter just to catch the summer rain: after the first storm, I understood what w...

A single summer downpour filled a 100-litre rain barrel to the brim in just fifteen minutes, exposing a startling reality: most homeowners have no idea how much water their roofs produce or where it vanishes. The math is simple but eye-opening, and the pollutants in that runoff reveal why capturing it matters more than you’d think.

My neighbour always stretches a fine mesh over his water butt in summer and it’s not to keep the leaves out

by
My neighbour always stretches a fine mesh over his water butt in summer and it's not to keep the leaves out

Your neighbor isn’t being overly cautious with that fine mesh stretched over his water butt—he’s preventing a mosquito breeding disaster. A single rain barrel can go from empty to an active swarm in just one week under summer conditions, and standard garden netting won’t stop it.