Taking on the job of a landscape designer, I thought it would be great if we could get the design rendered so that everyone could visualise what it would look like; and also a great way of clearly communicating to the landscaper what we wanted!
Many many thanks to Looking Glass Art for a great consultation and design session.
We love the result – matching so well with our Art Deco fan wallpaper!
What you need is a waterbutt that is up high enough to provide the gravity to put the necessary pressure onto the tubing of a micro irrigation system such as the one in the link from Watermate Irrigation. This is the height of the tap compared to the height of the tubing – so we are not talking about putting the butt on stilts, nor would we suggest butts on walls are that great idea (very heavy!).
BUT you also need to make sure your waterbutt water is filtered to avoid the micro irrigation system does not get blocked. I’ve been recommended ladies tights + o-rings. But I’ve also spotted a blog recommendation to use an inline fuel filter such as what you can find on ebay or with a lotus spare part!
…total solution does exist without having to contact Lotus…here are the parts needed to make a 10 stake-drip gravity system:
1x Water Butt (£75) – definately this one from B&Q
1x Electronic Timer (£16)
1 x Inline Filter (13mm) (£4.50)
1 x ladies tights and o-rings or cable ties
10 x Stake Drippers (£5.90)
Key Punch (£1.20)
Tap Adaptor (£1.19)
2 x End Plugs (£0.60)
4 x Elbow Connectors (£1.60)
1 x Tee Connector (£0.50)
15m supply pipe (13mm) (£8)
10m feeder pipe (4mm) (£4)
Recommended Retailers to make up your own kit are:
http://www.growell.co.uk/ or http://www.waterirrigation.co.uk
Total Project Cost = £125.
Alternatively, you could buy a Hozelock Kit such as this one off Amazon or B&Q:
http://www.hozelock.com/watering/auto-watering/sophisticated/micro-kits-183.html
…and just add tights and the inline filters….
The stockings are fitted on the inlet of the water butt, where your water diverter is attached, inside the water butt attach with cable ties around the nuts that are used to tighten up the tube into the butt. The reason we have been recommended to filter the water here is to keep the water in the butt as clean as possible; helping to prevent the build-up of bacteria. If dirt is allowed to accumulate in the water butt eventually it will wash out and block up any other filters in the system.
An additional filter is good back up though, and an extra level of filtration is good, hence the recommendation to buy an ‘inline’ filter which will be fitted to the supply pipe coming out of the butt.
We’ve been considering whether to convert our double garage into living space. But as well as the loss of space to play table-tennis and store our junk, what about our poor car in the winter. A little light research showed we could retrofit our car with a heater to get things warmed up without turning the engine on, as through this link here.
I bought some red dye and mixed it in with regular varnish, to great effect, the following online shop was great in terms of stocking the combination I wanted and very helpful on the ‘phone. Link here to Bromborough Paints…
Following some quick googling I found you could design for free using Autodesk Homestyler where I have been able to automatically generate renderings, 2D and 3D views and you can export to DWG too. The only shame is that the available furniture inside the app is quite American, with not enough for the UK and Europe with our smaller homes and dimensions!