News

Good news! After months of being unavailable the 350 litre water butt can now be ordered. This water butt is sold as a 350, a double 700 litres, and treble 1050 litres kit, all great for larger gardens. Also, before it went out of stock in the summer, there was quite a lot of restrictions for the delivery of this size barrel, and it could be delivered to part of England. This is now thankfully over, and they can be delivered all over GB once again.

https://gardenis.co.uk/collections/grow-your-own/products/large-350-litre-water-butt-kit

Raw sewage is pouring into our rivers and coastal waters regularly, all across the country. The government got a lot of backlash this week when it voted down an amendment to the Environment Bill, that would have demanded water companies stop releasing sewage into our waters on a regular basis.

I've learnt quite a bit this week about the issue, and one thing stands out is that a major reason for the sewage releases is that the pipes can't cope after heavy rain, so the sewage is released into rivers, otherwise it would start flooding out onto residential streets from manholes. This is because the rainwater shares the same pipes as the sewage. I have made another post a month or so ago about how water butts can help prevent flash floods, and clearly they are a solution in reducing the chance of sewage spills. This is because, using my original example, of a 10,000 homes, if each are fitted with a 200 litre double water butt kit (the bestseller), then that would hold 2 Olympic swimming pools worth of water, after heavy rain. This means that all that rainwater is not going straight into the sewers, so it reduces the chance they will fill so quick, resulting in a raw sewage release into the rivers and coastal seas. 

I have not heard anyone mention this as a quick and easy solution to help the problem. Considering raw sewage is not just poop and wee, but anything that goes down the drains, including bleach, household cleaners, hair dye, medicines etc, it's a massive issue. Only 14% of English rivers are classed as being in a good ecological standard, according to the Ennvironment Agency in 2020. Yet another good reason to buy a water butt!

Weeds are simply wildflowers growing in gardens, that gardeners don't want. Some get sprayed, others get pulled, so you might not even ever see them in flower. So, here is some wildlfowers in August. These are typical are what you might find in any grass verge on a country lane. As you can see, some are quite pretty. Next year, perhaps leave a small part of your garden to grow wild and see what shows up (for example behind the garden shed), and these native plants are great for bees and butterflies.

Autumn officially began on the 22nd September, here in Britain. So here is a last look at some late summer flowers. Still some Dahlias and Chrysanthenums in gardens, but things are certainly turning autumnal shades and summer flowers are being thrown in the compost bin, where they will slowly decompose to create soil for next years flowers.

 

Good news! The greenhouses and most of the smaller storage sheds, ideal for lawnmowers, bikes etc, are available again this month, after being unavailable for months. Unfortunately, the prices have increased quite a bit compared to early 2020 as there has been 3 manufacturer price rises due to the price of timber, which has rocketed since the pandemic began.

Unfortunately the price of water butts and composters will be going up in price this weekend. For the last few years the price has remained the same, but now the manufacturer has increased prices due to the cost of plastic rising, and also the delivery companies that deliver these products have recently increased their prices.

So, if you are looking at the water butts now, and think you will wait a few days, please consider ordering now so you can buy at the current price.

For a while now it has not been possible to deliver the 330 litre composters to South West England, Scotland or Wales. The good news is the haulier is now delivering again to the South West England region, so if you live there, you can now order one if you want. Unfortunately delivery is still not possible to Scotland or Wales, but it is likely this will be possible by the end of summer. (330 litre composters have never been delivered to Northern Ireland).

https://www.gardenis.co.uk/products/220-litre-green-plastic-composter

In recent days there has been flash floods in the London area and serious flooding in Germany and Belgium. Water butts if widely used in an area can slow water going into drains considerably....

You might have heard about the concept of turning garden lawned areas into 'mini wildflower meadows', where wildflowers are grown to help bees and butterflies. A great way to make your garden more wildlife friendly. Gardenis.co.uk already sells preformed ponds and wildlife pond liner pond kits that are popular, so I thought I'd create a new mini wetland kit, which can help create an area in your garden that resembles a small wetland. It includes

1 small preformed pond

1 medium preformed pond

1 4x3m pond liner

The two preformed ponds can be used to create deeper pools. The pond liner rather than be used to create a deeper pond can be placed in a hole of about 10cm with gravel, logs and rocks to create a shallow area. Alternatively the liner can be cut in half, with one half used for a shallow area, and the other to create a bog garden, by digging a hole of about 15cm deep, placing the liner in, then covering with soil, then plant pond marginal plants. The liner will help keep the soil marshy. Add a variety of native marginal and pond plants, and before long the mini wetland will attract aquatic insects, birds and possibly frogs, newts, toads and dragonflies. The kit can be ordered here;

https://gardenis.co.uk/collections/pond-water-features/products/mini-wetland-kit