Does my butt look big in this?

With two scant weeks before the hosepipe ban comes into effect, my water butt arrived. Could I have an ordinary water butt? One that just collects the rainwater. No.

No. Because the garden is small, I felt that I needed to have a special water butt. One that said "class". So I ordered an oak barrel.

They've tried to deliver it for two days in a row but we were out. Today I stayed home and the thing came at around 9am. When I saw it being unloaded from the truck, I was afraid we wouldn't be able to get it through the front door. But that was fine - slid right through.

It was an interior door it got wedged in. But we found another way to get it outside and after forty minutes of wrestling (it's surprisingly heavy), we finally got it outside.

Here it is - straight from a bourbon distillery in the good old U.S. of A. (Sadly, sans bourbon.)



And if you ever wondered what the inside of a whiskey barrel looks like...here ya go.



I wish I could record the scent, it smelled like heaven. On hot days this summer, the garden should smell exactly like the inside of our house...our dream house.

_____

Anyway, the new water butt hardly makes up for the fact that we're having a hosepipe ban. Honestly, I don't get it.

Here's a picture of the reservoir capacitity across England and Wales just a month and a half ago. (Hat tip to elderrant)



Sure, Kent (Southern Water - in red) has a problem. But why do we in Thames Water area have to have a ban? Anyway, a reader said that she managed to get by on a water butt last year, except for the lawn, and I don't have a lawn. And I do recognise that rainwater is better for almost all of my plants - since the water here in London has so much limestone and I favor the plants like azaleas, rhododendron, camellias and the like...which are all acid loving.