The Water Pillow
Watering your garden can sometimes be a bit of a challenge so imagine trying to water a field full of thirsty veg and flowers. A couple of water butts just won’t do it, and the cost of water (even with all the rain) can be extortionate. This is why we have added a water pillow to our trial grounds here in Devon.
Quite rare in the UK, but very popular on the continent, a water pillow looks a bit like a flat bouncy castle but in fact collects water from the shed, tunnel and glasshouse roof and when required is pumped to the layout beds, tunnel and field irrigation systems.
The water storing pillow is 20.80m long, 11.84m wide and 1.5m high when full.
Capacity 300m3 – 300,000 litres
Hopefully, by collecting the water during the winter ( and other times if there is rain ) the pillow will save on environmental impact on the surrounding areas, drainage systems. All the rain we have had over the last few weeks has made the pillow pretty full already so we are in a good position for the spring season.
Additional to the pillow and the obligatory water butts there is also a large steel tank that holds 54,000 litres. This is mainly `clean’ water for the seedlings in the glass house, but can be used for all watering when needed. We can also put rain water in to it from the tunnel, which we could do later in the growing season, when there are no small seedlings.
