Polytunnel water source - rain water ?

Can't afford those. Mine are beer crates and laser printers (stripped out= laser printer frames on their side are excellent for this).

Don't put SUDS systems under greenhouses, unless you have an excavator to s= ink them deep. It's a royal PITA to have to work a greenhouse afterwards wi= thout breaking into them.

Otherwise don't use SUDS (and open-sided beer crates) for water recycling -= use barrels, linked top and bottom into tank farms. Put lids on them too = for later access (just cover with 2" of soil and remember where you left th= em) and put a submersible pump in the lowest barrel. Submersible pumps are = cheap and more reliable than anything inexpensive with decent lift.

Underground tanks? buried IBC containers?

Owain

In message , robgraham writes

Don't put a soak away under a part of the garden where you hope to grow vegetables. The soil will be over drained and crop poorly in a dry year.

I wouldn't bury IBCs. They aren't strong enough, and what strength they do have depends on their rustable steel cages.

If you bury barrels, and space them apart, you preserve most of the soil's mechanical strength. I wouldn't drive a truck over it, but you can at least push a wheelbarrow.

Many thanks guys for your info.

I've done some thinking and googling and come to the conclusion that the linkage won't work, mainly because I would have to put in a soakaway anyway to cope with the excess winter water (Scotland - lots of it!) which won't be used for watering the tunnel. And then the amount of work in installing a suitable tank, pump and electrics would exceed putting in a dedicated pipe from the house mains.

The point about a soakaway and growing things has concerned me a bit but 500mm of soil on top and under a path will resolve that.

Rob