DIY watering system?

Hello and welcome to the forum Russfire

I use a low pressure drip system fed from a water butt, bought from this company:

http://www.watermate.co.uk/Rainwater-Irrigation/Soft-Rain-Gravity-Flow-p50.html

I bought extra bits to extend the basic £20 set for two greenhouses and some outdoor plants. I like this company, I've seen them demonstrate their products at garden shows and their web site has lots of ideas (with pumped systems as well when you have no head).

An ordinary water timer that is designed to connect to a mains pressure tap will not work on a water butt (I've tried it). You need a low pressure model, there are not that many around. I've got one made by Darlec (bought second hand off ebay for about 1/2 the RRP)

My system works well, the drippers are well made and easily adjustable, I've had the system for 3 years now without any trouble. I use two seperate drippers on each pot just in case one stops working/gets clogged whilst I'm away on holiday.

Being gravity fed you obviously rely on having the butt higher than the drippers, that's easy for me as my garden is all on a slope, I reckon you would need a couple of feet minimum but that's just a gut feeling.

My only concern is that it could get clogged by the crud that accumulates in the water butt collected from the greenhouse. I re-fill my butt with clean mains water. You could rig up a filter (or maybe you can buy them) to avoid the potential problem.