No ifs - just butts!

From the archive, first published Tuesday 10th Apr 2007.

GREEN-FINGERED Terence Gandy rarely reaches for the taps when nurturing his prize-winning garden.

And it's all thanks to his network of water butts which he has been gathering for almost 40 years.

His hefty supply of water is stored in barrels, ranging in capacity from 27 to 350 litres, and he says he can store more than 1,000 litres of water at any one time.

Retired Mr Gandy said: "It was my mother who got me interested in gardening in the late 1950s and I've been exercising my green fingers ever since.

"But I only started collecting the water butts in the 1970s and now I've got 19.

"They are fed by rain water from the roof and I have a device indoors which lets me shut the feed to stop overflowing water flooding the garden."

Bosses at Essex and Suffolk Water, which manages nearby Hanningfield Reservoir and supplies all of south Essex's clean water, are delighted by his efforts.

Spokeswoman Claire Bishop said: "We are very pleased to hear Mr Gandy is being very water-wise in his garden by having this amount of water butts.

"It just goes to show you can still have a beautiful garden without overdoing it with your hosepipe."

Despite sparing all their Essex customers from hose pipe bans last year the company keeps urging others to follow Mr Gandy and be equally water-wise.

Mr Gandy, of Norsey View Drive, Billericay, could now star in the firm's water-wise campaign this year, but it has been suggested that even he could do a little more.

The firm states: "90,000 litres of rain fall on to a typical roof in any one year, that's enough to fill 473 water butts".

Mr Gandy can often be found in his garden as early as 6.30am and he spends up to three hours a day there and even longer in the spring and autumn.

He said: "The only time I ever need water from the tap is in the summer."

Mr Gandy won best large garden in the Billericay in Bloom competition.