Back in the 1970's, my grandfather had a simple rain barrel connected to the gutters on his house which he would use to collect water for the vegetable garden. It was simple in the sense that it was a 50 gallon metal drum with a wooden board over the top. The rain gutter simply emptied into the barrel and the barrel was allowed to simply overflow when full. Using the water in the barrel was a matter of removing the top and dipping a watering can in the water.
I recently came across this video on youtube.com on how to make a rain barrel from scratch:
How to Build a Rain Barrel
and here is a video from a company which sells ready made rain barrels and / or the parts you would need to build one:
Aquabarrel.com
both of which are a lot more sophisticated than what my grandfather had.
While I don't at all mind watering the vegetable garden, as this will eventually be eaten as food, I've always been reluctant to water the lawn as frequently as it needs it as using all that water just to keep a lawn green seemed wasteful. The rain barrel seems like a good solution to keeping the lawn green during the summer and the initial start up per barrel cost that is only slightly higher than my quarterly water bill.
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Best lettuce!
3 months ago
Yay, rainbarrels...I just purchased one and hope to have it hooked up soon. :-)
ReplyDeleteI'd love to hear back how it works out. The video makes it look easy and simple to use, but nothing beats hearing real stories of the product in action.
ReplyDeleteWell...I purchased one already made and just need to hook it up to my down spout. I looked all over for a barrel but the only one I could find was from a store that resells them and they wanted more than a local person who makes a complete rainbarrel and sells them for $49 & $59 depending on the barrel you pick. I do want to make one though, and now that I've seen a video and have one myself if the chance permits I'll make one and attach it to the one I've already got.
ReplyDelete$59 is a great deal. Most of the sites I've seen want that much for an empty barrel and by the time you factor in the other pieces or buy one complete, the price is over $100.
ReplyDelete