Rain barrels - Rain collection

In follow-up to my previous post awhile back, I did end up using the water from my rainbarrel for the gardens and the water was fine and so were my plants. Therefore, I will use the rainbarrel again this spring.

I love using rain barrels. I only have one but wish I had more. One thing you might want to try, if you can do it, is to go to a Home Depot type store and time it so you're buying the last one. I got mine for $15 two years ago at the end of the season. I've had no problems with it at all. It's a 48 gallon container and it might fill up with one decent rain/snow.

I'd love to collect rain and snow, unfortunately collecting it is illegal here in Colorado.

I knew that Rooster-what an total bummer!

Snibb at this point I would be happy if it just rained or snowed lol.
I've seen people do it right out in the open and obviously get away with it and I've known others who have actually been warned.

Wow-one state over and you guys have had such a different winter than we've had.

snibb wrote:Wow-one state over and you guys have had such a different winter than we've had.

I wonder if it's that big rock wall?

Dunkinjean wrote:In follow-up to my previous post awhile back, I did end up using the water from my rainbarrel for the gardens and the water was fine and so were my plants. Therefore, I will use the rainbarrel again this spring.

Jean, that's great! How are you getting water from the barrel to the garden?

I have a hose attached to the rainbarrel; keep in mind that the flow of water is very slow but that is a good thing in a SFG garden!

Of course right now the rainbarrel is in hibernation.....

Thanks for the feedback! We had one spell of unusually cold weather here...22 degrees f at night. That is probably a record. I've been here about 6 years, my Mom about 8, my sister was here since 97..nothing lower than 28 or 29 at night maybe 2 nights a year. It usually frosts and hovers around 32 for a few hours at night, at the lowest. AND..it warms up during the day to the 40's. My pipes did freeze that one 22 degree night..no breakage that we are aware of...we are now going back into a 32-36 degree low cycle, with 50's daytime.

I could easily put one of those foam things over the spigot, and put something around the tube. We have very wide eaves on this 1966 house..and we have potted palms and citrus and such tucked up against the house during the winter. They need to be watered, so I was thinking I would be using the rain barrel water during the winter anyway.

I have seen various styles of rain barrels..the kind where there is a diverter (sounds good to me!) and some where you run your downspout right into the top. I'm thinking the diverter might be the way to go for me..what are your opinions? I have 6 downspouts that I can put barrels on where they won't be in the way of a walkway or driveway.

I really want to try one on the side of the house where it won't be visible..just a bit scared about cutting into our old metal downspouts. We have a gutterless system, the roof is a low pitch (mid century modern style house) and I'm not exactly sure what happens if I have to replace a downspout because I messed it up! These aren't the new vinyl kind..they are the old metal kind in very good condition.

Turnip

I've never seen this idea before on any forum: seems it could be functional yet rather odd looking, too..

http://field9architecture.com/project/rainflowr/

Wow!  I guess if you don't get much rain that's one way to help it along.  You'd need lots of space...as well as very understanding neighbors in a community like mine.  I supposed if I had that kind of space I could just put up an above ground pool and stick a spigot on the side of it. 

CC

They lost me at "Rainflo offers a beautiful" . . . Now a swimming pool with a spigot? I could get behind that.

But, if one had a low producing well, and lived among like-minded neighbors, it might be the most beautiful thing around.

We ended up finding some 330 gallon containers on Craigslist that they use for transporting food-grade stuff like liquid sugar for bakers.  We got 2 of them new & never used for $80 each.  We've got one hooked into a gutter to gather rain for watering the garden.  (ML's going to attach another gutter as well.)  2 days of rain and it was almost full.

These were white/translucent so we had to paint them black to block the sunlight from creating algae, but still...

Great find, Marie. Post a photo when you can.

llama momma wrote:I've never seen this idea before on any forum: seems it could be functional yet rather odd looking, too..

http://field9architecture.com/project/rainflowr/

That looks like one of those early attempts at making an airplane that hops up and down trying to beat its wings.

I'm not convinced it's as beautiful as they say it is.

That reminds me of an old family laugh.  My parents bought a sailboat.  Our first extended cruise was to the Bahamas where the water was questionable in the old days.  So they rigged up all kinds of tarps/sails trying to catch rainwater.  We had to take our baths in salt water using Prell Shampo because it was the only thing that made suds in salt water.  Then we would quickly rinse off the salt water with our precious rainwater just before bed.  They eventually installed a water maker but we still laugh about a lot of things that happened during that first extended cruise.

If you live in the Chicago area (within the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District), you can purchase rain barrels for $58:

https://www.mwrd.org/irj/portal/anonymous/rainbarrel

I bought two and they come with the spigots, screened top, overflow hose, and downspout redirector - everything you need except something to stack it on (concrete blocks or whatever).

manda99 wrote:If you live in the Chicago area (within the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District), you can purchase rain barrels for $58:

https://www.mwrd.org/irj/portal/anonymous/rainbarrel

I bought two and they come with the spigots, screened top, overflow hose, and downspout redirector - everything you need except something to stack it on (concrete blocks or whatever).

Nice!!!  

bump

Yes I'm carried away and proud of it...

I got a Bushman BRTT-205 rain tank today. 205 gallon capacity.
I figure the rainwater will be a lot healthier than the chloramine laden tap water we have.

I have about 500 square feet of roof.
Here's the formula:
1" of rain on 1,000 sq ft of roof will produce 600 gallons of water.

Cheers. 

How will you make the water safe to drink after its been in the storage tank?  Is there a book you followed or plan you read about?  Looks pretty neat, I thought these were for water your lawn/gardens.

Sincerely, 

Stephen Rager

steve638 wrote:How will you make the water safe to drink after its been in the storage tank?  Is there a book you followed or plan you read about?  Looks pretty neat, I thought these were for water your lawn/gardens.

Sincerely, 

Stephen Rager

Oh no I'm not gonna drink this. I'm gonna use it to water my garden. I meant to say healthier for the plants. 

I checked out your blog and viewed the drip system.  What kind of wood are you using for the garden?  How many years do you expect to get out of it?  I'm considering for my other boxes just spending the extra money for cedar.

Thank you, 

Stephen

steve638 wrote:I checked out your blog and viewed the drip system.  What kind of wood are you using for the garden?  How many years do you expect to get out of it?  I'm considering for my other boxes just spending the extra money for cedar.

Thank you, 

Stephen

I just used construction grade wood and ply wood for the bottom. I then put two coats of Behr deck paint prior to construction so that all areas were covered.

I hope to get well over 5 years. Cedar would be awesome.