My first rainbarrel experience
About a month ago I’ve purchased a rain barrel from clean air gardening, and here is the installation video - installing a rain barrel is really easy!
This 55 gallon rain barrel has been in use for about a month now, and has worked really well so far.. as long as there is rain : ). Unfortunately this is an exceptionally hot summer here in TX, and we didn’t have any rain in the last 10 days, so the barrel has been sitting empty, and I am back to using the spigot to water my garden.
If you are thinking of installing a rain barrel, there are a few things to consider:
1. The higher the barrel stands, the better the water pressure is. If your rain barrel is sitting on the ground, the water pressure would be too low to sprinkle your veggies or lawn with a hose (you would need to lay the hose down on the ground and move it around, which is time consuming). We’ve lifted our rain barrel up by about 3 feet, and that made a big difference.
2. Capturing rain may be one of humanity’s most ancient methods of acquiring water, yet in some states the rain water is something the local government owns (not you). For instance, in Colorado, homeowners cannot collect the rain water that falls on their property. Read more in this article.
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Hi thanks for the detailed video. Sure proves very helpful for all those DIY folks out there. It’s good to learn to do things ourselves. Could handle most work ourselves that way. Any emergencies… no problem. DIY – will do! Yes, and rain water harvesting is a sure good thing too and http://climatarians.org agrees and shows many related topics.
Keep the DIY videos coming!
Joost Hoogstrate
Hey, great post! If you live in a state where water harvesting is not restricted, simple water catchment devices like these can be a great asset. Not only do they lessen your dependence on municipal water supplies, which reduces your monthly bill, but they help to reduce runoff and erosion. Lots of places get more rain at once than the soil can absorb, especially cities, which have lots of impervious surfaces (buildings and paved areas). This makes erosion and stormwater pollution a concern. It’s good to capture some of that water and apply it at a rate where the soil can absorb it (and plants can use it!).