In our ongoing efforts to live a greener lifestyle we've decided that not only do we want to grow our own organic herbs and produce, we'd also like to water our plants with collected rainwater. We looked around for some rainwater collection systems, and found several appealing options online, but realized we could put together our own with minimal effort for a fraction of the cost. See below the jump for instructions on how to build your own.
Materials:
30 gallon plastic barrel
flat wood bit (drill bit used for creating large holes)
Teflon plumber's tape
spigot
tight-mesh screening material
hose
cinderblocks
Steps:
Acquire a barrel. We quickly found someone selling some on Craigslist for $10 each - score.
Drill a hole in the barrel just above the bottom for your spigot. The hole should be slightly smaller than the screw-in part of the spigot to insure a tight fit
Screw in the spigot. If it leaks (we tested it in the bathtub), unscrew it, apply teflon tape to the threaded end, and screw it back in. Repeat until you have a water-tight fit.
Place screening material over the holes on top of the barrel & secure with wire or rubber washers - this will prevent both debris from getting into your barrel and mosquitoes from getting in and laying eggs.
Place barrel onto cinder blocks (the extra height will help get the water out of your barrel - remember that water flows down, so you want the spigot to be at least as high as the plants you want to water.)
Cut and re-route a drain pipe so that it drains into your barrel. This is key - on its own the barrel won't collect much water, if it's under a drainpipe you're effectively getting all the water from the entire surface of your roof.
Attach hose
Wait for it to rain, and then water your plants!
Total cost & time: about $30 and one hour
Is it the most beautiful thing we've ever made? Definitely not. But it works, and our plants seem to be pretty happy with it. And we think that eating home-grown rain-watered produce will be a pretty beautiful thing indeed.
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Thanks so much for the directions, we will definitely try it!
I got a couple of barrels free from a car wash....1 was a little sudsy the other no problems and they work great.
Just a quick question: I have (already) a similar, commercially bought set up with a much shorter hose. I've been considering getting a longer hose (to reach the garden, instead of filling up a watering can), but I'm not sure the water pressure would be strong enough to water across the yard. What is the water pressure like using a longer hose like the one on that rain barrel?
I have seen garden books that recommend having linked barrels set up at intervals throughout the yard. Some can be semi-sunk in the ground to facilitate water flow. That way the water doesn't have to travel so far along the hose, I guess. Otherwise I suppose you could have a pump.
I have always wanted a water barrel -- or a string of them -- in my garden. It seems such a pain to have to pay for water when so much flows into the sewer.
at our cottage we always had a series of water barrels to collect the rain water from various sources.. the cottage was on a well and we had a few big gardens.. its funny how the little systems than my gramps would have set up simply to solve the problem of the well going dry are today considered these 'green' and great ideas! way to go gramps!
Tell me you don't live in urban San Francisco!
I would not want the pollutants in the ambient air downtown being absorbed by plants I intended to eat, which is what will happen if you water herbs with rain water.
Seriously -- the Bay Area is an EPA nonattainment area for sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide, which are the major components of acid rain, as well as for PM-2.5 and PM-10. You're not doing your plants or your health any favors by dousing them with this in preference to properly treating municipal water.
Wende, does that mean that any food grown in the Bay Area is dangerous to eat because it gets rained on? Do those pollutants actually make the food unsafe? Please explain.
SFGail, it's really very simple: the food you buy in the Bay Area was not grown in downtown San Francisco, but further out in less developed rural areas, where the air pollution is not so intense and consists of different substances. So the rain doesn't deposit the same pollutants on it as you'd be distilling with your rain water in the central city.
I strongly recommend visiting the EPA's Web site and taking a look at what's in your local air and rain water before deciding that it must be healthful because it's natural. Environmental quality has been studied and regulated for over 30 years now, which means there's a wealth of scientific data to help you make decisions based on facts.
"Ask This Old House" did an episode on installing a rain barrel, for the more visual among us.
I'm just laughing because that bright blue barrel looks exactly like the one from Living with Ed that Rachelle threw such a fit over for being ugly. It's funny to see it pop up in all its undisguised plastic glory on such a decor-conscious site.
You could always wrap it in some bamboo or cane fencing to make it prettier. :-)
Thanks for showing this!!! I have two linked commercially bought barrels that used to hold greek olives under one spout, and two plastic trash barrels under another spout--my better-than-nothing solution, which quickly attract mosquitoes and must be drained soon after capture. I'd love to make my own, although, in the desert, our infrequent heavy downpours really necessitate a larger system to be truly effective.
Check out the website/book of Brad Lancaster(hometown guy!), Rainwater Harvesting, for multiple tips about gifting yards, rather than the municiple sewer system, with rainwater.