Name: Elizabeth
Location: Oakland
Anyone who lives in a drought-prone state knows that water conservation is key to living a greener life (and keeping your water bills down when rationing goes into effect.) While the Bay Area's Mediterranean climate means that we don't get any rain during the summer months, we use our rain barrel during the rainy season, and people living in places with year-round precipitation should definitely think about setting one up.
The barrel collects rain water from the roof and is then used to water our plants with - it's easy, the setup is cheap, and the water is free. Most importantly, you're using water that would otherwise go down the storm drains, meaning you don't have to use the potable water coming out of your taps or spigot.
See our post on How to Make a Rain Barrel here.
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Just some useful info: check with your town to see if they sell rain barrels. We bought ours through our town public works for about $60 (we live in Massachusetts) and it came complete with spigots, hose, etc. Also, if you are hesitant because of the awful blue color, we easily painted ours dark green with one can of spray paint.
view chococat's profile
Rain barrels aren't just for drought-prone areas. If you've got a home, you should have one. This is especially true if you're living in a densely populated area, with lots of concrete. When there's no open ground (parks, lawns, and curbside grass usually isn't enough) for the rain to absorb, flooding is often a problem after a heavy downpour.
So, get a barrel or two and give that water somewhere to go. Then later, you can use it to water your grass or garden.
view alina's profile
We made one out of a rubbermaid trash container and a spigot, $30!
view Hollie's profile
Just adding on the tail end here...folks that are really conscious about water usage probably collect the water in a bucket in their tub or shower, while waiting for the water to get hot...
If you have one of those barrels, you can use it to pour your bucket water into.
Same method can be used with the kitchen sink too, using a water jug. If you have a delay before getting hot water in your apartment, like I do, slip a plastic jug or whatever you use for water, under the faucet, move it out when the water is hot, and resume your dish washing...
But that is DRINKABLE water, and that can go in the fridge. Or again, off to the rain barrel.
My "extra" water goes to the wildlife. It goes to providing fresh drinking water to animals and birds. Like raccoons, opossums, skunks, foxes, coyotes. And all kinds of birds, from tiny ones to ravens.
Three dishes I fill with the jug of water daily. It might seem kind of odd, but if you think about it, it's not very odd at all. The animals have very little for water sources, obviously, and they certainly have no a/c.
So, if you do have a bit of deck or balcony or yard, not big enough for a rain barrel, but maybe it's big enough for a bird bath...use the extra water there.
Yes, it's lots of fun to watch the birds take a bath, but they will splash and you will have to do your windows if the bath is next to the windows.
In a hot city, your bath might be one of few sources of fresh water. So maybe some folks could do that too.
view TRUE BLUE's profile
All well and good, but clay pots are water wasters. If terra cotta is your fetish, better to use them as cache pots with a plastic sub-irrigation (aka self-watering) inner planter. Or convert the t.c. planter to a sub-irrigation planter by coating the inside to make it water tight.
view Greenscaper's profile
Question: I live in a 1920s bungalow with no gutters. Does anyone have any clever advice for me on how to collect water for a rain barrel?
view Molly Margarita's profile
We live in an area with a lot of ground water and our sump pump runs year-round. My husband hooked up a rain barrel to our sump-pump discharge pipe and now I use that water for my plants.
Your plants will also love it if you recycle water that you've cooked food in (after cooking pasta, boiling anything, steaming veggies, etc) ... not only does it double-purpose the water, you'll be adding nutrients to the plants as well. Just be sure to let the water cool first ;)
view soapR's profile
Regarding the bungalow comment... you can add some kind of "buffer" before the edge of the roof. Perhaps a thin strip of rubber. Run it along the edges, and then provide a gap where you will put the downspout to allow the water to funnel into.
view Braddd's profile