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while i am moving from one home to another, i asked amber of oakmoss to share some happenings in her garden. she's a wonderful friend & incredibly talented. enjoy!
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With the abundance of rain we receive here in the Pacific Northwest
throughout the year, I always feel a bit silly turning on the faucet to
water the garden on days it hasn't rained. My husband and I recently installed
a rain collection system. It's not a new concept, collecting rain
water, but it is the biggest new addition to our garden this year. Once
we considered doing it , things just sort of fell into place;
a neighbor who's in the wine business had extra barrels, the cast iron rain chain was a lucky discount find at a favorite garden shop, my dad had the proper equipment to prepare
the barrel, and there was a perfect little corner right
outside our bedroom window to tucked the barrel into. There are countless tutorials online, I won't bore you with the installation details. It's still fairly new, but we've already collected a small amount of water in our barrel.
I'm excited to let it fill up all winter long and have a nice supply
for next summer. Do you have experience with collecting and using rain
water? Do share.
I've been somewhat frustrated with my rain barrel. It fills to overflowing after one rain (my house is only 900 sq ft), and then I have to scramble to empty it before it rains again, but if it rained the plants don't really need to be watered. I made it from a 55 gallon olive barrel, and I put the spigot too high, so I have to turn it over to dump it. The water quickly gets stagnant in the mid-Atlantic heat. I don't feel comfortable using it on my edibles because of compounds in roof shingles, so I use it on my ornamental plants. So, as you can see I have some issues that I need to work out!
ReplyDeleteWe have 2 50 gallon barrels and one 275 gallon barrel. I love using them but have problems with water pressure and the hoses. Small inconvenience. This year I drained all 3 of mine by June, but they're almost full again!
ReplyDeletewe finally installed 2 repurposed wine barrels into our garden that we purchase two years ago! it's been wonderful- we get so much rain in the summers here, that i've hardly turned on the faucet since we installed them. even in dry periods, the water collected tends to last and it fills up so quickly, just one small rain or thunderstorm tends to collect 50 gallons of water! (we have them connected to our gutters, so all the water just funnels straight into the barrels). i do have the same issue as melissa- low pressure, so i just use a watering can. a bit time consuming, but better than wasting water! i think i'll hook it up to a soaker hose or drip tape next year.
ReplyDeletegreat post, amber, thanks for joining us here!
This is great - I've been thinking of installing a rainwater collection system for a while. It is my next "big" garden project - anything that doesn't involve poking seeds into dirt is big around here. Thanks for the pictures - very inspiring!
ReplyDeleteWe live in a rental so haven't asked for permission to install a proper system. However, we catch gutter overflow with big rubbermaid tubs and put lids on them, then use them for watering the garden. Not really the most elegant solution, but we used what we had and it works!
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