Dad what are you making now: Rain Barrel Edition

And grassy swales and green roofs and a few other tricks.

Lessons I've Learned from My Rain Barrel - Sightline Institute

See this article , for instance. Tune in next week when the rain barrel teaches Eric how to speak conversational Greek. Click here for more on Eric's backyard conundrums. A rather hilarious take on this post over at the Seattlest. Donate to Sightline today! I grew up with a cistern. I recall my dad pouring Clorox into it in the depth of a drought, when it got perilously low, and pulling dead birds out when we cleaned it one summer.

Why Make a Rain Barrel

But our family of seven never ran out. All our fixtures had three taps: We flush our toilets with the same water we drink, and spurn any source that is less than potable. Your asphalt-shingle water is perfectly fine for watering gardens.

The gray water from your sinks and showers could be used for flushing toilets. Make friends with a dairy farmer! A quick internet search shows an annual average rainfall of Being an even denser urban landscape with little green space it might make a good study. Just North of Bellingham in a small former farming town of Ferndale. We are attempting to do something fun, with water.

Make a Rain Barrel to Save Water

The plan is build a 20, sq. Use the hemispherical shape of the monolithic dome and have a foot thick green roof drain field completely covering it creating an artesian water source. They design clean water systems for communities around the world using a sand filter technique. We hope to incorporate it into the design. Housed inside one of the domes will be a aquatic park. View us at http: Fascinating food for thought, all of this.

I should make friends with a dairy farmer.

• WHAT YOU’LL DO.
• Geschichten aus meinem Tagebuch (Mitten aus dem Leben 2) (German Edition);
• Sexy BDSM Collaring Stories - Volume Six - An Xcite Books Collection.

That said, installing my barrel still took a bit of work. I had to hacksaw my downspout short and install a bent-angle arm to reach the opening. Then I had to afix a short hose length to the overflow valve and run that to the drain. Not a huge deal, but it added a bit more time and money to the project. I purchased 4 rain barrels and so far have hooked two of them up.

My fix for this was a jigsaw, downspout adapter, a flexible downspout tube, and a bunch of caulk.

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Unfortunately, there is not enough water pressure to force water out through the soaker hose! Perhaps a drip irrigation system would work better? Does anyone know of a water pump that I could hook onto my rain barrel in order to provide more water pressure?

There must be a better way to capture and reuse water…. I have always found the fascination with rain barrels in the NW to comical — but worse if the City of Seattle is promoting them! Oh yes, and as an awareness building measure — which this post shows clearly happens. As others have said, given our rain patterns you gotta have a LOT of rain barrels lined up to do any good. Grey water resue is the best strategy here if you really want to keep your garden green. If only cities would get over their fear of it! It teaches people how to manage their storm water runoff on their property as well as giving them an incentive for doing so.

More information can be obtained by going to the links page thats on the rainbarrelman. On another note …….. As an owner of a rain harvesting business I am concerned about all the small rain barrel companys that are popping up in one place after an other, that charge outragous prices for their plastic drums rain barrels What gets me is that the people that buy them think that they are getting a great deal when in fact they are not. A drum, a spigot and an inadequate over flow is not worth over a hundred dollers and yet that is what I see as I surf the web.

Never did I think that the rain barrels that I build were so unique untill I purchased a PC after five years in the business and found out what everybody else were doing. There must be a better way to capture and reuse water…Here you go: Yes there is a better way 1. Get yourself a pony pump a cheap one runs off 12 volt car battery 2. Only problem I have is: Have been running it for about 9 years now … remember to empty in the winter. In response to a rain barrel pump: Also, the electric pump do not automatically shut off, which could burn up the motor.

• John F. Kennedy, the light and shade.
• Step 1: Gather Your Materials.
• WHAT YOU’LL NEED.
• How to build a rain barrel for collecting rainwater – Boys' Life magazine.
• #2550 KINDY POTHOLDER VINTAGE CROCHET PATTERN.
• Amateur's Guide to Building The Perfect Water Barrel System;
• !

The pump sold by RBIG is electric and automatically shuts off once the barrel is emptied. I live in the Okanagan in British Columbia which is extremely dry in the summer. Unwilling to accept any limitations on my ability to water, I set off to research other sources of water.

Overflow and vent pipe on top of every barrel Since the beginning of recorded time, mankind has been using collections systems to gather and store rain water for future use, and while the appearance of the systems has changed, the basic elements that make them up have not. All you need is a wide surface and a piping system to direct the water to the storage device. Trash cans are almost everyone's first choice. Readily available, that can be put into use with a minimal amount of effort or cost. However, lacking a proper drain, they can only be emptied by having their owner's bend over and scoop the water out - a task which loses its luster after a few days.

Considering a single 55 gallon rain barrel hold only enough water to maintain a four by ten foot garden for, at most a week, manufactured systems are a bit pricey for the committed gardener. For gardeners willing to put in a little sweat equity, there is a third path which will allow you to capture and store as much rain water as you want while leaving your wallet virtually unscathed.

The first thing you need to do is identify a source of food quality 55 gallon barrels. Manufacturers of fruit and soft drink products are an excellent source. And since in most cases the barrels are only allowed to be used once, manufactures are happy to see you cart off as many barrels as you can for free, or at most, at a minimal cost of a few dollars. Manufacturers have to dispose of barrels as hazardous waste as they are made of plastic, which is costly to them. I however, recommend you look for sealed barrels for three reasons.

A word to the wise here I have more then 18 barrels scattered around my house holding gallons of water - and my master gardener wife goes through them in three days just with regular watering of her multiple gardens. In selecting barrel placement, make sure you take the time to look at the vegetation in the area. The chances are better the even that over the years the area has attracted water loving plants that will not look kindly on having their water supply cut off.

OK, now let get to building your perfect rain collection and storage system The first thing you need to do is turn the barrels over and using a 1 inch hole saw, or paddle drill bit, cut a single hole in the bottom of each barrel - preferably near the edge.

If you can't find a plumber with the 1" pipe tape, if you're local drop me a line at michael emmitsburg. Next find a high quality paint primer that will stick to plastic, and then paint them the color of your choice in my case, I chose white. Believe me, while having a ready source of water will make your gardener spouse happy, not having them stick out like a sore thumb and take away from the beauty of their garden will make them even happier, not to mention your neighbors.

While you're waiting for the paint to dry, build the stands for the barrels. A simple two barrel system like the one in the photo to the right only requires two 4x4x8 pressure treated posts and three 2x6x8 pressure boards. If your going to build a four barrel system, use a 2x8 for the horizontal support. A good rule of thumb is to add 2" to the 'width' of the horizontal support for every 2 barrels you add.

For example, my eight barrel system uses a 2x12 for its horizontal support with two extra vertical supports in the center. Make sure your dig far enough down so the ends of the post site on 'solid' ground, and then cement them in. I recommend building your stands first, then 'sinking' them into the ground - that way you can be sure the stand will be level. So if you are building a four barrel system, get four of each of the components listed below]. Once the plumber has cut the 'female' threads into the barrel, coat the threads of the male connecter with silicone, and using your hand, screw it in as tight as you can.

Once set, the silicone will form a waterproof seal. Next set the barrel in their place. If you're installing more then one barrel in a given location, connect them all together by cutting your 1" PVC pipe into lengths equivalent to the width of the barrel plus 2 inches.

Make sure you use plenty of PVC glue when making the connections - and make sure the full surface area has glue on it by giving the parts a quick twist! I'm from the old school, and used to always sand the ends of my PVC pipes before gluing them. But today's building code expressly prohibits the practice of sanding the fittings first. The reason is that testing by professional societies and testing institutes has found that the scuffs from sandpaper can actually line up just right and cause a path that the cement cannot fill and be a path for water to leak.

This usually only results when people don't do the proper quarter twist when assembling the parts. For the purposes of rain barrels, it's 'six of one, half a dozen of the other' to say that purple primer is absolutely necessary verses sanding and no primer - but it's always good to use building code practices, and given it doesn't cost you anymore to meet the code, I encourage you to do so! Cut and install an appropriate length of pipe to allow the valve to protrude a comfortable distance from the bottom of the barrels. Connect the Ball valve to this pipe and then connect the brass hose fittings to the value.

If your only hooking up a single barrel, connect the drain pipe and ball valve directly to the threaded male connector attached to the bottom of the barrel. With your barrel drain system now in place, it's time to hook them up to the down spout. Be careful when selecting which hole to insert the pipe in. Most barrels have two different threaded vent caps. So if your can, place the pipe into the hole sealed by the solid cap. Cut another piece of three inch pipe of sufficient length to reach the down spot.

Where the pipe meets the down spot, cut the down sport and install the down spout - drain pipe connector. Connect the other degree elbow to the drain pipe connecter and then connect the pipe to the barrel. The 1 inch drain pipe connecting the bottom of the barrels will serve to distribute the rain water to all the barrels, so you only need one connector to the down spot. Before you put your ladder away, make sure you install the down spout screen.

If your looking to 'wow' your neighbors or just maximize water pressure coming from the barrels, I strongly recommend you place your barrels on an elevated stand, which can easily be built using a few pressure treated 4x4's and 2x6's. Elevated barrels also don't take up precious grading space and do form nice spots for shade loving plants.

Lastly, to help you want keep an eye on the water level in the barrels, a water level indicator can easily be made using simple clear tygon tubing. Connect one end to a fitting taped into the bottom of one barrel. Secure the other to end of the tube to the top of the barrel using tape. The water in the tygon tube will equalize with that in the barrel giving you an accurate reading. There you have it! Now all you have to do is sit back and wait for rain.

A three-hour light rain filled our 18 barrels to overflowing. How quick your barrels fill depends upon how large the collection surface you use. While this might seem like a lot of work, if you do everything in a production like fashion, and you get all your parts in advance, it only takes an hour to assemble everything and install a barrel. As for your cost, excluding paint, each completely outfitted barrel will run you about 15 dollars. Far cheaper then any manufactured system.

Of course the difference between the manufactured system and the system described here is you do all the work in building it! Read other articles on gardening in drought conditions Read other articles by Michael Hillman. I just installed 55 gallon drums pickle barrels pre drilled and plumbed with screened tops and overflow spout and silcock at bottom. I live in Durham NC, and this is their first winter. Will the barrels split if I retain at least 25 to 30 gallons?

Must I drain them completely from now till end of Jan when we no longer have below 32 degree nights??? I left some water in them once and came out the next morning and found them split right down the sides.