Rain Barrels

We've not had to worry about watering very much so far this year.  We've had a lot of rain.  But, I'm sure the time is coming soon when we'll need to begin watering our garden plants.  In preparation for this we've been collecting rain water off the roof of our garage. 

We don't actually use the garage for parking cars because it is quite a ways from the house.  "Quite a ways" being 50 feet or so....too far to carry groceries or to walk if it is raining.  But, it has room for 5 cars and has a small room in one end that can be heated in the winter.  Tom calls that his "office".

But, I digress.  We catch rain water off the roof of this long building.  On the south end, which is closest to my herb beds, Tom has installed 2 rain barrels that have spigots to which hoses can be attached.  Here's what they look like.

The black rings on top of them are open in the middle and screw onto the barrels.  You need to cut circles of window screen somewhat larger than the rings and screw the rings on over them to keep out mosquitoes.

On the other end of the garage, we have a somewhat bigger rain "barrel".  Here's a picture of it:

The garage sits at the top of a hill and the hoop house and most of the gardens are downhill from it.  The volume of water in the tank and gravity usually produce enough pressure to water things fairly well.

It is really amazing how much water runs off the roof of this garage.  When we bought this tank about 4 years ago, we thought it would take several rains to fill it.  But, one good 1-inch rain almost filled it and it has not been completely empty since. 

Catching rain water is really easy and is an effective way to save water.  Try it!