We've been getting more rain recently due to the leftovers of hurricane Issac and other friendly weather systems moving through our area. In the drought months prior though, I had been wanting to get a rain barrel. I don't like using treated city water for garden and yard use. It's there for drinking, not dumping on the ground. With other projects going on with the new house, the rain barrel project was put on the back burner.
We've recently started working more on the landscaping so I finally took on this project. I don't remember how I came across it, but I recently found out about the The
GreenSpot Rain Barrel Program that is part of the
Franklin Soil and Water Conservation District. The GreenSpot Backyard Conservation Program partners(
FACT &
FLOW)have come together to offer low-cost
rain barrels to help ease the problems associated with rain runoff. Residents in the participating cities can take a class about rain barrels and water conservation online or in person to qualify to purchase a
45 gallon rain barrel at a discounted price. I chose to do the online course, answered a few questions at the end, then purchased my rain barrel. The whole process was easy and took somewhere between fifteen and twenty minutes. A few days later I got an E-mail telling me that my rain barrel was ready to be picked up nearby.
I had already determined where I wanted to put the rain barrel so that it would be close to a planned raised bed garden, but there was a large prickly bush in the way. Neither of us really cared for the bush that much, and it was too close to the air conditioning condenser. We had already trimmed the bush back to get it away from the condenser, and recently trimmed it down and dug out the stump. I had a short window of opportunity to get the rain barrel installed before Issac made it up to Ohio, and spent several hours in the sun digging to set up a base of concrete cinder blocks for the rain barrel to sit on.
The rain barrel is connected to a nearby downspout by a flexible tube. A rubber water diverter goes into the downspout, directing water through the tube and into the rain barrel. Once the rain barrel fills up, the water flows back through the tube to the downspout, and then all the water from the roof goes through the hole in the middle of the diverter, rather than causing the barrel to overflow.
There is a lid on the top of the rain barrel that can be put on upside down and used as a planter if so desired. The manufacturer includes a filter that can be installed in the center of the lid to allow water to drop down into the barrel once it has drained through the soil. There are two outlets on the face of the barrel so a hose can either be attached directly to the barrel or to a spigot.
We got a decent amount of rain when Issac came through the area the following weekend, and it quickly filled up the rain barrel. Of course now that we've been getting rain again, there is less need to use the water from the barrel to water plants. Oh well. I'm planning to get a second barrel that will be connected to the first to capture more of that free water. We're planning to do some landscaping around the barrels(probably tall grasses), and I'm considering building a shelter to enclose the barrels to protect them from the elements and hide them even more if the landscaping doesn't do the job.
To learn more about the Greenspot Rain Barrel Program click the link below:
