rain barrel – One Rabbit Riot

In several of my weekly gardening updates, I have mentioned that we installed a rain barrel. I have known several people with them and have been excited to have one of my own for quite a few years. The opportunity to save some money on water? Sign me up!

Before buying our house last summer, we had been renters, so this was our first opportunity to have a rain barrel. As we were planning our garden, the idea of having one for this year came to mind as a potential reality rather than a long-term thought. We knew that we’d need a large amount of water for the garden, and we were looking to reduce our dependency on city water.

Our Barrel

We picked up a 55-gallon food-safe blue barrel from Rural King. It was previously used for transporting drink concentrate. It was $30, so it would quickly pay for itself. We also needed to buy the spigots and a filter for keeping leaves and other debris out of the barrel. Those items came from Amazon.

When adding a rain barrel, you can either buy one that is completely put together or repurpose something else. We went the latter route and saved money ($50), but it is a good deal of work. Instructions can also be vague, and YouTube videos may not apply to your setup. It’s also helpful to have power tools for cutting and drilling and have confidence in your ability to operate them. We were able to keep costs down because we have the power tools and only needed to buy a drill bit for the holes that the spigots go through. In total, I think it took an hour to get everything set up. Future ones will take less time now that we know what we’re doing.

If someone isn’t interested in converting a regular barrel into a rain barrel, they can easily buy one. A quick Google search shows many options with prices ranging from $50 to above $100. Some of the lower-priced options are collapsible, which sounds a bit precarious, and the more expensive options hold more than 55 gallons. These rain barrels typically include everything you need to get started.

What Makes a Rain Barrel a Game-Changer?

Simply put: Being able to convert rainwater into water for the garden is a difference-maker. Instead of paying for water (like we do) or using water from a well or spring, you get to use water that would normally run off the roof and be drained somewhere else. In our case, this was the yard, and it was running off into our garden beds. Converting something free into a usable resource has given us a sense of freedom that I didn’t expect.

Having the rain barrel has made us more aware of how much water we use when watering the garden and our flowers. It’s a 55-gallon barrel, but because there is an overflow spigot near the top, it probably holds around 52 or 53 gallons. We water with cans that hold a combined 4.5 gallons, so we get around 11 or 12 trips when using both cans, which is enough to water the entire garden. As a result, we are aware of the importance of not overwatering because the excess runs off, and it’s wasting the water we collected.

Using a rain barrel has also helped to contribute to the slow and quiet nature of gardening that I love. Because the rain barrel is gravity-fed without pressure, it doesn’t fill the cans as fast as our garden hose does. And that’s okay. It’s nice to take a break and let the cans fill at a slower pace. It’s also quieter than a typical hose setup due to the lack of pressure.

Naturally, a big reason to use a rain barrel is the money you can save. At the top, I said that we probably spent around $50 on everything. We don’t know what we pay for water on a per-gallon basis, but we will save enough money with the rain barrel this summer to pay for it. Gardening can use a lot of water, especially when you first start seeds, and being able to use free water that doesn’t need to be treated is wonderful.

Since we started using our rain barrel, we’ve found ourselves excited to see rain in the forecast, especially if it’s been dry in recent days or weeks. Every gardener gets excited for rain after a dry spell, since it means the plants are getting water, but with a rain barrel, you also get excited for your barrel to refill. A full rain barrel after a dry spell means your plants are watered AND you have a full supply to pull water from as needed. Speaking of refilling the rain barrel, I’m amazed at how fast it will fill. A half-inch of steady rain will fill it from empty in a few hours.

Get a Rain Barrel if You’re Able To

If you’re a gardener (flower or vegetable) and have the chance to, I recommend buying or creating a rain barrel. The financial, environmental, and plant health benefits vastly outweigh any negatives. It’s a relatively simple process to set one up, and they can be placed almost anywhere with a downspout.

Magz recently told me that some states have some restrictions against collecting rainwater, which I looked into. It appears that most of the restrictions apply to only using the rainwater for non-potable (aka non-drinking) purposes. That is an understandable restriction. Rainwater is not necessarily safe to drink, especially if it’s running off your roof and through a gutter/downspout system. Please don’t drink it. If you live in an area with more severe restrictions, I recommend trying to change those laws. Many university extension offices (here’s Penn State’s as an example) as well as the Environmental Protection Agency argue for the benefits of a rain barrel. Local municipalities and states should recognize those benefits as well.

We currently have one rain barrel but are planning to get at least one more. Collecting twice the amount of rainwater would further reduce our reliance on city water. When we create that rain barrel, I’ll take pictures and create a step-by-step article.

So, that is our experience with rain barrels and the benefits we’ve seen so far. Water conservation is very important, and being able to participate in it, even minimally, can be a difference-maker. Rain barrels also help to reduce run-off and soil degradation thanks to the presence of grass. The benefits vastly outweigh any perceived negatives. If you have the chance to, I recommend getting one. You almost certainly won’t regret it.

Do you have a rain barrel that you use for your garden? If so, what are your experiences with it?

Seed Starting Mistake

Each day, I check our seed starting trays to see if the plants need water or can be transplanted to a larger growing cell. Two weeks ago, I noticed that a few were a bit laggy and didn’t look as healthy as they did at the start. Since starting the seeds, I had kept the trays on the heat mats and under the lids. I also turned on the grow lights once germination happened. I did a quick Google search and was reminded that the heat mats should be switched off and the lids removed as soon as germination happens. I immediately unplugged the heat mats and removed the lids, but it was too late for some of the starts, and I needed to restart some of them.

When this happened, I was down on myself. I really hate making mistakes when it comes to gardening, especially when starting seeds. Maggie reminded me to be nicer to myself, which is something I always need to be told. It’s incredibly comforting to know that mistakes are okay. I have to remind myself that it has been three years since we gardened, so it’s natural to forget some of the details. And I suppose that if mistakes are going to be made, it’s best for them to happen at this stage rather than when they’ve been transplanted and are a lot further in their development.

Transplanting, Restarting, and Starting

After learning that I needed to restart some of the seeds, I kept looking for opportunities last week in between the porch project to transplant starts, start new seeds, and restart some of the ones that failed. Sadly, it took until Friday, when the weather wasn’t great and we needed a day to rest, to find that time. That afternoon, I transplanted a bunch of tomato, pepper, and cantaloupe starts. I even transplanted a dahlia start that had outgrown its small starting cell. We didn’t buy any larger planting pots for this year’s garden after finding 10 or so of the peat pots from our previous garden. Beyond those, we’ve been reusing plastic containers that would otherwise be recycled.

Then, on Saturday morning, I took the time to restart the seeds that had failed and start some new ones that I hadn’t been able to get to. The ones that needed to be restarted were some tomatoes, peppers, cantaloupes, and dahlias. We also had to restart all of the eggplants, tomatillos, ground cherries, broccoli, and onions. The new seeds we started were our cucumbers, winter squash, pumpkins, and melons. We were originally going to start our beans at the same time; however, I read that they don’t need to be started indoors since they grow so fast. Instead, we’ll wait to direct sow them in the garden. With the newly remembered knowledge about heat mats, domes, the importance of air circulation for starts, and watering needs, we wait.

Gardening Requires Patience

I am not a patient person. I struggle to give things time and want to rush them. This is the case for gardening. At this time, we have a few plants that could be transplanted into the ground outside and other seeds that can be directly sown into the garden. However, the weather has been uncooperative, with cold temperatures at night that keep the soil temp low and consecutive rainy days, which isn’t ideal when seeds are trying to germinate or young plants are trying to establish roots. The rain has also prevented us from tilling the last two garden beds. I know that we’ll be able to get all of this done, but not rushing the process is difficult for me.

Up Next

This week, we wait for the recently-planted seeds to germinate and to see how the starts do after being transplanted. The healthy ones have done very well in the first few days, while the ones that weren’t looking great in the original cells still don’t look too good. We also need to mow our grass for the first time this year, which will include mowing down the areas for the new beds and handling some of the grass that has regrown in the existing beds. Finally, we have plans to finish our screened-in porch when we can get to it and to work in the garden. We had success with setting up our rain barrel and have noticed its impact on the ground around where the downspout originally deposited water. I’m hoping for a pretty eventful week in the garden. Happy gardening to you.

Tag: rain barrel

The Rain Barrel: A Gardening Game-Changer