Now onto the important stuff. James and Shala are making a couple of rain barrels and asked if any of us had our own tank. Of course I got excited and turned into a busy body so here we go. Manly made me a rain barrel last year and I love it.
The second picture is the 3000 gallon rain tank at the KCMG Outdoor Education Center. This is the big bad boy. You can pretty much use only rainwater on a landscape with a tank that size.
The next two pictures are my rain barrel and the overflow containers I use to save water. I can water my garden and container plants for about ten days. I also fill my water garden with rainwater. This means that I don't have to treat the water for it to be safe for the fish. I am planning one more rain barrel and overflow containers. This should really cut down on the amount of city water I have to use.
For my first tank, I purchased a food grade container. It had soy sauce in it during a former life. Manly bought a pvc faucet and flex spout. He cut a square, slightly larger than the opening of the flex spout to allow the water to flow from the flex spout into the barrel. He removed the down spout from the gutters, and attached the flex spout. The end of the flex spout slipped just inside of the tank. This kept me from needing screens to keep out mosquitoes. Gutter guards were placed over the gutters to keep leaves and junk out of the barrel. He installed the pvc faucet by using a graduated drill bit making a hole in the lower section of barrel. This hole is small enough that the faucet threads had to be twisted into place. He used pvc glue as well to insure a good seal. We placed the barrel on a cinder block so the water would drain out better
Confession, the first time I emptied the barrel, I pulled on the faucet and caused it to leak. Gorilla glue fixed it up just fine. There is a little bit of sediment in the bottom of the barrel, but it comes out with the last little bit of water, no problem. The best part of this, besides the water of course, was the cost. It cost less than $20. I am getting my next barrel for free from our master gardener group. Sweet.
I found the first barrel at a local feed store and the other fittings came from a plumbing shop and hardware store.
Ingredients
55 gallon barrel
Gutter guards
Flex Spout
PVC faucet
PVC glue
Gorilla glue
