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Table of Contents

• The Benefits of Rain Barrels
• Rain Barrel Buying Guide
• Caring for and Maintaining Your Rain Barrel
• How to Conserve Water
• Creative Watering
• How much water does the Kitchen garden need
• When to water the Kitchen garden
• Available at TSC

The Benefits of Rain Barrels

A wooden rain barrel is, simply, a large water barrel or covered device designed to catch runoff from your roof or other surfaces that don't absorb rain water naturally.

Rain barrels are an excellent way to conserve resources and reduce the amount of well or municipal water you use. In the past few years, we've heard more and more about the environmental movement to "Go Green," and rain barrels help this movement by not only conserving water but by filtering out some of the chemicals that you find in tap water, such as chlorine and fluoride. In addition, rain water has no calcium or lime buildups, less sediment and dissolved salts, and it's softer and naturally warmer than tap water. All of these reasons help make stored rainwater a perfect choice for watering your garden.

Gutter rain barrels are especially useful for saving rainwater for a not-so-rainy day. Many states endure droughts in the summer months, and thousands of cities enforce water bans to conserve municipal water during these times. By saving rainwater from the wetter seasons, you'll have plenty to use without taxing your well or municipal supply during the summer.

One half-inch of rain on a 1,000-square-foot roof yields approximately 300 gallons of water!

Rain Barrel Buying Guide

The first thing you'll want to consider when choosing your perfect rain barrel is how much water you typically use on your lawn and garden. This will help you determine how much water you'll need your water barrel to store to be useful and efficient. Figuring out how much water you use in your lawn and garden is fairly easy using the following guidelines:

• 1 small watering can = 1 liter (0.26 gallons)
• 1 medium watering can = 6 liters (1.56 gallons)
• 1 large watering can = 12 liters (3.12 gallons)
• 1 sprinkler, full flow, 30 minutes = 550 liters (143 gallons)

Your decision on how many rain barrels to use will affect how much water you'll be able to harvest from your roof. For example, in a perfect world, with wooden rain barrels under all of your downspouts and harvesting all of the runoff from your roof, 1 inch of rain (on a 1,000-sq.-ft. roof) can yield approximately 600 gallons of water. Since it's not a perfect world, you'll want to subtract about 20 percent of that total due to gutter leaks and other things to get a more accurate total (approx. 480 gallons). Based on those numbers, you can better predict how many plastic rain barrels you'll need to store the kind of water you'll need to supply to your lawn and garden. By doing a quick Internet search, you'll easily be able to find indices for your state's average rainfall in any given month, and by knowing the square footage of your roof, you'll be able to calculate, using the above formula, a good estimate of the amount of water you'll be able to harvest.

A covered water barrel is recommended to help prevent insect growth (especially mosquitoes) and to keep the water clean. As far as styles go, you'll be able to find rain barrels in many different shapes and sizes. Browse around here at RainBarrelSource.com to check our vast variety. You're sure to find the perfect rain barrel to not only help you conserve water but also to add the perfect decorative flair to your lawn and garden area.

Caring for and Maintaining Your Rain Barrel

• Check that your rain barrel is made of quality, food-grade material that is meant to hold water. Other types of water containers cannot be counted on to withstand the water pressure.
• Make sure it is set up on leveled blocks, so as to provide a safe spot for draining underneath, and a sturdy base to prevent tipping over.
• Always keep your rain barrels covered to prevent children or pets from falling in, and to keep mosquitoes and larvae from reproducing.
• Cover the downspout and drainage spots with netting or wire mesh to prevent mosquitoes and debris from getting in your water.
• Arrange your freeze proof rain barrel so that the overflow valve is facing away from your home's foundation.

• Only use rain barrel water on your lawn or garden! (Never for drinking!)
• If you have a transparent water barrel, you may want to clean it periodically to get rid of algae buildup. However, algae will not harm your lawn or garden.
• Clean your roof and gutters at least once a year to minimize debris in your stored rain water.
• If you treat your roof for pests, remember to unhook your wooden rain barrel for 2 weeks to be sure of keeping your water uncontaminated.
• Try to drain your rain water barrel on a regular basis to avoid a mosquito breeding ground; ideally less than every 10 days, as that's how long it takes for mosquitoes to breed.
• You can use a larvae tablet in your plastic rain barrel as a precautionary measure. These chemicals will not harm your lawn or garden.
• Depending on the part of the country you live in, you may want to disconnect your rain barrels in the winter if the temperature drops below freezing on a regular basis. Repeated freezing and thawing of the water in your rain water barrel can weaken the material and cause cracks.

Store your rain barrels upside-down to keep them clean when not in use.

How to Conserve Water

There are many ways to help conserve our freshwater supply, and the first step is awareness. Many communities around the nation are helping to educate the public about more efficient water practices. Check into your local city or state water provider for more information on how to help in your own community.

Use tools like rain catchers or rain barrels to collect and store your rainwater for lawn and garden use. Not only are you saving on tap water usage, you're helping to filter out deposits like calcium and lime, and chemicals like chlorine from your plants, lawn, and underground water. Collected rainwater is also excellent and less harsh for washing your car!

Adjust your sprinklers so they're watering your plants and vegetation, rather than sidewalks, driveways, or the street.

Put a layer of mulch around trees and vegetation in your yard to slow down evaporation.

Water during the cool times of the day for the best retention.

Fix leaky faucets and joints.

Install water-saving shower heads and use water-saving fixtures on your taps and toilets.

Shut the water off when you're brushing your teeth or shaving.

Wash dishes by hand whenever possible, but don't leave the tap running to rinse. Either fill a second sink with rinse water, or use a sprayer in quick bursts to rinse your dishes.

Keep water in the fridge to save on running water to get it cool enough to drink. Capture water when possible - collect water while waiting for your shower to warm up or your drinking tap to cool down. Use collected water in potted plants or put in the fridge for drinking later.

Run only full loads in the washing machine and dishwasher. Shorten your showers. Even a 1- or 2-minute reduction can save up to 700 gallons per month!

These articles courtesy of Good Ideas

Creative Watering

Water is an essential element of gardening. Without the proper amounts plants get stressed, weakening their defenses to pests and diseases, produce below their potential and sometimes wither and die. Such problems can be downright discouraging to a gardener.

With a little planning and some water knowledge keeping the garden healthy and productive with just the right amount of moisture shouldn’t be a worrisome task.

Mother Nature can usually be counted on for help in the rain department. What she doesn’t supply, the gardener can come alongside and supplement with additional means of water and conserve moisture by mulching.

Irrigation is not as technical as it sounds. Holding a hose with a watering wand at the base of your tomatoes is considered irrigation and no big deal if all you have is a couple of tomato plants. However if you have more in your garden or don’t have a lot of time to stand around hand watering you may want to consider some more creative ways of watering.

Soaker hoses are inexpensive and easy to use in the kitchen garden. A 50 foot soaker hose, available at TSC, can be used for one 4 x 8 foot raised bed. Because it is for vegetables, simply loop the soaker hose from end to end equally spaced on top of the soil. At each end of the wood framed raised bed, keep the loops of the soaker hose in place with large 2 ½ “ galvanized fence U staples spaced evenly. Add a quick connect to the soaker hose to the end of the bed, closest to the water bib, for easy hook-up access.

A soaker hose can be buried 4 to 6 inches deep but I prefer to leave them on the top in the Kitchen garden. Vegetable gardening requires replanting beds each season and the soaker hose configuration may need to change.

After the transplants are planted or seeds are up and growing well, mulch around the plants and over the soaker hose. This accomplishes two things; keeps the water dripping down towards the roots and helps to hold the moisture in so you don’t have to water as often. Plus mulch keeps produce clean and soil borne diseases at bay.

This method of irrigation works well for traditional row gardens as well, simply lay the hose along the length of the row, plant and cover with mulch.

Sprinklers are another good option for irrigating the kitchen garden. They come in an array of styles and most can be adjusted to a pattern that will give good coverage to the garden.

When using any type of overhead irrigation be sure to water early in the day. This will give the leaves plenty of time to dry so fungus doesn’t become a problem. Also, water evaporates in the hot afternoon sun which is a waste of water and money.

Rain barrels are a clever way to recycle water off the roof that would otherwise just run off. Just like our grandparents before us, this method is becoming popular again. Rain barrels are especially useful for drought periods or when water restrictions are in place.

A ½” rain on a 1,000-square foot roof will provide approximately 300 gallons of naturally soft and chemically free rain water that your plants will love! For more water storage connect two or more rain barrels.

Elevate the rain barrel so that you can get some help from gravity to distribute the water via a hose to the garden or use a short piece of hose with an on/off valve (unless your rain barrel comes with a on/off spigot) to fill watering can for container plants.

Although Grandma advocated using rain water to wash your hair, it shouldn’t be used for drinking water. Contamination from bird droppings is possible but reportedly low. Just to be safe, use the water at the base of your vegetable plants and always wash your vegetables before serving them up at the dinner table.

A fine mesh screen should also be effective to keep mosquitoes out but if they become a problem try adding a little vegetable oil to the water (1 teaspoon to a tablespoon are the recommendations) for a natural solution; it seems that mosquitoes can’t hatch in a oil slick and the oil won’t hurt your plants. Or you can add mosquito dunks every 30 days to keep them from taking up residence in your rain barrel.

There is something to be said for do-it-yourself water harvesting. Do your part to keep run-off water from polluting streams and filling up storm sewers, and save money in the process.

How much water does the Kitchen garden need?

The typical kitchen garden needs approximately an inch of water per week during the growing season. How do you know how much an inch of water is? A rain gauge is a valuable tool for a gardener as it is marked in inches. Be sure to take note and empty before the next rain so you can get an accurate read each time. This way you will know that if you received less than the optimal amount your can supplement your garden.

During times of little or no rain when you have to count on some form of irrigation recycle small tin cans from tuna fish or cat food. With soaker hoses, bury the tin can almost up to the rim under a portion of the hose. When it is full you know you have the right amount of water. Note how long it takes to fill if you want to use a timer on your soaker hoses.

When using a overhead sprinkler, place some tin cans here and there around the garden. When they are full you can rest assured you have watered enough.

When to water the Kitchen garden

Plants like people enjoy something to drink in the morning when they wake up so plan to water in the early morning. It is better to water the kitchen garden deeply once or twice a week. This will encourage longer root growth building stronger plants that can take watering less often. If you are gardening in pots you will need to water once and sometimes twice a day through hot dry spell.

To help retain moisture in the garden, mulch around plants with newspapers, straw, hay, chopped leaves, soil conditioner or even seedless grass clippings.

Cindy Shapton
Gardening Expert for TSC
“Make Gardening Fun or it Will Become Work!”

Available at TSC:

• Soaker hoses
• Overhead sprinklers
• Galvanized U Staples
• Rain barrels
• On/off valve
• Mosquito Dunks
• Quick Release attachment
• Garden hoses
• Watering Wands and other hose attachments
• Timer
• Straw

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