Working for a Greener District of Columbia
Responses to our Survey of Real-LIfe Experiences
with Rain Barrels
One question - how do you save 1300 gallons of water over the summer if it doesn't rain?
Posted by: emmakw | December 21, 2007 at 11:17 AM
My dad (who has a greenhouse retail business in the UK) used to have a nice little sideline selling used foot container barrels - the stuff big quantities of orange juice, brined vegetables etc are shipped in - as rain barrels (dedicated rain barrels being basically the same thing massively overpriced at the time). These can often be obtained cheap if you have a food factory of some kind nearby and come in all sizes up to massive.
The diverters are excellent (although I'm not familar with the model featured) and well worth the extra few bucks.
Posted by: tai haku | December 22, 2007 at 05:41 AM
I would like to have one but to do what I'd like them to do I would need some sort of filter to clean the water from my asphalt shingle roof. I don't think these barrels can be used to help with vegetables and edible plants unless the water from asphalt roofs is cleaned. Too many chemicals could go into the barrel from the shingles. Still if you're lucky enough to have a slate or other type of roof I think they would be really helpful. I may invest in a stand alone version at some point.
Posted by: Dave | December 22, 2007 at 06:47 AM
In Colorado, rainwater collection is "is subject to the Constitution of the State of Colorado, state statutes, and case law" but we have a rain barrel anyway in the back yard. We use it to divert the snow melt away from the house since the foundation doesn't need so much water.
There is a company in Texas that collects and sells rainwater for drinking: rainwater.org.
Posted by: Valerie | December 22, 2007 at 07:19 AM
Great post! I think rainwater collection is going to become increasingly important in the next few years. Weather patterns are becoming completely erratic in some places, and sometimes it seems hard to justify watering flowers and veg when there's a drought going on.
My husband and I built a rain barrel system that holds about 500 gallons. We've posted about it a few times (at the "rain harvester" tag on our blog). We plan to write up the detailed how-to this winter. It was simple, and cheap! The whole thing cost under $200, and it provided water all summer. We never once had to turn to the well.
We are looking to expand the garden sometime in the future--which will mean expanding our water capacity--so we're very interested in reading up on various collection methods. I can't wait until I have time to read this more closely and follow through on all those links. Thanks!
Posted by: Meg | December 22, 2007 at 07:53 AM
Oh, and to answer the question you posed: Can one or even two 55-gallon barrels really make a difference, or are they mainly feel-good items, as one expert suggested to me?
YES! Before we build our rain harvester we were using a 55-gallon trash can wedged under a downspout. It was a mosquito nightmare, but our moderately dry southeastern PA summer kept it full enough that we could dunk a watering can a few times a week to give our garden a boost. Ten good minutes of rain would refill the barrel.
Posted by: Meg | December 22, 2007 at 07:57 AM
Rain barrels are just a start. I wish I had a cistern like the house I grew up in had.
Husband made me one from found items. (he is so handy) I like it , water all potted plants with it, I want one for our detached garage so I don't have to haul water to the back of the lot.
Posted by: tibs | December 22, 2007 at 08:25 AM
We have two rain barrels (like the $135 ones from Gardeners Supply) one which we received from the City of Austin at a discount price of $35 as part of its water conservation program and one which was a gift. We intend, someday, to put in a complete rainwater collection system. Toward that end, when a tree fell on our house and we had to have the roof replaced, we chose a metal roof.
I use the rainwater mostly for potted plants or to water recently-transplanted seedlings. I do not think the rain barrels save me very much on my water usage but as far as I'm concerned every little bit helps. If everyone took small steps, it would have a bigger impact than just a few people taking large steps.
One problem in Austin is that we can go weeks without rain and then get a downpour of 4 inches in an afternoon. Two rain barrels alone don't provide enough water to see us through the dry spells and they quickly overflow during floods.
Our solution, as I said, is to eventually get a much larger system.
Posted by: mss @ Zanthan Gardens | December 22, 2007 at 08:47 AM
In my prairie garden, average 14" precipitation a year, we had a big metal rainwater barrel, which stood on our back steps. The steps had a little landing at the top and as it was about 4' above the garden we ran a gravity-fed drip hose from a tap my clever partner soldered into the barrel near the bottom and that serviced all four 10x4' vegetable beds. Veggies were planted more closely than recommended so that leaves completely shaded the earth once the plants were part grown, as the beds had at least 14 hours of sun a day. Rainfall tended to be short heavy thunder storms during the summer but the barrel provided enough basic water supply. If we had had a long run of very hot weather and tomatos for instance were developing fruit, I occasionally did a little supplementary watering.
Posted by: sandra | December 22, 2007 at 09:21 AM
We recently installed two 60-g olive barrels re-purposed as rain barrels (and I blogged about it). Both filled to overflow when we got less than one inch of rain last week.
Unfortunately, both barrels have slow leaks from the hose adapter things, and need to be re-caulked.
They were badly caulked by the seller, and I failed to improve matters by choosing the wrong caulking material when I gave it a go.
My garden is small, and only half of it needs supplemental water during the dry season--by which I mean there is no reasonable expectation of rain from May through Sept, and only light rains in April and October.
Having now emptied one 60-g barrel (in order to dry it for re-caulking) and using the water in the garden as I would normally do, I think if I had one more 60-g barrel, I plant to go without using any city water during a normal dry season.
I can't fathom any reason why this should be seen merely as feel-goodery.
My advice about rain barrels is to buy them locally, with some sort of warranty about quality, or at least good word-of-mouth. Also look for models that have very few places to leak from! Freezing isn't an issue for me, if that's relevant.
Posted by: chuck b. | December 22, 2007 at 09:38 AM
We have used rainbarrels for the last seven years and absolutely love them.We made the first one out of a garbage can.We cut a hole at the top into the side and added a spigot for easy emptying on the bottom.The other one we bought ready to use from a local Farmsupply store.During long dry spells i use them to top off the small pond we have,we also water potted plants with them.To make them more appealing in the landscape we planted bushes around them,no one knows they are there unless you are standing right next to them.Both hold about 100 gallons and I would highly recommend them.
Posted by: luise h | December 22, 2007 at 02:21 PM
Great post. We have 2 of the Aquabarrel rain barrels that are linked together. They are great, I love'm. No leaks and best of all the overflow is super huge and we have never had water overflow out the top - it takes a 4" landscape pipe - we buried the landscape pipe and also used their drainbox at the end of the pipe at the rain garden (limits erosion) - No mosquito issue to speak of either.
Posted by: Sue | December 22, 2007 at 06:19 PM
I love my rainbarrel and want 3 more - a cistern too would be great.
Be careful with using collected rainbarrel water on your edibles and herbs IF your rainwater is washing down from your roof - esp. if you have asbestos shingles or live in a very urban (bad air pollution) area.
Posted by: Kathy J, Washington Gardener | December 22, 2007 at 07:30 PM
As a chemist, I've thought a little about pollution in my rain barrel water. My conjectures follow...
Say it rains for three days. Any pollution settled on a roof that CAN be washed off by water likely WILL be washed off in the first two days. By the third day, the water coming off the roof will be reasonably clean. Not necessarily for drinking, but okay for vegetable gardening. (although, I have tasted it and it tastes like plain old water.)
All it takes is 1" of rainfall to fill my barrels. So if I just wait to collect the water from the tail-end of a heavy late spring storm, I'm set.
Asphalt is petroleum-based. Petroleum repels water, and water-soluble petroleum-based leachates are likely to be susceptible to quick decomposition by soil microbes. I'm certain my garden soil is rich with microbes.
Heavy metals from car pollution settled on the roof are a slight concern. If I was really concerned, I could buy a filter.
And I think about today's global food supply chains (http://www.gardenrant.com/my_weblog/2007/11/no-free-lunch.html)
and I feel pretty comfortable taking my chances with vegetables from my own garden watered with rain water collected off my roof.
Posted by: chuck b. | December 22, 2007 at 08:08 PM
I like the concept. I got one at a neighborhood workshop sponsored by some environmental group, and I'm not really happy with it. It has all the problems identified in the Aquabarrel video.
Posted by: peter Hoh | December 22, 2007 at 09:28 PM
We have two rain barrels, which I use to top off my container pond (the fish don't have any problem with runoff from my asphalt shingle roof) and to fill up a can for whatever hand watering I do. The overflow from one rain barrel is directed into a dry stream that flows into a rain garden (http://www.penick.net/digging/?p=222). I love my rain barrels--only $65 each from the City of Austin and no problems with leaks or cracking.
However, as MSS points out, two rain barrels can't hold enough water to get us through the dry summer months. I'd really love to have a cistern one day.
Posted by: Pam/Digging | December 22, 2007 at 10:34 PM
When we bought our home 15 years ago from a then 80 year old gardener & florist, he had just a huge blue barrel under one of the down-spouts, so I left it and used it for all my potted containers-outdoors in the summer and indoors during the non-freezing times the rest of the year.
To me, the "new" phase of rain barrels is something that I inherited and cost me nothing, but provided many, many benefits over the years by not having to use our over-chlorinated tap water for my plants.
Leave it to an 80 year old gardener to guide this newby gardener with something so basic. Plus the exercise I gain filling and lugging my watering cans is another perk.
I just don't see myself shelling out the big bucks for all the new barrels and items that are now available. Seems like gardener-gouging to me.
I am certainly glad to see that we are finally learning the value of water and reinventing more ways to recyle it.
Posted by: Kaye Williams | December 23, 2007 at 01:14 AM
This is a GREAT post and very timely for me. My husband and I have been puzzling over how to construct our own rail barrel(s) after the great drought of '07 here in the D.C. area. I live on a 0.9 acre lot with 25 mature trees so water for my garden is at a premium! Thanks so much for this post and all the helpful comments.
Posted by: bev | December 23, 2007 at 08:09 AM
This is a great post. I have long thought that water supply and water usage will be esssential issues in the 21st century. We were living in Beijing in 1989. Beijing is a desert - and yet we saw the hotel's cars being washed with lots of water, keeping them up to a 'western standard of cleanliness'. It seemed a waste then, and even more so now that private ownership of cars is so much more common.
Posted by: Commonweeder | December 23, 2007 at 09:43 AM
Rain barrels are a moot point in my Mediterranean climate - no real measurable rain fall from late April through late November.
When it does rain here starting ( fingers crossed ) in December thru March, most of my garden is semi dormant and does not require the rain .
The captured rain that would fill 2 or three barrels would be used up in a matter of weeks leaving the barrels barren for 6 months of the year.
At the moment even our indigenous reservoirs are at less than 40 percent capacity.
The only way a rain barrel system would benefit my small suburban garden is if it was paired up with a grey water system and I modified my sub- tropical plant collection habit to include only drought tolerant plants.
At the moment the garden is about 60 - 65 percent drought tolerant .
Darn those Cannas, Heliconias and Bananas !
Posted by: Michelle Derviss | December 23, 2007 at 11:03 AM
We've been using rain barrels for several years. It took me and my Labor Pool (aka husband) many hours of research and store visits to figure out the best design for our purposes and climate (which we think is superior to many commercial ones). To provide the information to others I created a website on how to build your own rainbarrel for about $40. We've got pictures and step-by-step directions, FAQs, safety information, and even a rainfall collection calculator!
http://home.comcast.net/~leavesdance/rainbarrels/myproject.html
Posted by: Rebecca | December 24, 2007 at 06:54 AM
I have 5 55 gallon oak rain barrels on our property. For all but the summer drought it supplies all my irrigation needs when combined with xeriscaping and deep mulch techniques. We get about 30 rain events, so our 5 barrels are saving about 10,000 gallons per year. That is not huge, but not insignificant. Again, multiply that out to every home in a subdivision, and you begin talking about acre feet of runoff saved.
Now, I make rain barrels for profit, so I am biased. But my goal is that Rain Barrels are "toe in the door" items to begin to alter thinking. For families using rain barrels, water is suddenly a Resource to be harvested, not a utility to be paid.
We need to change our thinking to become more sustainable as a society, and Rain Barrels are a very good way to achieve that end. In my expierence I have seen numerous clients switch to more impactful water management practices like rain gardens and swales once they have a few barrels.
-Rob
Posted by: Rob | December 24, 2007 at 08:14 AM
I have one rain barrel (not sure how many gallons--the plastic pickle-barrel kind) so far. It's great. Fills easily after not much rain, and really helps get through dry spells. I've no idea if the lack of chlorination makes a big difference in plant growth, but it's pretty darn nice water. I'd like to add a couple more barrels.
Not sure if this was mentioned in the original post, but you can easily "chain" barrels by setting two side by side and placing a hose between them.
Posted by: John | December 24, 2007 at 01:03 PM
I recommend the Rain Barrel Initiative sponsored by the Nine Mile Run Watershed Association (http://www.ninemilerun.org/programs/rainbarrel/index.htm).
Posted by: Georgia | December 24, 2007 at 04:03 PM
I only have a single 55-gallon barrel. It probably doesn't have much of an environmental impact, but I love it. The lower pressure is just right for hooking up a hose, dragging it to the base of a shrub and leaving it for a while as I putter around other parts of the yard. By the time all my shrubs are watered, I've usually accomplished quite a lot of weeding. I also appreciate being able to water my acid-loving plants (I know I should be growing plants more suitable to the soil I have, but I just can't bring myself to give up the luxury of my own blueberry patch!) with low pH rainwater. I plan to add another, larger, rain barrel this year.
Posted by: Karen | December 26, 2007 at 08:05 AM
What a wonderful group of Rain Barrel folks. We invite you stop by the Aquabarrel.com website to check out the patent pending rain barrel design. We also offer downspout diverters to get the water from the downspout over to the top of the barrel and a downspout filter to collect the debris before it goes to the barrel or your underground landscape pipe. For those of you with rain gardens we offer a great way to terminate your rain water underground with the DrainBox. Respectfully - Barry
Posted by: Barry | December 26, 2007 at 01:28 PM
The prairie house I grew up in had a 1250 gallon cistern, repurposed from household water supply to garden supply once the municipality installed water and sewer. The tank would fill quickly in a good early summer rain, and last through the summer with occasional top ups from summer storms.
These days I use 2 55 gallon garbage cans as rain barrels but still do a lot of supplementary watering. Our summer is short but rainfall is unpredictable and our trees are very thirsty.
I would love to have a more comprehensive system, but I'm not sure I could collect enough without a cistern.
Posted by: Fiona | January 06, 2008 at 05:42 AM
This looks pretty good. I got my rain barrels at Arlington Echo program near Annapolis, and they weren't too expensive. Made out of old Coke syrup barrels. I synched two together because as noted, they fill up fast. They worked fine except for the problem that in a drought there is no water to accumulate... I have disconnected them for the winter so the barrels won't crack with freezing and thawing water inside. And I disconnected the s-curve input they come with and reinstalled my regular downspout. The screen bucket with mine is a cute contraption that allows rain to come into the top directly and keep out detritis and more to the point, mosquitoes. I think they made a mistake in the winter storage discussion and should have said to reinstall the bucket in the spring and not late fall. And I didn't custom cut the downspout, I just used the old downspout I can cut off when I installed the s-curve pipe to the rain barrel.
I do recommend 2 barrels as long as you're doing one. And they do say to put them on a flat surface when you install them. If you put them up a little higher than ground level then draining them is a little easier, and gravity will facilitate drainage.
Posted by: Kit Gage | December 21, 2007 at 04:39 AM
Great stuff, Susan. This is an excellent service, just the kind of thing DCUG should be doing, especially directing people to urban-friendly rain barrel solutions. Someday I want to have my own rain barrels and since I know very little about them, this feature is extremely helpful. I hope everyone sees it and contributes what they know.
Posted by: Ed Bruske | December 21, 2007 at 08:04 AM
The picture you have may mislead folks in siting their barrel - the higher you can get it, the better. The water comes out not by pressure but gravity. Being up on a slope/incline is good too so you can run a house DOWN from there into your garden beds. If all the dounspouts around your home lead to perfectly level ground - prop the barrel up on cinderblocks or bricks.
Posted by: Kathy J, Washington Gardener | December 26, 2007 at 12:22 PM
Great information. Aquabarrel.com is based right here in Gaithersburg, MD. For those folks that have questions about rain barrels and want to see really great downspout filters and diverters, stop by and check out the site. www.aquabarrel.com or drop us a note at infoATaquabarrelDOTcom.
Posted by: Barry | December 26, 2007 at 02:50 PM
The following LONG comment was sent to us via email from Don at the Urban Ministry Garden.
Great topic and questions, Susan.
I too am skeptical of small capacity (200 liter/50 gallon max) "rain barrels", for the reasons you mention plus a couple more. On the other hand, if done right, I think rain harvesting has much promise for doing environmental good.
Our local Mecklenburg County Soil and Water Conservation Service (an excellent program that does lots of good locally, going far beyond just rain barrels) will help people purchase home downspout rain barrels, but I'm still not sold on them.
For small scale versions, I'd add risk of mosquitos, especially down here where skeeters have been known known to completely drain unwary gardeners who stepped outside at dusk in mid-summer 'just for a second' to pick a few cucumbers.
Also there's the matter of pressure. We've gotten used to watering from hoses where the water comes out. To get that, you have to elevate the barrel, making for all kinds of mostly funny, unstable and not very attractive jury rigs on cinderblocks etc - or water just kind of oozing out that handy spigot (before it breaks off).
On the other hand, if done right, rain harvesting can provide a way for us to use rain water for gardens and food, and save treated (expensive) water for drinking.
I've actually seen some systems that seemed to work beautifully. One stands out (I've got pics somewhere...darn, how do people store pics? Another topic...), a community garden in New York City that used a linked array of 20 55 gal (220 l) recycled cooking oil drums raised on a platform. A big "butterfly" roof was designed to capture rain and route it to the barrels. It was the major source of water for a garden full of fruit trees and veggies in the middle of the city.
There's also the "downstream" factor to consider. Especially with all our pavement, we turn gentle rains into cataclysmic flash floods for the fish and wildlife that live in our suffering urban creeks. Anything we can do to check this by slowing water down is beneficial, and even basic rain barrels help do that. In our landscapes, we can go far beyond that, though, by mindfully considering how water and rain behave in our own garden ecosystem, and making water part of our garden design dance.
Rather than blab on here, let me leave some links that have me thinking:
Thai Pot in Portland
http://www.portlandtribune.com/news/story.php?story_id=118824831717549700
Check this out! Many lessons here - rainwater harvesting doesn't have to be in earnest utilitarian plastic barrels! Thai Jars work too (and what other ideas are out there???)! We can learn huge amounts from the rest of the world, especially the "developing" world. In our rush to the future, we dropped a lot of valuable things along the way, and we gardeners are ideally suited to gathering them up again.
The waterworks grant from Organic Gardening Magazine (good for them) is at:
http://www.organicgardening.com/feature/0,7518,s1-2-10-1531,00.html
Seattle and Dan Winterbottom
http://dnr.metrokc.gov/wlr/PI/rainbarrels.htm
Of course, Seattle has great info on this. The most helpful reference on this page for me is the article by Daniel Winterbottom, a landscape architect at U of Washington who really understands rain harvesting, and has been using it as water source for farmers in the developing world. Click on the Rainwater Harvesting link.
Pics on Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/serpentor/sets/1351203 - a bunch of interesting rainwater harvesting pics
Some technical notes:
From Green Clips -www.greenclips.com
RAINWATER HARVESTING: RECONSIDERING AN ANCIENT TECHNOLOGY
Rainwater collection in cisterns and on roofs, a traditional means of storing water for irrigation and other uses, is attracting renewed interest as concerns grow about depleted aquifers and chemically treated municipal water supplies.
Rainwater harvesting systems typically include six components: catchment area, roof-wash system, conveyance system, cistern, delivery system, and water treatment system.
The most common contemporary catchment areas are roofs, with stainless steel or galvanized steel with a baked-on enamel, lead-free finish considered the best roofing materials for rainwater collection.
To figure rainwater yield: 1 inch of precipitation on 1 square foot of collection area yields 0.6233 gallons. Gutters, downspouts, and piping convey rainwater from the catchment area to a filtration or storage unit.
For collection systems used solely for irrigation, filtration can be as simple as leaf screens combined with a roof-wash system that drains particulates from the roof during the first flush of rain. To achieve potable water quality, appropriate filtration systems include a simple microfiltration process employing gravel, sand, and charcoal; UV sterilization; or ozonation. Cisterns, which range from small drums to structures storing thousands of gallons, can be made from a variety of materials, including galvanized steel, concrete, and polyethylene.
Construction costs tend to be high (a common rule of thumb is one dollar of construction cost per gallon of water stored), but rainwater harvesting may become more economically feasible if municipal water costs rise. - Landscape Architecture, Apr 00, p 40, by Daniel Winterbottom. Yield formula from: Natural Home, May/Jun 00, p 74, by Molly Miller.
From the developing world, a different approach:
There is also a way to utilize rain water without contraptions (we Americans love our contraptions, though, and more power to us - but they are not always necessary). Doing berms and natural moist areas with adapted plants in our gardenscapes may be more effective than plastic barrels? Check this out:
http://www.fadr.msu.ru/rodale/agsieve/txt/vol2/8/art1.html
A couple key ideas that caught my eye:
Just as there are many different kinds of irrigation methods, rainwater harvesting can be accomplished using a broad range of technologies, from very simple and very small structures to very extensive and complex ones. Scientists with the Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Institute for Desert Research have divided the technology into five categories, including Micro-catchment systems, Terraced wadi (stream-bed) systems, Hillside conduit systems, 'Liman' systems and Large-scale diversion systems.
Designing a System
For rainwater-harvesting to be possible, three basic landscape elements muxt be present:
1) The landscape surface or soil conditions must be able to produce runoff.
2) The landscape surface must include variations in elevation so that runoff water created during rains will flow into and be collected by cultivated areas.
3) Collection areas must have adequately deep soil horizon of a suitable structure to store sufficient runoff for crop production.
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