How To Make A Rain Barrel

[fadedgenes]

We made one from one of those big square containers, but I just ran onto this one and thought I might share:

 

Rain barrels collect rainfall and store it, so that it can be used later. There are 3 main components - The roof, the barrel, and the hose. These are not always a roof, barrel, and hose, but those functions will be present in almost every system (collection, storage, and output). A very common setup is to place barrels under gutters and fill watering cans with the water as needed. Our system will use a small awning as our roof (our gardens and barrels are located a bit away from the house), a barrel for each garden bed, and a soaker hose that runs into each bed from the barrel. Here's how we made the barrels.

http://christinehennessey.blogspot.com/2012/04/how-to-make-rain-barrel.html

[Gilb3314]

That is neat. I'd like to do some planting, but I may as well forget it until I can get it fenced in, The critters eat everything. That is a nice set up.

[lavender]

Love the picture of the man in the rain barrel with the labs looking on. Wonder what goes through doggie brains?

The screening is very important if you don't have a lid. And even if you do have a lid with a hole for the inlet hose, a screen helps keep out debris as well as insects. If you are collecting from a roof, a coarser screen at the roof inlet is also a help. It keeps out larger debris. 

Give it a good cleaning at least once a year.

Rainwater is the best water to use on orchids.