Rain Water Barrels

Rain water barrels are wonderful. If you own your own home or have environmentally friendly landlords, I highly suggest rain water barrels. They are fairly easy to install, can be made diy-style, and are so helpful if you have a garden or some greenery around your house. Rain water barrels are barrels at the end of your downspouts which collect rain water running off your house to use for watering gardens or refilling outdoor ponds or whatever outdoor water uses you need. It is rain water, so it is not recommended for drinking water. However, if you have ever tried to keep a vegetable or flower garden during the warm summer months, you know it needs plenty of water to keep it growing healthily. 

I was introduced to rain water barrels by my parents who built some DIY rain water barrels for their house. They have two in the backyard, made from recycled, plastic, open-topped 55 gallon drums with tap spouts, old snow-saucers, black netting, and bungie cords. (Totally my father's handiwork.) The black netting filters the rain water coming down the spouts, the snow-saucers provide the top while giving extra room for gunk to be on top of the filter and the bungie cords hold it all together. The whole apparatus sits on top of a few extra paving blocks so that there is room under the tap spouts to put a container or attach the garden hose.  

Of course, if you don't have random drums, taps, or snow-saucers laying around your house, they do sell rain water barrels and kits at hardware and garden stores. Building your own out of recycled materials simply adds to the environmental fun of the project. Someday when we own a house, we will have rain water barrels on our downspouts. I look forward to watering my future vegetable and herb garden with home collected water.