collecting rain water

[headfullofbees]

Now that is just brilliant! Cheap, effective, and easy to replace if necessary! I'm going to have to remember this idea! I'll also have to start stocking up on cheap hose so that I have them when I need them - they have a number of good uses in the garden!

10-dens for gar-dens.

 

[Durgan]

http://www.durgan.org/URL/?XHGLB 8 April 2009 Downspout Rainwater
Pictures indicating a simple, practical method of utilizing downspout rainwater. Barrels cost 15 dollars and all parts are standard plumbing fittings. Any urban downspout system must address the overflow problem during rainfall. The large bung hole is a reasonable compromise for overflow. The height is such that a hose may be utilized for watering plants, but I usually use five gallon buckets on a two wheeled cart. The system is readily expandable by cascading more barrels in line. I have four barrels, two on each side of the house. the system is essentially closed, hence mosquitoes are not a problem.

http://www.durgan.org/URL/?ZVABL 16 April 2009 Downspout Water Connection.
Seasonal connections. The downspout water system was switched over to Summer mode by connecting the downspout to the storage barrels.

 

[ChanellG]

10-dens for gar-dens.

Don't get it...

 

[davefrommd]

I would like to collect rain water as we always end up in a mild drought over the summer. If I just use the water for my garden do I need anything special to collect the water? How would I prevent mosquito breeding and west nile virus. Would a cover on top be enough to prevent that?

if you use those plastic 55 gallon blue barrels i would not buy the white or light colored ones as the sun will shine through the barrel and will develop algae. i bought a 275 gallon white container and i covered the whole thing in 6 mill black plastic.

 

[davefrommd]

if you use those plastic 55 gallon blue barrels i would not buy the white or light colored ones as the sun will shine through the barrel and will develop algae. i bought a 275 gallon white container and i covered the whole thing in 6 mill black plastic.

i had a clay colored rain barrel and it had algae inside, as nice as it looked, it needs to covered in black plastic to shield it from the sun. you can see the ibc tote 275 gallon container is covered in black plastic. weight full is around 2200 pounds.

 

[sixxup]

You should buy a tank and then have it sealed, leaving only a small space for piping. This is to make sure that there are no mosquitoes breeding. Rain water comes for free and we must have strategies to collect it.

 

[Corzhens]

We stopped collecting rainwater because of the mosquitoes. It's just too difficult to control the mosquitoes during the rainy season. But we sometimes collect rainwater for cleaning the car, at least we save on that. Cisterns are getting popular here but it is expensive to install because it is constructed under the ground.

 

[IcyBC]

I collect rain water in small buckets and use it to water my little garden to save on the water bill. It helps during the summer when we tend to use lots of water to keep cool.

 

[misskrystal1982]

There are also a lot of great plans on Pinterest for rainwater collection systems. I have yet to do this, but I think I will this coming spring. I saw somewhere you can use new black trash cans with the lids to collect rain water.

 

[davefrommd]

Try using those blue or black plastic 55 gallon barrels, not the white colored ones as when the sun hits them you will have an algae problem inside the barrel. If you design your barrel to only have one pipe going into it with your barrel sealed with a 1/2" pvc pipe 18"-24" tall, your barrel will fill up with rain water then back flow into the gutter. Having a second pipe for the over flow is extra cost and more work.

 

[marlingardener]

Being in drought-prone Texas, we harvest rainwater for our gardens, and to water our hens. We have three 55 gal. barrels, two with downspouts off the house roof, and one off the workshop. We also have three 250 gal. fiberglass cubes that collect rainwater off the barn and off the garage. The barrels are dip and carry, the cubes have a spigot for filling buckets. We find that there is less waste of water if we water plants individually, using either large watering cans (2 gal.) or 5 gal. buckets.
Our method isn't really economical, but we have water for our gardens when there are water restrictions due to drought, and rain water is better here than ground water. Within a few years we think that our water collection system will be economically viable.

 

[ChanellG]

There are also a lot of great plans on Pinterest for rainwater collection systems. I have yet to do this, but I think I will this coming spring. I saw somewhere you can use new black trash cans with the lids to collect rain water.

I have several pins devoted to rainwater collection. I've slacked up on rain collection and composting (and just about everything else) since I've been working full time, but I do have one blue trash can for storing water when I get around to it. Of course, I tend to use the water right away as it's feast or famine around here.

 

[Vinaya]

rainwater harvest is a good solution to the place where water is scarce. rainwater harvest is very popular in Asia and Africa in the place that suffers from rain water harvest. A good way to store rain water is by having underground tank. rainwater directly goes in the talk which is sanitized by adding chlorine.