Comments on: Building a Rain Barrel

By: Cullen

Cullen — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 23:40:03 +0000

Exactly where did you get that 2 piece lid food barrel? Thanks.

By: Garden guy

Garden guy — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 00:49:27 +0000

At my place We have water restictions so I could do with one of these…. the only problem is we haven’t had any rain to fill the thing up with either :s

By: John P

John P — Fri, 22 May 2009 13:50:35 +0000

Great blog post! I love learning about this online as gardening/landscaping are not only hobbies of mine but I actually do a little bit of work like that during the summer months as a second job. I appreciate your content in your blog and wish that you would keep up the good work

By: Cathy

Cathy — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 02:49:33 +0000

Thank you for this detailed set of instructions.
I think I will upgrade all our rain barrels. We use them for the garden and to water chickens. You can prevent the barrels from overflowing if you join a few together with a bridging pipe near the top. This effectively increases the size of your reservoir.

By: Nashveggie

Nashveggie — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 13:18:14 +0000

Steve,

If your local laws are telling you what you can or can’t do with water that falls onto your property some serious lawmaker changes need to be made. I know of none of those places. Doesn’t apply here or anywhere nearby.

Update: upon checking, Colorado is the only state with laws governing what you can do with water falling onto your property. Ignorant law and hardly many.

By: Steve

Steve — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 06:31:18 +0000

Great Idea, but check local regs. It is illegal in many places to capture rain water.

By: Bird

Bird — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 12:19:56 +0000

This is incredibly clear and helpful. With all the extra autumn rain we are getting it’s a great idea to save some for leaner times.

By: NashVeggie

NashVeggie — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 16:26:20 +0000

Jeremy…

I think my post was alittle misleading on my part. I understand what Tyvek tape is and you are correct that having that strung over your lawn would be a little inconvenient, not to mention unsightly.

Thanks for the comment!

By: Jeremy

Jeremy — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 14:57:38 +0000

While I agree that refilling it with tap water would negate the point of building a rain barrel, I think Bill’s point with the tyvek tape is that it would wick water from the rain barrel, into the garden, helping keep the soil moist at all times. The confusion, I think, stems from Bill’s contention that you should replace the down spout with tyvek tape. It isn’t the downspout that you would replace to keep your garden “evermoist”, but the hose attached to the bottom bib. That way instead of watering in the same spray hose style you normally do (albeit with better, chlorine free, cost-free water), the tyvek tape would slowly distribute water from the hose outlet onto the surface of the garden. Of course, if you are going to go this route, you are going to have to have a hose/tyvek tape contraption spread across the lawn, from the collection point to the garden, at all times. A nice option if you don’t have to mow the lawn often, or are otherwise too busy to keep track of your garden’s water needs. Not so appealing for those of us who enjoy “piddling about” in our gardens and who take the time spent watering to check on the general health and well being of our plants.
Thanks for the article. Me and my girlfriend are going to try our hand at building one of these real soon to help keep our water bills down and our garden green in this dry, Austin, TX climate!

By: Nashveggie

Nashveggie — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 04:44:11 +0000

Bill…

Who is Greg?

Second, how can a piece of tape automate a process? Thirdly, using tap water to fill your barrel negates the point of building and implementing the rain barrel to start with. Not only are you adding cost to the front but you are not conserving rain water as it is meant for. I don’t think you’re getting the point of the project.