The neighbors probably think I'm nuts, watering the heck out of the azaleas and rhododendrons in the semi-solid rain, with sub-freezing temperatures and probable snow on the way. What I'm really doing is emptying 1,000+ gallons of rainwater from our four rain barrels before it gets cold enough to freeze and break something.
We put in a new lawn and a bunch of ornamental plants this summer and thought it was silly to pay to water everything in a place where it rains all winter. So, we bought four 275 gallon rain barrels (well, they're not really barrels, they're actually food-grade industrial containers for storing large quantities of things like vegetable oil or detergent) and daisy-chained them together thinking we'd store up some water for summer. Barrel number one can be seen to the right of the house in the picture above. The only problem was a slight underestimation of how much rain actually comes down the downspouts. After two days, they were full. Wow. Also, while I did consider the effect of sub-freezing temperatures on the hoses and valves, it doesn't get that cold here very often or for very long, so I figured no big deal. Naturally, the forecast calls for the coldest cold snap in a decade with the possibility of sub-freezing temperatures for several days in a row. It's hard not to view water as a commodity. Dumping so much water seems wasteful even if it did just fall from the sky. Oh well, there will be plenty more where that came from.
You have FOUR of those huge barrels? Crazy!
ReplyDeleteYup. We haven't bought any for the other side of the house yet. Probably wait until the garden's done. :o)
ReplyDeleteGood timing on dumping the barrels yesterday since it's snowing now :-)
ReplyDeleteWOW that's a lota water!! Where did you get the barrels? How do you get the water from the barrel to the yard? Looks interesting.
ReplyDeleteThere are always some for sale on craigslist. Cleaned out and with garden-hose sized valves they are a couple hundred dollars apiece. The yard has a slight grade to it (a few inches back to front). The four containers are in a line, with the highest one at the back of the lot and the lowest at the front. The front one has a hose attached for watering. Each container correlates to a downspout, two on the east side of the house and two on the back of the detached garage. It doesn't matter that some containers get more rain water than others since they are all connected and are therefore self-leveling. Likewise, when watering from Barrel 1,all four barrels are drawn down simultaneously. It may never pay for itself, but it was a fun little project to play with.
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