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7144 members, 153565 posts, 340 blogs
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Homemade Rain Collection Barrel
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Evil Roy
On The Way Up
Joined: 04 Nov 2006
Location: Deepinahearta, Texas
Posts: 141
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| Posted: Tue Jul 21, 2009 2:41 am Post subject: Homemade Rain Collection Barrel |
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The rain collection barrel was easy to set up. The barrel started life holding Vinegar at a local nursery. This picture shows it in use. It's empty now due to the lack of rain, but it takes less than a half inch of rain to fill it.
Blue rain barrel ( photo / image / picture from Evil Roy's Garden )
The water comes off the roof, through the downspout and into the barrel. I used an old plant pot with the bottom knocked out, and some window screen fitted into the bottom, to filter out the clumpy bits that wash off the roof and out of the gutter. I used Gorilla Glue to hold the screen in the pot. These pictures show the bottom of the filter and the filter in place in the barrel. I used a jigsaw to cut a hole in the top of the barrel to hold the pot.
The bottom of the filter ( photo / image / picture from Evil Roy's Garden )
The filter in place in the top of the barrel ( photo / image / picture from Evil Roy's Garden )
Here's a picture of the barrel top with the filter and downspout in place. There's a gap so that some of the clumps can be washed out and the excess water can flow out if the barrel is full.
This is the input with the downspout in place ( photo / image / picture from Evil Roy's Garden )
Here's the spigot. This is a standard garden variety faucet spigot with a male connector on the end that would normally connect to the water pipe. I drilled a hole in the barrel that was a little smaller than the spigot threads. I put a nut on the threads to give it some surface area for the epoxy that holds it in the barrel. The epoxy is PC-7, a two part epoxy that's waterproof and dries hard enough to be worked with a file. Sand the plastic to remove any oils and roughen up the surface so that the epoxy will hold. Allow the epoxy to harden three or four days before any pressure is place on the joint, or any water is placed in the barrel.
The spigot in the rain barrel ( photo / image / picture from Evil Roy's Garden )
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SusanLouise
On The Way Up
Joined: 21 Jul 2009
Location: Lincoln, Nebraska
Posts: 53
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| Posted: Tue Jul 21, 2009 3:43 am Post subject: |
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Very impresssive! Thanks for sharing... 
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daisybeans
Highly Skillful
Joined: 28 Mar 2009
Location: annapolis md
Posts: 1727
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| Posted: Tue Jul 21, 2009 6:03 am Post subject: |
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All right! THAT is what I'm talking about! I think I can do this. This is just GREAT. The pictures help a lot. Thanks Randy!! Do you guys have to treat for mosquitos there at all?
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Daisybeans/MaryAnn
"Once the relation between poetry and the soil is well established in the mind, all growing things are endowed with more than material beauty." -Elizabeth Lawrence
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toni
Mistress of Garden Junque
 Forum Moderator
PlantStew Moderator
Regular Plantstew Contributor (over 1000 edits)
Joined: 07 Jan 2006
Location: North Texas (Map)
Posts: 7563
PlantStew: 14372 |
| Posted: Tue Jul 21, 2009 6:17 am Post subject: |
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Daisybeans, I drop Mosquito Bits in the barrel every couple of weeks and any kind of mosquito dunks used in ponds will do the same thing. They take care of mosquito larvae and don't hurt the plants I use the water on.
BTW, that is a 55 gallon barrel we used.
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eileen
Moderator & Resident Taxonomist
Forum Moderator
Joined: 07 Feb 2005
Location: Scotland (Map)
Posts: 14179
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| Posted: Tue Jul 21, 2009 11:26 am Post subject: |
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You've done a grand job there Randy and now I hope you get the rain to fill your barrel. We can buy ones that size over here but they are horribly expensive. I'll ask Ian to keep an eye out for something similar to the barrel you've used.
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BeWaterWiseRep
Guest
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| Posted: Mon Aug 24, 2009 3:03 pm Post subject: |
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Great! That’s one of the ways of conserving water and the collected rain water can be used for watering the garden, lawn, and flushing the toilets. The water shortage is a growing concern and we must follow simple steps to conserve water.
moderator's note: removed website link, see point 1.1 of usage rules
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painter
Just Arrived
Joined: 25 Jul 2009
Posts: 1
PlantStew: 5 |
| Posted: Sun Oct 25, 2009 2:54 am Post subject: |
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i have 4 55 gallon barrels that i have for my flower gardens here in mn more than enough water this summer for all my plants, and i have a lot didnt use any tap water
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