Homemade Rain Barrels

[kickchk]

I made a homemade rain barrel to catch rain water for my garden. Hopefully this year we'll have plenty of rain and not go through a drought like last year.

I bought three 55 gallon food grade barrels from our local co-op for $10 each.

I have only prepared one as of yet, but the plan is to link all three together. I drilled a hole close to the bottom to attach a water faucet, then painted them with plastic paint. Then I attached a flexible down spout to our existing gutter. I also cut a hole in the top of the barrel to catch the rain water. Covered the hole with a piece of window screen to keep out leaves and critters. Inserted down spout into the hole. Now we wait for rain!


My veggie garden is only about 10 - 15 feet from my barrel. If all goes well I'll have 165 gallons of water for free!

Here's a link to pictures of before and after.

[USCGamecocks]

For how long can you save this water before it gets too groady to use?

[lucille]

Where did the food coop get them or what did they have that came in them? I have been trying to find food grade ones forever. The coke plant refuses to sell them any more. I have one with a removable lid that someone gave me a few years ago that is partially done in a similar fashion to yours. I would like to set up a few more. Our water costs are sky high here and we are planning a big garden.

[kav122]

Here's a how to:

http://home.comcast.net/~leavesdance...struction.html

And here are some MPLS places that sell the 55 gallon drums. Never know lucille, you might find out where you could get one near you by calling them.

http://www.metroblooms.org/rainbarrels.php

[Linsey Knerl]

Wow! Thanks for the pictures and instructions. We've been wanting to do this for YEARS! We finally have several food-grade barrels after we cleaned out the Y2K water stash that my parents had been storing for way too long....

Craigslist has the barrels come up for free or almost free quite a bit in my neck of the woods. You could always check there.

[lucille]

Kav's list of links was a great addition. We do make it up to Mpls a couple of times a year so I might be able to grab a few if we need to take a trip this spring. The sources I have had locally are a bit difficult. We have one hardware store that carries them, but they usually don't know the source or they had chemicals in them. The local car washes will give them away or sell them for $5, but I have concerns about the soap chemicals and using them to water the garden. If anyone knows a good way to fully decontaminate them I might consider getting a few there. I may try contacting the local major bakery and another food plant in town to see if they have any they would sell too since the coke plant quit doing it.

[kav122]

my mom asked me why you couldn't just use a trashcan. Honestly, I don't know. Does anyone else know why you couldn't? A new one, of course.

[Milehimama]

Some plastics can leach chemicals into the water. Food grade ones are safer. Anyone want to water their garden from a Made in China lead special? Didn't think so!

[aquabarrel]

Rain barrel kits and rain barrels are available from http://www.aqauabarrel.com - checkout the downspout diverters and downspout filters too....

[kickchk]

Originally Posted by USCGamecocks

For how long can you save this water before it gets too groady to use?

Window screen is used to filter anything that may come down the gutters to the barrel, and after a rain I clean the screen out. Since I will not be shutting off the rain flow to the barrel, and water will constantly be flowing through (and out the over flow) during rains, the water should become stagnate.