Rain barrels attach to the end of your downspout and collect rain water, which can then be used to irrigate your lawn and garden.
Why even think about Rain Barrels?
1) Reduce the carbon impact of watering and irrigating your lawn: An estimated 40% of household water is sprinkled on lawns and gardens.Rain that falls on roofs and driveways and other non-absorbing surfaces goes into the storm sewer system- where it is collected and moved and processed (if the system has the capacity to do that), and returned into lakes and rivers- where, eventually, it may make its way back to rain. That takes a lot of energy. Rain that falls on soil and rock, however, nurtures the earth on its way back into the water system, through streams and rivers and aquifers with no help.
2) Conserve water to use where it's needed most: Even if you're not subject to rationing yet, why let all that good water run off into the street, when it can be used for your own garden, right now?
3) Rain water is better for your garden and landscape than treated water: No chlorine, warmer, oxygenated: this is good for living things!
How to set up a Rain Barrel system:
1) Find a Barrel. Commercial, found object- landscape quality or purely functional- fin a barrel. Be careful if you don't know the source (eg, picking things up from a recycling center- unless its labeled and you know what was in it before, skip it). There are commercial options that have filters, and a tap w here you can attach a standard hose to the barrel directly, so water can be moved to the garden easily.
2) Connect the barrel to the downspout. You may have to shorten the spout to do this, or detach and reattach it after the end is in the barrel. Note: Connecting several barrels to the same downspout is easy- just put a hole near the top of the first barrel, and use a piece of tube or pipe to "funnel" water into the second barrel.
3) Safety concerns: especially if you have kids, put a lid on it. And use the water so it doesn't stagnate.
4) Using the water you've captured: you can do this the hard way or the easy way. The hard way is with buckets and ladles, the easy way if attaching a hose to the bottom, by either drilling a hole, or using a commercial option that has a pre-fab hose nozzle in it.
Your local water agency may even subsidize rain barrel distribution- call to check!
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