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Index : Watering
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- 20. Rain Barrels Ideal For Banking Summer Rains - Top
- Plants love rainwater! It's a precious commodity that doesn't come often here in the desert. So on these rainy monsoon days, many gardeners like to store up all the rainwater they can to use when the weather is dry.
The most popular, and easiest way to store the rainwater is with simple rain barrels. Almost any large container will do. Wine or whiskey barrels, steel drums, plastic trash cans, livestock watering tanks, or just about anything else that will hold water will work. Gardeners can also purchase "ready to use" rain barrels from garden supply catalogs and over the internet
but these can be pricey. Most cost from $70 to $150 not including shipping.
To save money, the most economical rain barrel can be made using a large plastic trash container. The supply of water will come from the roof of your house, that is of course, if you have gutters! If not, consider installing gutters and a downspout to direct the water into your rain barrel.
It's amazing how much water can be collected from the roof of an average house, even here in Tucson. Considering our typical yearly rainfall of 12 inches, for each square foot of roof area, 6.7 gallons of water can be collected annually. On an average 1200 square foot roof, that equates to a potential to collect 8,040 gallons of water each year! A single rainfall event of one-quarter inch can yield as much as 186 gallons of water!
With this much collection potential, it certainly is possible to fill many plastic trash barrels. It is relatively easy to connect a number of them together. But even a single barrel can be helpful in watering house and patio container plants. House plants are particularly appreciative of rainwater.
When setting up your rain barrel, choose a convenient location along the edge of the house. Downspouts are usually placed on the corner, so that would be the logical location. Setting the rain barrel on concrete blocks gives better access to the hose connection that must go near the bottom of the barrel. It also gives the barrel stability. Be sure to level and compact the ground before setting the concrete blocks.
A downspout elbow will be used to connect the downspout to the barrel lid. Set the barrel on the block base and mark the location where the downspout will be cut to fit the elbow on. The bottom of the elbow should project into the barrel lid a few inches. A hole will be cut in the lid just large enough to allow the elbow to slide in. A tight fit keeps out mosquitos!
The barrel itself should be drilled with two holes, one near the top and one near the bottom. The top hole will serve as an overflow; the bottom as the gravity fed supply for a hose bib. The bottom hole should be an 1 inch in diameter drilled or cut three to four inches above the barrel bottom. Screw a 3/4 inch hose bib into a 3/4 inch PVC coupler, female threaded on both ends. The coupler and hose bib will be attached to the outside of the barrel by placing a male threaded 3/4 inch adapter through the hole from the inside and screwing it into the coupler-bib assembly. Use Teflon tape on all threaded sections. Also use rubber washers and waterproof auto/marine sealant on either side of the opening to provide additional sealing. A hose can be attached to the hose bib on the bottom of the barrel for directed watering using the stored rainwater.
In the top hole insert a 3/4 inch by one-half inch brass hose adapter. Place the half-inch end through the barrel. Attach it by screwing on a one-half inch locking nut with washer, from the inside. Again, as with the hose bib attachment use auto/marine sealant around the hole and telflon tape on the fittings. Screw a hose adapter shut-off value on the end of the hose adapter. A hose can be then attached to the adapter and run to a section of the garden or landscape to divert any overflow rainwater. The shut off valve allows the overflow to be closed. This is advisable for single barrel set-ups and absolutely necessary for multiple barrel set-ups when overflow is directed into sequential barrels.
If you wish to hook up multiple barrels in a sequential unit to store more water, just connect the barrels on the top and bottom with P'VC pipes. The bottom pipe should include a gate valve that can be closed to prevent water from flowing back into the first barrel until needed. Calk where the pipes enter the barrels with auto/marine sealant. The top pipe serves to fill the next barrel in the series with the overflow from the one before. As water in the first barrel is used up, it can be refilled by opening the lower pipe gate valve, allowing water to flow in from the adjoining barrel(s).
Written by John Begeman, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, the University of Arizona, 520-626-5161.
- Updated: July 28, 2002
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