Free Water for Gardens

One of my latest projects has been to install rainbarrels to collect rain water coming off the roof.  We use this water to water all our flower gardens and potted flowers.  I also use it for the lawn.  This free water allows our house to look like a colorful and lush flowering oasis.

I had actually purchased the rainbarrels last summer.  Unfortunately, one of them arrived with a fast leak in the barrel itself around the spigot valve so that rainbarrel sat around empty until this season.  I set them up on a stand anyway, rearranged the downspout off the gutter so it will fill the rainbarrels with rain water, plumbed both rainbarrels, and then attacked the leaking problem first thing this spring.  

My first attempt at fixing the leaking rainbarrel last summer was a failure.  Finding the right adhesive to seal these barrels was a problem.  After my first failure, I ordered a tube of roofing cement and a small sheet of black acrylic.  First thing this spring, I cut the acrylic to fit over the hole and around the brass spigot and then used the roofing cement to adhere it to the rainbarrel.  Then, perhaps most importantly, I let it dry and cure for a solid week.  This did the trick and there was no more leak.  (I hope I have better luck with future rainbarrel purchases.)

This spring, I assembled a small pump house for an on-demand water pump.  (See the photo below... the small structure with a corrugated roof on it to the right of the rainbarrels is this mini pump housing.)  I placed this pump next to the rainbarrels and ran the appropriate hoses.  The output hose runs to our hand water pump next to our side door.  This hand water pump is a water distribution center because it is centrally located between all our flower gardens.  

Our little water distribution center behind our hand pump has valves to control where water comes from and where water goes.  We can have water flow through the hand pump for filling our watering can when necessary...  right behind the hand water pump is a lever to open the valve...  just lift the lever and water flows out of the hand pump.  This is a very handy feature.  

Our garden hose is connected to this distribution center as well.  Water input at this distribution center comes from the house as well as from the rainbarrel pump house.  If I want to use water from the rainbarrels, I shut off the valve that inputs water from the house.  If I want to use the house water, I shut off the valve from the rainbarrel pump house.  This little water distribution center is something I set up a number of years ago and it has proved to be a great idea.  

This rainbarrel idea has worked out so well that I plan to add more barrels at other locations around our house.  Water being collected off the roof of the house accumulates very quickly whenever it rains so we could easily add another two barrels to another small roof and then two more barrels to a third roof.  The more free water we have outside, the better!

In the meantime, these two big rainbarrels are providing us with enough free water for all our flowers.  That is a big success!  The only downside is this is one more thing to maintain so we'll see how that goes in time.