Rain Barrel Up and Running

I thought it was about time to install my rain barrel for the season. I was pleased to find out that it only took about 10 minutes to install this year (and most of that time was spent digging through drawers searching for my roll of pipe tape). I also didn't have to worry about taking a hacksaw to my downspout like last year.

I would like to try to hook up some sort of irrigation system to the rain barrel this year. I never give my flower beds enough water (partially because I don't care about them as much as the vegetable beds), but I'd really like them to look a little nicer this year.

Packing up my rain barrel

Rain barrel attached to the downspout of my house.

I made a rain barrel (or cistern) for my house this spring at a Master Gardener workshop. They advised that we take them apart and store them over the winter. I haven't needed to water anything in weeks, so I guess the rain barrel is done serving its purpose for the year. I wasn’t completely sure what to do with all of the water that was currently in the barrel (approximately 50 gallons). I connected my garden hose to the spigot on the rain barrel and released the water into the yard. I took over 30 minutes to drain because the water is not under pressure. I packed all the parts away for the winter and reattached the section of downspout that I had removed last spring to install the barrel.

I’m hoping to get more use out of the rain barrel next season. It was really handy in early spring when I had just a few seedlings to water. Waiting a couple minutes for gravity to fill up my watering can took a short amount of time. But once the season got into full tilt, I couldn’t take the time to fill bucket after bucket from the rain barrel. Once I reverted over to the more time-efficient hose and spigot, I kind of forgot about the rain barrel for the rest of the season. I’ll try to do better next year.

P.S. I’ll be adding a dedicated post about rain barrels in the future sometime.