Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Spring Garden Project #1 Rain Barrel

We are experiencing an unusually wet and gloomy Spring. Soooo, we have advanced on our rain collecting equipment. The barrel is a donation from neighboring gardeners Bob and Trish. The fuel hand pump was lurking about. Tim surfed the net comparing down spout diverters and watching installation videos until he settled on this model.


And he installed it on the back of the big garage. That is over 1250 square feet of collection area. The barrel filled up in a matter of minutes! Tim is considering putting a second one in next to this one because he hates to miss out on free water.









And now, I can fill my watering can here instead of from the garden hose, cutting my walk to the far side yard landscape area by more than half.












3 comments:

  1. Well I'll be durned ! I posted a blog about spring sunlight just a few minutes after you posted your dreary and wet post ! I like your rain diverters though; that's snazzy thinkin' compared to the barrels (and eaves) of my youth !

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  2. Dreary gloom is often a matter of perspective, but this year it has been really hard to keep a sunny perspective. Last spring and summer we were completely spoiled with above average warmth, sun and still managed above average rainfall. We were living in high clover. This year, after a brutal winter, the temps are more than 10 degrees below normal, and everything smells like worm bellies.
    But today is unexpectantly warm and sunny so Tim ought to be working on new driveways and cold frames to keep this blogger bloggin'.

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  3. I know it and I remember those sorts of backwards springs. I remember one year in particular that it snowed (and mostly melted, but still) all the way through April culminating with a hard snow on April 29th. That might not have been so bad except that our first accumulating snow the previous fall happened on Oct 5th and it snowed periodically through October before starting to stick around shortly after Hallowe'en. When I moved south of the line it didn't take me long to realize that I was going to live a LONG way south of the line ! LOL !

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