Rain Barrels: How Important Are They For Gardening?
There are a variety of different people that work on their gardens for long periods of time. These people have also been faced with issues that pertain to not having enough water. This is because many of these people live in drought zones where they have many different types of water rules that have to be adhered to. It’s sad to say, that many of these gardeners tend to give up gardening simply because they cannot provide enough water to keep their plants healthy. In this article you’ll discover a way that you can provide much-needed water for your garden by using rain barrels.
Rain barrels are extremely unique because they can be placed on the side of a building, and set up in a way that they can collect all the rainwater needed for your garden. The process is quite simple and in fact very unique because once the rain barrel has been set up; the water can be directed in any location of the garden a person chooses. If you haven’t already done so, the first step would be to obtain a rain barrel. What many people use are the old wine barrels that can be found in wineries, but there are other barrels that can be used such as the large 50 gallon plastic barrels that are used in many facilities that store all types of liquids.
Setting up your rain barrel will consist of providing an opening in the top for water to drain in. Normally if you’re setting the barrel on the side of the building, you want the rain gutter to empty into the top of the barrel. On the barrel itself, you want to measure of at least 10 inches from the bottom, and this is where you’ll place your barrel bulkhead fitting in order for your water to drain from your barrel when you need it. If you’re not familiar with a barrel bulkhead fitting, these can be found at your local hardware stores or home improvement centers. Barrel bulkhead fittings are actually pretty neat because they can be fitted into your barrel, and then you can run your pipe from your bulkhead out to the garden.
You can also add a shutoff valve that will allow you to turn the water on and off as you need it. This can be mounted right on the bulkhead itself making it more of a faucet type fixture. Once your barrel has been set up properly against the building, and your gutter down pipe is placed properly inside the barrel for distributing water, then your barrel is ready for water collection which will allow you to water your garden when the dry time of the season comes. You’ll also want to make sure that you put a cover over the top of your barrel that will ensure your water doesn’t evaporate. This will keep the sunlight out and allow your water to sit comfortably until the time comes when you need to use it.
