Rain Barrels Capture Rain for Your Watering Needs

One thing in life is always unpredictable. The weather, and the forecasters never seem to get it right. Though they try their best, relying on forecasters to tell you when rain is coming is a risky chance. For those with home gardens, watering is an essential part of the process and mother nature never seems to help out.

Either you go weeks without water or you get a day long drenching downpour. Neither is ideal for a home garden, but there are ways to solve the watering dilemma. You can add sprinklers to your garden and most garden would indeed benefit from a sprinkler system. But their are downsides to sprinklers including the cost of the system, the time it takes to install it, the trenches dug to install it, and of course the amount of additional water you will use with a sprinkler system.

A sprinkler system is an active system. Meaning you must turn it on, or a computer must turn it on to work. This type of system is great, but what if your budget or your garden location doesn't lend well to a full blown sprinkler system, but you still want consistent water for your garden. Well there is an answer and its commonly called a rain barrel or a rain water collection system.

A rain barrel works by storing rain water during those downpours. The rain barrel is attached to your homes downspouts. As it rains, the barrel is filled up. Most barrels are 55 gallons in size and can hold several rainfalls worth of water before filing completely.

When the rain barrels fills up, you can attached a garden hose and by gravity alone, the water inside will slowly trickle out and into your garden. The real benefit of the system is that it requires little more than a 55 gallon rain barrel and a rain storm to function.

The system collects excess water during wet times of year for use in your garden during the dry times of the years. In a way, it is a buffer to allow your garden to survive through brief droughts. During dry times, there is a chance that the system could be used up and then you may have to resort to the sprinkler, but the rain barrel setup is very efficient and could provide all of the water needed for a small garden.

If your garden is larger, you may consider using several rain barrels attached to every downspout on your house. This method catches all of your runoff water for use in your garden. An added benefit of a rain barrel is that it contains water that would exit your downspouts near your house and prevents that water from perhaps leeching into your basement. By eliminating water near the outside of your house, you can reduce the chance of flooding.

A rain water collection system is a "green" approach designed to meet your watering needs. It's simple to install, costs very little, is easily maintained, and provide much needed water in times of drought. You can't predict the weather, but you can store what it throws at you.