the_alice•1mo agoMost Upvoted

A neighbor's 20 year old advice about rain barrels actually worked

My neighbor Bill kept telling me to put a simple diverter on my downspout instead of buying one of those fancy rain barrel kits. I ignored him for two springs because the kits looked nicer and had screens and filters. Last week after a heavy storm in Portland, I finally tried his method: a 55 gallon drum from the feed store, a cut hose, and a basic Y connector. It filled up in one downpour and the water stayed clear enough for my vegetable beds. He was right that the simple setup has fewer parts to clog or break, and it cost me about $30 total. The fancy kits I was eyeing run closer to $150 and I have seen mixed reviews about their pumps failing. Has anyone else had luck with the homemade approach or did you end up needing to upgrade later?

2 comments

2 Comments

hill.margaret1mo ago

Oh wow, that is basically the same thing my dad did back in the 90s with an old pickle barrel from the diner down the road. He swore by it for his tomatoes and honestly that thing lasted like 15 years before the plastic finally got brittle. The only thing I would add is that you should put some kind of mesh over the top anyway, not for filtering but to keep mosquitoes from breeding in there. We learned that the hard way one summer and the whole neighborhood ended up with bites on their ankles. Also, make sure you put the barrel up on cinder blocks so the water pressure is enough to reach your garden hose, otherwise you will be hauling watering cans around like a fool. But yeah, simple wins sometimes, I am glad Bill talked some sense into you.

tessa_murray1mo ago

Learned that mosquito lesson myself, cinder blocks are the real trick here.