I’m Ready for it This Year

Let’s hope that the drought of 2007 is ancient history.  So far we are off to a good start with rain levels for 2008, especially after the tornado’s and storms that just struck down the road here in Virginia this week.

My sweet little town of Hampton has vowed to go Green this year so along that theme the City (and our wonderful Master Gardeners of Hampton) hosted a rain barrel workshop.  For a reasonable $30 they supplied the barrel, all the parts and instructions for putting together your own barrel.  I couldn’t sign up fast enough, and in fact I signed up for two.

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You actually had to crawl inside these used olive barrels to put the spouts in. 

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That Wendy dog is such a ham, she always jumps in front of the camera!

I’ve still got to build a platform for these and connect them.  One will get connected to the downspout and the other will collect the overflow from the first one.

Now, I have had one rain barrel for years.  It’s really just a very large open plastic container that my husband outfitted with a spout at the bottom.  It is open at the top so I don’t use the spout except to open it in the winter for the whole thing to drain out.  I just dip my watering can into it.  I keep a mosquito dunk floating at all times so that we don’t breed those nasties.  It works quite well, but one isn’t enough.  Last year during the drought it was empty most of the time. 

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One time a squirrel went swimming in here and never went home.  So now I keep a stick in it as an escape route.  Yikes!

Yesterday at my local ACE hardware they had some nice rain barrels.  It is good to see that they are becoming more popular.  The plants love the rain water and it’s FREE!

I’m hoping that I can keep my entire garden watered this year with rain water collected in my three barrels. 

12 thoughts on “I’m Ready for it This Year”

  3. We are with you all the way! We changed our “park like setting” in the backyard to a big victory garden. We have not had a drought problem up here for a while, but that could always change. It is good to figure out these solutions, and it doesn’t hurt for the kids to see how to deal with it. Your garden must be gorgeous already. xxoo, Susan

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  4. Great inspiration, thanks so much for sharing. I really need to do this now that I’ve got a more serious garden growing.

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  5. We have an old wheelie bin collecting water that is open at the top. What is a mosquito dunk???
    It is great to be able to collect some rain water to help keep our gardens alive during times of drought
    Alison

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  6. I agree on the drought….we have it in Florida as well so I pray for a wetter summer. Really irks me to see all these people who are sprinkling their lawns daily when we are on severe restriction~grrrr!

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  7. What a conscientious thing to be doing in this era of “conspicuous consumption” of our natural resources. We need to all follow your example. Good for you.
    Brenda

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  8. We are doing that this year also, it was not good last year. Those Hampton Master Gardeners are great, I was one several years ago when I lived in Hampton. It is different here on the Southside, more rural and agricultural with the Master Gardeners.

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  9. Wow, good for you! I’ve always wanted to have a rain barrel but just never got around to it. I’ll have to look for a workshop around here.
    Hope you have lots of rain, Hugs, DebraK

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  12. I am sooo going to do that! I know it is way late in the season to get started but better late than never! I’m seriously very excited about this. I am constantly trying to come up with more ways to “go green.” First off, we are vegetarians which totally helps, and we got a composter which we faithfully use, now I am so inspired by your rain saver I am going to do it too, pronto!

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