Friday, July 30, 2010

How to water the garden with rain barrel water.

I'm almost embarrassed to show this photo. We have 2 rain barrels, and currently we don't have one of those neat pumps that you attach to the spigot to pump out the water. With rain barrels, unfortunately, gravity has to be your best friend. That's how the water comes out of the barrel, or you buy a pricey barrel pump. I've been eyeing the one at Clean Air Gardening, they have a battery operated pump for $49.99. You attach the pump to a garden hose, and voila, enough water pressure to empty out the barrel to water your plants.

I have to save my pennies to buy this pump, since we've already overspent on the garden this year. We easily spent over $1,000 on start up costs. Hey, a picket fence for a 25x25 lot is not cheap! So for now, this is how I water the plants with water from the rain barrel. I fill up these Arizona bottles and this bucket and wheelbarrow it over to the garden. The garden is a good 160 feet away from the house and rain barrels. I swear my neighbors think we are weird, but I can't pass up free rain water! Since we pay so much for tap water!
For those of you who have rain barrels, how do you water your plants? Do you empty it into a watering can? Use a hose. Use a pump?

7 comments:

  1. Awesome dedication! No... I don't think that you're weird!

    Don't have a rain barrel... yet! That's great that you do and your using that FREE water!

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  2. I fill up my watering cans by hand and tote them over to the veggie garden and containers. My hubby is trying to come up with a solution to this as well. :)

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  3. I dip my watering cans into my rain barrel, one in each hand.:)

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  4. not weird, awesome!

    We have a rain barrel up on a few cinder blocks. It helps with the gravity feed, but even so when the barrel is less than half full it's really slow.

    Luckily we've had so much rain we haven't need to water much and the barrel is almost always full!

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  5. You're doing a great job. I think if you buy a pump they won't last anyway. Seems like 1/2 the stuff you buy is cheap now and breaks quickly.

    For no bigger than your yard is, your method sounds good to me.

    I'd take the money you'd spend on a pump and buy a little wagon to pull the water, veggies, fertilizer and so forth around in......

    This cart is one of the best buys I have purchased for the yard

    http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Q1IBc1KHPm0/SaWQeEHybbI/AAAAAAAABD8/FvJSF5UIFk0/s1600-h/DSC00915.JPG

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  6. Don't think about the neighbors thinking your weird ..they are probably thinking how smart you guys are..When you're sitting down to your garden harvest..lets see who would like to be you jugs :o)
    We were supposed to install the water barrel this year , but the veggie boxes lowered the budget. A definite "must do" for us next year (our before)...Ginny

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  7. I don't have a pump! Instead, we have a 10 ft hose attached to a spigot at the bottom of the barrel and I use it to fill up my watering can. It's old school and a bit laborious, but it's great exercise and I save on a gym membership! So save your $50 plus shipping and keep doing what you're doing! :0) Who cares what your neighbors think!

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