There’s nothing like a drought to raise one’s awareness of just how precious water really is.
With water just a twist of a tap away, its easy to feel complacent while watching news footage of sun parched arid lands. But as we enter into our forth year
of drought conditions, with heat index often in the high nineties, and with fields and lawns now brittle and brown, its becoming harder and harder to ignore, especially when one is
married to a Master Gardener whose life efforts are invested in two acres of gardens.
For the past few years, as she furthered her knowledge on ornamental horticulture, native plants,
and landscape and garden design at Long Wood Gardens and the New York Botanical Gardens, she's had to
reluctantly depend upon me to keep here gardens watered. Given my prior less then stellar record with plants, I
wanted to water aggressively, but was limited by my concern over the farm's well. Unwilling to accept any limitations on my ability to water, I set off to
research other sources of water.
|
Overflow and vent pipe on top of every barrel
|
Since the beginning of recorded time, mankind has been using collections systems to gather and store rain water for future use, and while the appearance of
the systems have changed, the basic elements that make them up have not. All you need is a wide surface and a piping system to direct the water it the storage device.
Roofs and down spouts fulfill the first two requirements and are at the disposal of every homeowner, it’s getting a proper water storage device that trips up
most would be water collectors.
Trash cans are almost everyone first choice. Readily available, that can be put into use with minimal amount of effort or cost. However, lacking a proper
drain, they can only be emptied by having their owners bend over and scoop the water out - a task which loses its luster after a few days. Not to mention the fact that the few
un-retrievable inches at the bottom of ‘empted’ trash cans forms the perfect misquote breading grounds ....
On the opposite end of the spectrum, there are many manufactured rain barrel systems on the market to chose from, ranging in price from $85 to $135 a barrel.
Considering a single 55 gallon rain barrel contains only enough water to maintain a 3 ft by 5 ft garden for, at most a week, manufactured systems are a bit pricey for the committed
gardener.
For gardeners willing to put in a little sweat equity, there is a third path which will allow you to capture and store as much rain water as you want while
leaving your wallet virtually unscathed.
The first thing you need to do is identify a source of food quality 55
gallon barrels. Manufactures of fruit and soft drink products are an excellent source. And since in most cases the barrels are only allowed to be used once, manufactures will only
too happy to see you cart off as many barrels as you can for free, or at most, at a minimal cost of a few dollars.
Most ‘do-it-yourself’ rain barrel instructions recommend you get barrel with removable tops for two reasons: so you access to the inside of the barrel to
fasten your drain fittings; and, to allow you to clean out any leaves and refuse that enter the barrel.
I however, recommend you look for sealed barrels for three reasons. First, they are more plentiful; second, as you’ll soon learn, a plumber’s pipe tap will
allow you to fit a drain fitting without having to get inside the barrel; and third, instead of worrying about cleaning out the barrel - a simple down spout gutter screen will be
more then adequate to keep any leaves out of your barrel.
A word to the wise here ... don’t skimp on the number of barrels you bring home. I have over 18 barrels scattered around my house holding 1900 gallons of
water - and my master gardener wife goes through them in three days just with regular watering of her multiple gardens.
Your choice of were you’re going to place the barrels will also factor in how many barrel you can use. In selecting barrel placement, make sure you take
the time to look at the vegetation in the area. The chances are better the even, that over the years the area has attracted water loving plants that will not look kindly on having
there water supply cut off. In cases like this, you might want to put in less barrels then you might originally want, thereby assuring the water loving plants get some runoff -
unless of course you don’t want the plants.
OK, now let get to making your perfect rain collection and storage system ...
The first thing you need to do is turn the barrels over and using a 1 inch hole
saw, or paddle drill bit, cut a single hole in the bottom of each barrel - preferably near the edge. Next, contact your favorite plumber and ask if he has a 1 inch pipe thread and
would mind cutting a few ‘thread’ in a rain barrel for you. Since it only takes 30 seconds a barrel, if you’re a good customer, most plumbers will do it for free, epically if you
take the barrels over to their shop. [Note: If you can't find a plumber with the 1" pipe tape, if you're local drop me a line at
michael@emmitsburg.net I'll send you
mine, all I ask is you send it back!]
Next find a high quality paint primer that will stick to plastic, and then
paint them the color of your choice (in my case, I chose white). Believe me, while having a ready source of water will make your gardener spouse happy, not having them stick
out like a sore thumb and take away from the beauty of their garden will make them even happier, not to mention your neighbors.
While you're waiting for the paint to dry, build the stands for the
barrels. A simple two barrel system. like the one in the photo to the right only requires two 4x4x8 pressure treated posts and 3 2x6x8 pressure boards. If your going to
build a 4 barrel system, use a 2x8 for the horizontal support. A good rule of thumb is to add 2" to the 'width' of the horizontal support for every 2 barrels you add. For
example, my 8 barrel system uses a 2x12 for its horizontal support (with 2 extra vertical supports in the center.)
Make sure your dig far enough down so the ends of the post site on 'solid'
ground, and then cement them in. I recommend building your stands first, then 'sinking' them into the ground - that way you can be sure the stand will be level.
While the paint is drying, head down to your local hardware store and pick up the following PVC parts you’ll need to connect your rain barrels:
[Note with exceptions noted by '*", all PVC components are per/barrel. So if you are building a 4 barrel system, get four of each component listed
below]
- ½ PVC parts (Used for overflow vent)
- 1 - Male Threaded Connector
- 2 - 900 Elbows
- 4' of pipe
- 1" PVC parts:
- 1 - Male Threaded Connector
- 1 - 900 Elbow
- 1 - 3-Way ‘T’
- 1 - Ball Valve (threaded) (*per barrel system)
- 3' Pipe
- 3" PVC parts (*per barrel system)
- 2 - 450 Elbows
- 3' of pipe
- 1 Down Spout to Drain Pipe Connector
Other supplies:
- Clear PVC Glue
- Pack of 100 Grit Sandpaper
- Tube of Silicone Glue
- 1" Brass Hose Connecter
Using the sandpaper, take each part and lightly rough up the shiny surfaces
where it will connect to the PVC pipe. Make sure you do this with all your parts, or you might find a few unpleasant drips a few years down the pike. Once the plumber has cut the
'female' threads into the barrel, coat the threads of the male connecter with silicone, and using your hand, screw it in as tight as you can. Be careful! Don’t over tighten it or you
might strip the treads of the barrel. Once set, the silicone will form a waterproof seal.
Next set the barrels in their place. If you're installing more then one barrel
in a given location, connect them all together by cutting your 1" PVC pipe into lengths equivalent to the width of the barrel plus 2 inches. Using the ‘T’ connection, connect the top
of the ‘T’ to the barrel connector. The two remaining opening of the ‘T’ connect to the ‘T’s of adjoining barrels. ‘T’s allow you to connect an unlimited number of barrel together,
only space limits the number of barrels you can connect. (Make sure you use plenty of PVC glue when making the connections - and make sure the full surface area has glue on it by
giving the parts a quick twist!)
For your drain, tap into the common pipe somewhere in the middle (this way you
drain all barrels equally) using another ‘T’ connector. Cut and install an appropriate length of pipe to allow the valve to protrude a comfortable distance from the bottom of the
barrels. Connect the Ball valve to this pipe and then connect the brass hose fittings to the value. (If your only hooking up a single barrel, connect the drain pipe and ball valve
directly to the threaded male connector attached to the bottom of the barrel.)
With your barrel drain system now in place, its time to hook them up to the down spout. Cut a 6 to 8 inch length of 3 inch pipe and stick in into one of the
vent/fill holes at the top of the barrel. (Be careful when selecting which hole to insert the pipe in. Most barrels have two different threaded vent caps. One cap is solid, the
other has a threaded center hole in it that can be ‘punched out’ and fitted with a ½ PVC tap for use in directing overflow. So if your can, place the pipe into the hole sealed by the
solid cap.)
If the pipe doesn’t slide into the hole, use a rasp to widen the
hole. Cut another piece of 3 inch pipe of sufficient length to reach the down spot. Where the pipe meets the down spot, cut the down sport and install the down spout - drain pipe
connector. Connect the other 45 degree elbow to the drain pipe connecter and then connect the pipe to the barrel. (The 1 inch drain pipe connecting the bottom of the barrels will
server to distribute the rain water to all the barrels, so you only need one connector to the down spot.) Before you put your ladder away, make sure you install the down spout
screen.
If your looking to 'wow' your neighbors or just maximize water pressure coming from the barrels, I strongly recommend you place your barrels on an elevated
stand, which can easily be built using a few pressure treated 4x4's and 2x6's. Elevated barrels also don't take up precious grading space and do form nice spots for shade
loving plants.
Lastly, to help you want keep an eye on the water level in the barrels, a water level indicator can easily be made using simple clear tygon tubing. Connect
one end to a fitting taped into the bottom of one barrel. Secure the other to end of the tube to the top of the barrel using tape. The water in the tygon tube will equalize with that
in the barrel giving you an accurate reading.
There you have it! Now all you have to do is sit back and wait for rain. A three hour light rain filled our 18 barrels to overflowing. How quick your
barrels fill depends upon how large the collection surface you use.
While this might seem like a lot of work, if you do everything in a production like fashion, and you get all your parts in advance, it only takes a hour to
assemble everything and install a barrel.
As for your cost, excluding paint, each completely out-fitted barrel will run you about 15 dollars. Far cheaper then any manufactured system. Of course the
difference between the manufactured system and the system described here system is you do all the work in building it.
For more tips about how to successfully garden in a drought, we suggest the following master gardener articles:
Read other articles by Mike
Hillman
