Recycling Water

[nbp2452]

Before my husband passed away, he rigged up an upside down flower pot....a large funnell....a length of rubber hose..to a length of pvs pipe to capture the condensation from our air conditioner. The idea started out to keep water off my front porch when the a/c dripped but soon he realized he could collect lots of water for his many plants. Jessie could move the pipe to wherever he wanted to fill a bucket. We saved a lot on his watering, which helped offset the cost of the a/c being on. I also use a dishpan inside my kitchen sink to do what little handwashing I do then can throw the water onto plants or trees, I use the shower water bucket as mentioned above, for a flush or two saving water that way. I let the five gallon bucket stay beside me while I shower making the water do two jobs.

[nbp2452]

I also limit my shower to 5 minutes which works well as I have short hair.

[Tampa Mom]

My DH's company just moved into a new building and there was a 55 gallon barrel left there. His boss told him he could take it and we made a rain barrel today. We purchased a spigot (to drain it) and some piping in case of overflow (it's directed into a flowerbed behind it). The screen is across the top and now all we need is some rain and we'll be in business! It only cost us a few dollars for the spigot, piping and the wire to hold the screen (already had some) over the hole to keep leaves out. It's sitting on two cinder blocks that we had...raised up to be able to drain it.

I'm glad we finally have our rain barrel set up!

[nbp2452]

I don't have gutters on my home and didn't want to go to the expense of installing them just to capture rain water. Instead I found if I put the open top barrel ( garbage can ) under the eve I usually get a 30 gallon can full with each rain. That works for the grass in the front, I let the back grass fend for itself. I don't have plants to water to make everything simple.

[Tampa Mom]

I don't have gutters either. I put my rain barrel under a spot where we get a waterfall with every rainstorm. Gutters are not necessary for a rain barrel to work.

[Tampa Mom]

We've had our typical dry spring so far in Florida and my rain barrel was getting a bit on the low side. We had two rainstorms come through last weekend and filled it up by about 30 gallons. It was so nice to not turn the hose on yestrday and be able to take the water from the rain barrel and water the garden.

It's amazing how nice free water is!!!

[Jeepgirl]

I've been wanting to get rain barrels started, can't get DH on board with it fully. He likes the idea, but hates the look. I'm going to keep working on him though. We have finally started to get our spring rain here in VA, it's late in the season but we'll take what we can get.

[chickn]

Question for you ladies....how do you keep it from becoming a mosquito breeding ground?

[Jeepgirl]

From what I have read you need to put a screen over the opening for the downspout, plus put in a little bleach to keep the mold/algae from taking over.

[Tampa Mom]

Ours does have a screen over the top. It also keeps out the debis that comes off the roof in a rain storm as well. So far we haven't had any mold/algae problems (I look into it every day). But a tablespoon of bleach would be my remedy if there was a problem.

As to the 'look', I've seen pictures of ones that have been painted...some artistically and some to match the house so it blends. Ours is the original blue and we're fine with that. If you contact your local extension office (down here it's a county agricultural office) there's usually literature you can find. Remember, you'll need several things to start...a barrel, screen (and something to secure the screen-we used coated wire that we wrapped around and knotted), two cincer blocks to set the barrel on, a faucet to get the water out (we used a plastic one) and piping for overflow. It you or DH are not handy, it's not too bad to get one already made for about $35.