60 Gallon Rain Barrel

April showers have finally arrived and our rain barrels are already both at capacity. It has not even rained that much but between the two barrels they collect over half the rain that falls on our roof, and that adds up to enough collected water to fill up our two barrels. The last few rain showers we have had not been major, less than a couple inches total. Even so, I’ve noticed the water flowing out of the overflow valves on our barrels.

Seeing all this rain water leave our barrels made me realize that it was time we started utilizing this water more effectively. Originally we thought we’d just be using the collected rain to water our plants and garden. During the spring when it is raining a lot the barrels are filled up quickly and the garden does not need watering because the rain takes care of that for us. That just left a couple gallons a week used on our indoor plants, hardly making a dent in the 60 gallon rain barrel capacity. Continue reading