Dry Areas Under HUGE Eaves

[Doug Kanter]

Hey...that's actually a good idea. And, birds can hide in them and thumb their beaks/noses at cats. :-)

[Joe Sandlin]

Cool! I just got tired of paying the city to water my garden. We've got a spiffy new water treatment plant, and our water bills have become obscene. I found it to be a remarkably simple project. Google "make rain barrel" or something like that and you'll find a lot of info.

My Pepsi barrels had two 3" or so plugs in the top. I was pleased to find that the plugs had 3/4 FPT threads already in the center. I just cut out some plastic out of the center and screwed in a male PVC adaptor. Then it was all gluing 3/4" PVC to connect a faucet. The barrels were placed upside down on cinder blocks, with a large hole in the bottom (Now the top) for the downspout. I cut the hole to accomodate a basket from a pool skimmer to filter out debris. Then I glued some fiberglass screen to the inside of the basket to keep mosquitoes out. (Use the PVC cement, Super Glue doesn't work) Many people just use a little vegetable oil or a mosquito "dunk" to keep the bugs at bay, but I liked this setup.

Cut off the downspout and connect some flexible corregated drain pipe to run to the barrel. Now for an overflow: I found a "sump pump kit" at Home Depot. It's 25 feet of sump pump drain hose, a 1.5" male fitting and a hose clamp. If you drill your hole the right size, the PVC fitting will cut threads into the side of the barrel. I drilled about 3" down from the top. Unthread, coat the fitting with silicone sealant and screw it back in. Connect your hose and run it someplace harmless.

That's it. It sounds complicated to me as I type it out, but if you have your materials at hand, it's an afternoon project.

One barrel is exactly as I describe. Another two are plumbed in parallel to fill and drain simultaneously for 100 gallon capacity and I just cut the entire top out of the last one so that I can plunge a watering can into it. I just place an old window screen on top of that one.

Hope this helps. It's both an ecologically and financially satisfying project. I think the plants like the water better, too.

Joe

[Lee]

have a similar sitation, compounded by those thingies that go over windows to shade them. It is a small brick home on a concrete slab and most people in this area put soakers around the foundations to keep the soil reasonably moist else the brick can crack from the swelling and shrinking of the soil. SOOoooo.... with that problem solved, the plants get the water they want, too! People who have basements usually do the same thing to protect the basement walls. good luck...Leo

[Doug Kanter]

You're giving them unchlorinated water, so their liking the water better is probably not just in your imagination.

[Doug Kanter]

Care to elaborate on the "protect the basement walls" thought?