The Urban Farmer's Almanac

We started thinking about rain barrels as soon as we moved in, and it’s a project that I’ve put considerable effort and thought into. The goal is to have a self-sufficient, self-replenishing, gravity fed watering system that will feed to soaker hoses and minimize our water use this summer for the garden. As we speak we have four 55-gallon food grade barrels (two from craigslist and two from a parking lot down the street) set up. That’s 220 gallons of capacity for you math majors, and at 8.35 lbs. per gallon, that’s almost literally a ton of water that we can store. And the nice thing is, they fill up really quickly. We found that out the first big rain we got after hooking them up to the gutters (or “eavesdrops,” as our Canadian neighbors to the north call them) — it took about an hour to get 55 gallons! I am hoping that with summer rains, we won’t run out of water in the barrels, but we’ll see.

Here are a few pictures of one side of the house; the other one is almost done, and it’s going to be two barrels stacked vertically. Crazy, I know. Note the dollar store strainer used as a filter, and a shot of the system in slow motion during our latest blizzard conditions. Updates on how the system works will come when we start needing to water the garden this spring (or maybe July if this year is like last year.)

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