Monday, April 30, 2012

DIY Rain Barrel

One of the things I like to do is gardening. Not so much flowers and plants, don't seem to have much luck 
(or patience) with those. 
I do enjoy our veggie garden, that's my "thing". 
I enjoy eating our fresh produce, especially those 
cherry tomatoes!!! 
Last year tomatoes before the frost

Even RN who was not really into vegetables when we first met (unless it was green beans)
is now converted to eating vegetables. 
I am talking broccoli, tomatoes, spinach, even eggplants!
That is a miracle itself!

This will be my 4th year tending a vegetable garden. 
I don't consider myself an expert, but I have tried and seen what works for me.
Cherry tomatoes ALWAYS thrive under my care!

If you have a garden yourself, you know how much water is needed in order to grow some fresh produce in hot weather. So this year we are finally installing a rain barrel...even better, we finished our first rain barrel, and the second is on the list.

Last year we found this kind of barrels on Craigslist. 

$12 a piece. We bought two.
A trip to Lowes to get some parts (spigot and overflow) and for under $20 we have a rain barrel.


Last time I checked water barrel prices were about 
$100 a piece!
I'll take the $20 ones, thank you very much!

Then again, not hard to do if you have a power drill.
Drill the hole for the spigot (make the hole slightly smaller than the actual size. You want a tight fit!) at the bottom, and a hole for the overflow elbow on the side at the top.
You also want to cut a hole on the top to connect to the gutter.

If you want to get fancy, you could attach a gardening hose to the spigot and another one to the overflow valve to direct the water away from the house.
That's what we are going to do.
Simple enough?

Stay Frugal,
Daniela

8 comments:

Kelly said...

Did y'all figure this out yourselves or read a tutorial on how to do this? This is great! We should really try to make one too. It's such a good thing to have. Love how much less yours cost too. I'm sure we would never spend $100 on one!

Daniela @Frugal Aint Cheap said...

we looked at the ones at Lowes and then figure out we needed a spigot and, overflow valve and needed to be able to collect the rain water. I think we are going to use a really fine mesh over the top hole (prevent mosquitos from breeding in the water), and then just cut the downspout.

Crystal @ 29 Rue House said...

Did your lid come off so you could reach down and attach the spigot to the inside? I've found some barrels on craigslist but the lid doesn't come off so not sure how I'd do it.

Daniela @Frugal Aint Cheap said...

no, the lid does not come off. We marked the spot with a sharpie and used the drill until we got close to the inside of the line marked. we then used the white thin tape on the thread and screw it on the barrel. Same with the overflow valve. For the hole at the top we used a jig saw

Laura said...

great idea! my hubby and I have been wanting some of these and they're so expensive. Love this! Thanks!

cgammeter said...

Hi Daniela: I'm Connie at http://hotflashncraftn.blogspot.com/, your new GFC friend. I would love it if you stop by and be mine, too.
Living in a condo, facing the nw, I don't have the opportunity to garden. Oh, I have, just not here. I miss the awesome therapy treatments, I got from the hours spent on my knees in the dirt. Thank you for sharing. Hope to see you at Hot Flash'n Craft'n!

Unknown said...

Hi! I would love to help you with the questions you had about feature buttons, etc but you're coming up as a NoReply email so I can't email you back. Let me know if you change it and I will email you some How-to info.

Roeshel said...

Great find and awesome idea, Daniela!