harvesting rainwater

**forestdale** · 05-28-2005, 03:47 PM

Rainwater is the best type of water to apply to your vegetable garden. An ideal situation would be to have rain one or two days a week with warm sunny conditions inbetween the rain showers. That doesn't happen enough but you can water your vegetables with rainwater if you save it when it rains.

I have a big water tank that holds 5000 litres of rainwater but before I got that tank I used to harvest rainwater whenever I could.

You can buy rainbarrels that are made specifically for the collection and storage of rainwater but you can also collect it without spending big bucks.

Look around your property and see if you have any large clean containers with lids that would be suitable for water. Don't use anything that used to contain fuel, gas, petrol, oil or any petro-chemical product. If you have no suitable containers go to Walmart or any chain store and buy a really big plastic rubbish bin with a lid. It'll cost you around $10.

Your roof is going to be your harvest area so check out the set up of the downpipes from your roof. Often there are downpipes on the corners of the house. If this is the area you want to use as your collection point make sure you have enough room for your collector bin and that it won't be in the way of normal family traffic.

Remove the lid, fit it under the downpipe and trace around the pipe with chalk. With a sharp knife, cut out the shape of the downpipe and fit the lid back on the bin. Then place the bin under the downpipe with the pipe inserted into the bin through the hole you just cut. Make sure the bin is standing securely.

**Note: if the downpipe runs right down to the ground, you may have to cut off the end piece so that your bin will sit under the downpipe with about 6 inches of pipe extending into the bin. Remember that if you need to move the bin it will be difficult to move without removing the water if the pipe is running to the bottom of the bin. I always left my bin in place and filled a small bucket from the bin.

If the rain barrel is securely covered, you can store your rainwater indefinately and you can store as many barrels as you have and have room for.

ADDITION

Depending on the type, the lifecycle of mosquito eggs and lavae is anywhere between 1 - 4 weeks. If you intend using your entire rain barrel every week the mosquitoes lavae will not have the time to hatch. If you intend to store the water for an indefinate period it must be covered to prevent the spread of mosquitoes.

**homesteadmamma** · 05-28-2005, 04:01 PM

We have 2 rain barrels in our yard. Because of West Nile Virus, everyone has been told not to have standing water anywhere in their yards. We are fixing our rain barrels so that they will have proper covers.

Rain water is also great for house plants too.

**jlxian** · 05-28-2005, 08:25 PM

We are still musing/mulling over fixing two rainbarrels -- one to catch water from our garage and one from the back of the barn. Both of these would be close to each of our gardens. And we will have to fix them up with covers to keep out the mosquitos.

**Kimberlina** · 05-29-2005, 02:52 PM

Question for anyone who might know the answer (because I am looking to collect up some rain water, too): If the barrels are convered with fine screen, like window screen, is that small enough to keep the mosquitos out and prevent them from laying eggs?

Not that it will help much- the town redid the street two years ago and we have a perpetual rain pit in front of our house now.

**forestdale** · 05-29-2005, 03:14 PM

Kimber, yes the window screening would be okay. I knew about kerosine to keep mosquitoes at bay so I searched for another natural solution. (I wouldn't use kerosine in the rainwater I wanted to use on my vegetables.) I could only find the kerosine one but I'll give you the link for that because you might like to use it on your front puddle.

http://www.motherearthnews.com/libra...r/Country_Lore

**Kimberlina** · 05-29-2005, 04:13 PM

Thanks, Rhonda. I was thinking about filling in the puddle with crushed stones, but then I also think that I shouldn't have to pay to fix something the town did. I may try the kerosene trick, though. I guess I should contact the town and tell them to fix their mess!

Anyway, I think I will put some screening over my collection containers once I get them out there.

**PrairieRose** · 05-30-2005, 11:30 AM

I've also heard that a small amount of bleach will do the same.....not sure it's any more eco friendly though. In rain barrells that don't empty out I've heard you can put a couple of gold fish in them...they will eat the larvae and you don't have to feed the fish either. Can't ever let those barrells get empty though.

**QuilterMom** · 05-30-2005, 01:50 PM

I have a copy of a rain barrel for dh to make from the July/August 2002 issue of Organic Gardening magazine. I don't like that the lid though has a permanent hole in it (covered with nylon mesh screening). I am thinking I would much rather just go take the lid off each time it rains and then replace the lid. What I like about this design is they added a faucet to the front of the barrel. They just used a 35 gallon heavy-duty trash can for the barrel.

It seems like I've read elsewhere that you should avoid placing your barrels near a chimney (if you have one) because the water running off would be contaminated near that area of your roof.