Merv's marvellous rain catchment system

It's been very rainy here for the past several days, which is wonderful because everything was getting thirsty. My rain barrels were empty, but now they're overflowing.

And so, I suspect, are my dad's. He's come up with a rain catchment system that is pretty cool, and he's given me permission to share his homemade, practical solution that probably costs half of what most rain barrels cost. I wish I'd thought of it before we spent $65 per barrel all those years ago...

Rain is a resource that is too often taken for granted in our western world. The invention of indoor and outdoor plumbing means that North Americans spend a lot of money pouring treated water on our lawns and gardens in dryer times, and water that goes through our water treatment facilities can't have nearly the nutrients that rain water carries! I hate sprinkling city water on my garden because I suspect its chemical treatment actually stunts plants' growth. One of these years, I'm going to do an experiment with two identical plants, one watered with tap water and one with rain water, just to see what happens...

The thing is, we could easily save rainy day resources with a little thought and ingenuity, as my dad has. Basically, he's converted a couple of big plastic garbage cans into rain barrels. By adjusting the length of his downspout, cutting a hole in each dome-shaped lid and turning it upside down during rainstorms, he ensures that the water is funneled from his rain spouts into two barrels.

He's also prevented mosquitoes from populating his water reserves with larvae by stapling a piece of screen over the holes. When my mom wants to water her plants, she just removes the lid and plunges her watering can into the barrel rather than having to wait for the water to trickle out of a spout at the bottom, saving time.








Though this wouldn't work with a drip irrigation system without adding some sort of tap valve, it serves the needs of their yard, which is full of planters that require regular watering...


So there you have it. A practical, less expensive way to keep the best water there is for any plants growing... Credit and royalties for this simple idea go to Merv! Right, Dad?

Simple Suggestion #24... Use a rain barrel (or six)

This just happens to be a rainy week in my little corner of the world, which makes me happy, because my near empty rain barrels have refilled, and my garden is perking up with all the good stuff that comes in fresh rain water.

We have five rain barrels in our back yard, and honestly, we could do with a couple more out front. It doesn't take neophyte gardeners very long to discover that watering with treated city water just doesn't make the garden as happy as the rain that runs down the roof, into the eavestroughs, through the pipes and into those barrels. And there's something that just feels right about watering with a rain-filled watering can rather than a hose. For one thing, it's using a resource that ends up running through our sewers if we don't catch it. For another, it's a gentler, more energy efficient way of providing what our plants really need. Rain water doesn't have to be gathered from our river, run through our water treatment plants, and forced through watermains and pipes to our hoses before our plants get it.

In Australia, which has been going through a long drought period, there are plenty of folks who are relying on rain water capture systems to provide for their water intake needs, not just for their gardens, but for their existence. Our neighbours own a piece of land where it was impossible to drill a well, so they have an amazing rain water system that fills a large juice tank from the roof of their cottage. As the world's fresh water supplies have more and more demands placed upon them by over seven billion people, we need to start doing more serious thinking about our collection and use of water, which is a resource that is turning out to have definite limits in many places in the world.

I've always loved Isaiah 55 where it says,

As the rain and the snow
come down from heaven,
and do not return to it
without watering the earth
and making it bud and flourish,
so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,
so is my word that goes out from my mouth:
It will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.

God's providence is amazing. He and she does things totally organically -- so when it comes to water in this part of the world, we're fortunate that all we need to do is have a little consideration, and set up some rain barrels!

P.S. Looking for more Simple Suggestions? Try here.