Rain Barrel Storage

Oh, how my garden does grow! I thought that I would begin by showing off my beautiful peonies. These peonies came from my Great-Grandmother and have been divided, transplanted, and moved many, many times. None-the-less they are beautiful!

I have 5 other colors and species of Peony, but these are by far my favorite. These remind me so much of Old-world roses or as we always called them, "cabbage roses." I would love to have some of those.
Last year I kept thinking about how I could save $$ and still water my garden when it needed it the most. I had looked at rain barrels in magazines and gardener supply catalogs for awhile, but they just seemed over priced. Dad came up with the idea of making my own out of a food-storage drum. I looked up plans on the Internet and found that it wasn't as difficult as I thought. With a little engineering and some planning, it wouldn't be difficult at all. Right...

Dad found an advertisement in the local Free Enterprise about food-grade barrels for sale. They were used, but only $10 each! However, these barrels were out in the the middle of nowhere. I am not kidding when I tell you that there are several places in Trumbull County that person's from Deliverance wouldn't go! That was were we went. Believe it or not there is a auto-wrecking haven 10 miles outside of nowhere. That is the place. The stack of barrels was 6 high (laid on their sides) and about 20 long. Each one held a different food stuff: Vinegar, Red Wine, Soy Sauce, etc. So the overall odor was impressive...and the bees loved it!

Each barrel was sealed and still clean inside so Dad bought two of them. When he got them back to my house we had to open them up for a several weeks to get the Red Wine Vinegar and the Cooking Sherry smell out. Let me tell you how wonderful my barn smells right now! Lucky for me I love the smell of both of those.

The barrels are solid molded plastic with two openings in the top about 3" in diameter. In order to get them to do what I want I needed to cut some access holes in the top. I wanted a spigot on the bottom of the barrel to access the water. In case of water emergency I can use a watering-can and individually water the plants. The other thing I needed was a connector to attach it to the guttering system of my barn. The results have exceeded my expectations.

I did a bit of research into painting plastic so that I could cover the electric blue color of the barrels. Amazingly enough I found a spray paint in Wal-mart that covers plastic (like those ridiculous plastic chairs that people use on their patios because they are too cheap to buy good furniture (Do I have them?....I plead the fifth!) I chose brown to mimic the appearance of an old fashioned wine barrel. I don't think that turned out too badly.

Now I don't remember how to figure out rain fall levels into gallons so that I could comment on how much rain I need to fill the barrels. Each side of the roof is 20'x12'. Apparently, we had enough rain this week (mon/tues/wed) to fill each barrel half-way. These are 55 gallon drums, so that is an impressive amount of water fall for just that small amount of time (considering how the rain was mostly a drizzle rather than a hard rain.

Until next week,
I wish for you quiet, dignity, and grace.
Dan