My wife has always wanted a rain barrel and she finally got around to putting the effort in to purchase one.
She purchased the rain barrel from The Conservation Foundation:
It was about $60 and from what I was told, it had been used originally to import olives.
So this is where the rain barrel is going to be located. There are two downspouts on the garage. (the other is in the backyard.) Every decorative rock in my yard was brought there by me. The picture does not show it very well but most of the rocks shown are blueish in color. That’s my favorite rock color. I do not know what kind of rocks they are because I really did not pay attention in Geology class in college !! I also make things out of concrete and the bowl there is one that I made. It is there for a birdbath and we get plenty of birds in our yards using the plethora of bird baths I made.
Step 1: Remove the rocks. I have other spots in the yard where they can be used.
Step 2: Excavation and forming. Not too much to it, dig a hole !
Step 3: CONCRETE DAY !!! When I worked construction years ago, concrete days were the best days. I forget how many bags of Quickcrete I mixed up but mixing and finishing only took about an hour.
Step 4: Strip the forms and a little landscaping. I let the concrete cure for a couple of days and had the finished concrete covered with a small piece of plywood so the rain wouldn’t erode the newly finished concrete.
Step 5: Place the rain barrel. It is placed on a platform about 12 inches high to get the watering can underneath it easily.
I had to do a little work on the downspout. There is a nice screen on the ingress of the rain barrel to keep out debris and insects. We shouldn’t have any concern about stagnant water and mosquito larvae !!
I had a piece of old damaged 5/8 inch garden hose that I cut for the overflow.
This is the “Rain barrel” that I’ve had in the backyard for a number of years. The yellow bucket is normally next to the black one to hold the overflow.
