Rain Barrels and Rain Gardens

Rain Barrels and Rain Gardens

Did you know? Natural rainfall is one of the best sources of water for your garden. You don’t have to wait for it to rain in order to get natural rainfall for your garden though. Instead, you can simply gather the rain into storage containers, to save for watering your garden during the dry spells. You can also create a Rain garden, which is designed specifically for taking advantage of the natural rainfall more effectively too. Let’s look at both.

Gathering Rain For Use Later
An average sized home can shed hundreds of gallons of water from its roof each time it rains. And in most cases, this water is directed to the ground or local sewage system through the use of roof rain gutters.

Gardeners in the know however, don’t let that water go to waste. Instead, they place rain barrels in strategic places around their home, and gather the rain water that’s shed from the roof. The rain barrels collect and store your rain water until it’s needed, instead of letting it go to waste.

Using rain barrels for your garden can be done in several different ways. The most common method is to simply collect the rainfall run off from the roof of your home, and then fill your garden watering cans from a spigot or faucet in the barrel. If you’d rather have something a little more automated though, you can attach a garden hose, sprinkler, drip system, or soaker system to the faucet of your rain barrel instead. Then when you want to water the garden, simply run the hose to the area which needs water, and turn on the faucet. The natural rainfall you’ve collected will then be drained from the barrel.
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Garden Tip...

Propagating Plants: Take a pan, or dish, at least three inches deep—the circumference of which may be as large as you wish, fill to within one half inch of the top with sand. The cuttings are to be inserted in the sand, which is made very wet, of the consistency of mud. The pan should then be placed on the window case, where it will receive the full light of the sun, which will not injure the cuttings in the least, providing the sand is kept constantly wet, being careful to never allow it to become dry for a moment, otherwise the plants will be lost.

Is there no drainage from the pan necessary? none, the atmosphere will evaporate the water fast enough to prevent any stagnation during the brief time required for the cuttings to take root.

Success in propagating in this way, depends altogether upon keeping the sand wet like mud until the cuttings in it are "struck" or rooted, and this may be easily determined—with the hand gently try to lift the cutting, you will know if it is rooted by the hold maintained on the sand, if not, it will come out. A little experience in feeling with the hand in this way, will enable you to readily determine whether the cutting is rooted or not.
~ James Sheehan
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You can also connect multiple rain barrels together to make the system much easier. In most cases, the barrels you’ll use to collect the rainwater from your roof will hold about 50-60 gallons of water. By connecting 3, 5, 10 or more of those barrels together though, you can be sure you’re collecting as much rain runoff as you possibly can. Sometimes you can get over 300 gallons of rain water from just one rainfall.

Rain barrels can be purchased online or at local garden centers, or you can make your own using discarded plastic barrels. You’ll want to be sure you’re using food quality containers though, and not barrels which have held harsh and dangerous chemicals in them.

Creating a Rain Garden
Another natural way to use rain water run off from your roof, is to simply direct it to a rain garden. Rain gardens are usually created in a natural or purposely made low spot in your yard. If you dont’ have a natural depression where the rain water collects on its own, you can create one by digging it out instead.

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Garden Tip...

The Calla Lily, or "The Lily of the Nile," is an old and popular favorite, and is found in window-garden collections everywhere. It is a native of the tropics, where it is said it grows to an enormous size; a single flower often measuring one to two feet in diameter. The Calla will attain its highest perfection if planted in a rich, mucky soil, obtained from a swamp or bog. It also requires an abundance of water during the growing season. Callas, like all other bulbous plants, must have a season of rest. If required to bloom during the winter or spring months, they must be rested in the summer season, if this is not done we must not expect to have any success in flowering them. The blooming season can be reversed if desired, by resting in winter. Without allowing them at least three months of rest, it is useless to expect to flower them successfully. By "resting," we mean to withhold water, and allow the leaves and stalks to die down completely to the bulb. Then turn the pot on its side under a tree or grape-arbor, and let the soil dry up completely; this will kill the stalk but not injure the bulb.
~ James Sheehan
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Make sure the depression you create will actually get rain water run off to it naturally when it’s completed. You can dig a small trench from a rain gutter on your home for instance, which will allow the water run off to be directed to the location you want it.

Then create your garden. Put in plants and flowers which like good, deep watering. Then each time it rains, the water will collect in this garden naturally, and take a bit of time to soak into the ground. This will allow the garden to receive a very deep watering naturally, and your plants will thrive.