RAIN BARRELS

[GSM/MM]

put in 5 50 gallon rain barrels this spring. so far i've been able to maintain a 1000 sq ft garden with them. was at first surprised at how quickly they filled up. have never been lower than 50% so far, so i guess i could use the excess water for other uses if needed. nice to know. actually "dumping water". i guess if i wanted to figure in rainfall i could ,but dont want to get that involved w/ calculations. just a real world hands on experiment as it were. i am in south eastern va, , though, for informational purposes.

[Rusty Shackelford]

Considering that it has rained every other day in east central indiana for over 1 month there has been no need to use our barrels. They are full and just keep spilling over with each rain since we have not needed to water anything. Last I heard we were at about 7-8 inches for June (that was on the 17th). It rained 1+ inches Friday night/Saturday Am. It is monday and they are showing a storm in illionois capable of 2-3" of rain. Getting clsoe to federal crop insurance time for most farmers around here.

[gnome]

The calculation for rainwater catchment is dead easy. 1in of rain on 1sf of roof = .6 gallons of water. Therefore 1 inch on 1000sf of roof = 600 gallons. Even in the desert where you might get 10 inches of rain a year you are looking at 6,000 gallons of water a year. And that's on 1000sf.

I have also thought that a system of tarps, sails or repurposed parachutes could be used to temporarily multiply catchment several times if the climate is one where the majority of rainfall comes on a handful of days out of the year. Weatherman says rain is coming. String up some tarps between the trees, diverting to barrels or pond within the orchard. All the irrigation you need if you have chosen your species well.

[Rusty Shackelford]

Do you base the sqft on the actual roof with pitch or the sqft footprint of the builing the roof covers???

[NotTheOne]

Square footage of actual roof.

[GSM/MM]

The calculation for rainwater catchment is dead easy. 1in of rain on 1sf of roof = .6 gallons of water. Therefore 1 inch on 1000sf of roof = 600 gallons. Even in the desert where you might get 10 inches of rain a year you are looking at 6,000 gallons of water a year. And that's on 1000sf.

I have also thought that a system of tarps, sails or repurposed parachutes could be used to temporarily multiply catchment several times if the climate is one where the majority of rainfall comes on a handful of days out of the year. Weatherman says rain is coming. String up some tarps between the trees, diverting to barrels or pond within the orchard. All the irrigation you need if you have chosen your species well.

tarps would work well for this. have seen a form of this in action.

[GSM/MM]

wouldnt ya know it. within 2 days of posting down to 25%. got some rain last night that topped me off.

[GSM/MM]

lookn like the rain barrels will pay for themselves this year, first year. net savings on water bill for garden. added peace of mind of having extra water on hand. one group of barrels is being fed from only a 175 sq ft porch roof. other group from 750 sq ft.(1/2 of homes roof)