Use a barrel to conserve rain for watering.
Conserve rain water in a barrel to not only use for watering your garden, but also to use in your toilet, to wash your car or to mop your floors. Collect this natural, free resource in barrels available from garden retailers. These barrels are pre-cut and drilled so all you have to do is connect it to your source of rainwater. For an even cheaper option, some state natural resources offices conduct workshops on make a rain barrel and supply all the tools and materials necessary to make one. Does this Spark an idea?
Instructions
1. Position the barrel underneath your home's gutter downspout.
2. Build a level, stable platform with a layer of cinder blocks. Even out the soil underneath the blocks, if necessary, to make it completely level. Rake the soil level. Remove some of the soil with a shovel if needed and then rake level.
3. Disconnect the downspout by pulling down on it until it releases.
4. Place the barrel on top of the cinder blocks underneath where the downspout was previously located.
5. Attach a flexible downspout extender in place of the previous downspout.
6. Set the end of the downspout extender in the barrel's top. If your barrel does not have a pre-cut lid to thread the extender through, cut your own. Use a utility knife and cut it a little larger than the diameter of the extender.
Tags: cinder blocks, downspout extender, necessary make