How to Build a Rain Barrel

The Problem:
A garden, which requires daily watering in the summer.

A gutter that creates a waterfall to the ground, and the water has gouged an 8-inch hole in the ground.

The Solution:
A rain barrel! A rain barrel will catch the falling water, and save it for when we need it.

We looked around to buy a barrel, but they're fairly expensive. We really had no idea how large a barrel we needed. We checked out YouTube for videos of how to make one ourselves. It turns out that it was a project that was fairly inexpensive and simple, so off we went to Home Depot.

Supplies:

• Irrigation tube: $5.41
• 32 gal. trash can: $9.88
• 3/4" spigot: $5.33
• Auto/Marine sealant: $4.57
• 8 cement blocks: $$1.39 each, $11.12 total
• 4 cement caps: $1.09 each, $4.36 total
• 2 1" Spring Clamps: $2.09 each, $4.18 total
• Things around the house: Knife, scissors, x-acto knife, Sharpie, length of old water hose, dirt

Total Price: $44.85

Let's get started!

The Base:

1. Arrange four cement blocks in a square, leaving a square hole in the middle (see the photos below)
2. We filled the spaces with dirt for extra stability
3. Start with the next layer of cement blocks. Fill with dirt.
4. Top off with the cement caps

Tada!

The Spigot:

1. Trace around the spigot onto the side of the trash can. Cut out inside the traced hole.
2. Apply glue
3. More glue
4. Work the spigot into the hole

Tada!

The Overflow Hose:

1. Trace around the hose and cut a hole a few inches from the top of the trash can.
2. Cut the hose to length long enough to send the overflow water where you want it (Ours was just long enough to make it to the ground and a foot or so away. We already had the water pounding into the ground, so a softer flow of water onto the same place seemed like it would be fine. You could use a longer hose to direct to a flower bed or wherever.)
3. Insert the hose into the cut hole. Make sure the metal attachment is on the inside of the trash can, to help the hose stay in place
4. Glue

The Drain Pipe:

1. Cut slits in the rim to accommodate the larger gutter.
2. Slide over gutter and measure length to trash can.
3. Cut off excess pipe
4. Trace and cut hole in trash can lid 
5. Clamp pipe to gutter, and put other end of pipe in trash can

Tada! You're done! Now just wait for the rain! It only took one night of good rain to fill up our barrel! I'll be interested to see how much water it takes to water the garden.

Notes:

1. If you're an observant kind of person, you'll notice that in the pictures, our rain barrel moved from directly under the window to a few feet to the right. Let's just say, test out your pipe and how it connects to the gutter before deciding where to put the base.
2. I suppose, if 32gal doesn't end up being enough, that we could add a second barrel using the same technique, only connecting it to the first barrel with the overflow hose, so it will fill up after the first is full.
3. I'm hoping that having a lid for the barrel will prevent mosquitoes, but I will definitely be checking occasionally. A friend suggesting adding Mosquito Dunkers to the water to prevent mosquitoes. They're donut-shaped things that float on the water and kill mosquito larva.

After last night's rain, it looks like we'll need to add a little more sealant around the spigot. Other than that, I'm completely satisfied with my new rain barrel. I can't wait to start using it, and I really hopes it helps with our water usage this summer! 

More Garden Harvest

Here are a few mores photos of some recent garden harvest.




And what better to do with squash and zucchini than saute with onions! Sometime soon we'll have onions from our garden, but until then, these are store-bought.

How Does My Garden Grow?

It's been almost two months since Jon and I put in our garden. Since that post, we've added soaker hoses and mulch, and made a few minor produce changes.

The biggest problem in the beginning was I forgot to allow room for my cucumbers. I decided to plant them where I had put seeds out for tomatoes, since we had tons of tomatoes. Well then the tomato seeds came up so well that I hated to pull them up, so I yanked out the cucumber seedlings and planted more seeds where the bell peppers were supposed to come up. Those never showed up, so the cucumbers are happily growing there. Our only other disappointment was the potatoes, which I have to admit was a bit of a haphazard endeavor in the first place. We just pulled a potato out of our fridge, chopped it up and stuck it in the ground! Not sure what went wrong; some have suggested we should have let the potato cuts dry up a little bit so they wouldn't rot in the ground. So I have a bare spot there, but otherwise everything is growing great! We just had our first harvest of green beans!

Here's how the garden started on Good Friday:

And here is how it looks now!


Here's some yellow squash:
And here's one of the hard workers who make things happen in the garden:
More green beans ready to pick:
Sugar snap peas and zucchini squash:
There's a zucchini!
Cherry tomatoes
Bell peppers (that we started from plants, not seed)
And jalapenos!
Everything is growing so well, and it's so much fun to check on the garden every day and see what's new. Next year I'll plant all my tomatoes with seed, I think, because they did so well this year. And I won't use seed for peppers. Live and learn.

The biggest challenge right now is the aphid community that has moved into the sugar snap peas. Any suggestions on these pesky guys?

All Things New

Today Jon and I put in our first garden! No pots this time--real rows in the ground! I think it's just about the coolest thing Jon and I have done together. Gardening is usually my project, but Jon wanted to make it really work this time, and hopefully we'll eat fresher and save some money over the summer. I loved working alongside him getting it ready, and it'll be cool to have produce from our own garden to enjoy and share!

Here's how the spot in our yard started. The previous youth minister had a pool here, so it's got a two-inch layer of sand over the whole thing.
The bags are composted manure. The soil around here is very good, but we wanted to add something to it, especially with all the sand it'll already have.

So...on to pouring manure. I was completely tied up inside keeping Caleb busy...and taking pictures of my hubby doing all the work...that I just couldn't be involved with the manure, as much as I would have loved to. So who will take care of the manure for me??
The first row being prepared....
Eight beautiful rows of manure:

Time to till!

Almost done! Jon's having to put his back into it, which means there's no way I could have handled that tiller.
All tilled!

Time to plan it all out:
Laying it all out before planting, to make sure we fit it all in...which of course we didn't. One of my seed packets got blown away by the breeze and I didn't notice until the end. Guess I'll plant cucumbers next year!

All planned out
Time to get it planted! I gave Jon a break after tilling, but he did plant quite a bit, too.
ALL DONE! Now to wait and see what happens next! Tonight we're listening to the low rumble of thunder and the steady beat of rain, perfect for our new plants.
Here's the list of what we planted:

• Peppers (bell, poblano, jalapeno)
• Tomatoes (heirloom, cherry)
• Onions (red, white)
• Potatoes
• Carrots
• Green beans
• Sugar Snap peas
• Yellow squash
• Zucchini
  
• Cilantro
• Cantaloupe

Gardening Fun

This is the first year I've lived in a house with a yard that I really wanted to garden in! Until now I've stuck mainly to potted plants. The only plants I put in the ground were irises, and only because I knew I could easily dig them up and bring them with me when we moved. So now, my Texas irises are comfortably in the front flower bed, and I have several other goodies in the back! There are no formal flower beds, yet, so I haven't bought bulbs or anything like that. Here's what I've planted so far:

• the 2 crepe myrtles that have been in pots in Texas...though I think one may not have made it.
• 3 rose bushes
• a forsythia bush (makes a big bush of yellow flowers in spring; they're everywhere around here)
• a small azalea bush...it's fun buying small and knowing I'll be here to see it grow!
• a plum tree!

I'm really excited about the plum tree. There was a plum tree here before we got here, but the trunk was rotting out, so it was cut down right before we moved in. I heard, though, that it produced plums and people came and took them on their way home from church. The tree I have is fairly tall--maybe 6 or 7 feet--so I'm hoping it's old enough to make some fruit this year! I think it would be fun to be able to "share of our bounty" to the passerby who likes homemade plum jam. Not that I would make the jam, but I would be happy to share my plums.

Here's a picture of our little plum tree's very first bud. I'm so proud!

Garden goodness

Today I had a salad of tomatoes and cucumber with ranch. It was yummy, and the best part was that I grew it all in my own back yard! (Not the ranch.) So, being as I am not usually successful in my gardening attempts, I've deemed these Very Easy To Grow. When we were out of town in Boston, the temps unexpectedly rose to 100 degrees, and my cucumber plants (out in full sun all day) were fried. The tomatoes, in partial shade, fared better, but the leaves have always been puny. Still, both have been putting out the vegetables! I'm growing grape tomatoes and pickling cucumbers. I'm also growing a variety of each of hot pepper and bell pepper, but I don't think they'll have peppers growing for awhile yet. They're starting to get blooms, though.

All in all, I have enjoyed gardening so much. I think it would be a really good hobby. Jon's promised that whenever we buy a home, he'll till up some of the back yard for me. I already have big plans for it. :) Have I mentioned that before? I feel like I have.

This year's garden

This year, I haven't done nearly the planning as I did last year. I decided this morning that during my afternoon holiday, I'd go get some flowers. I didn't know how many, or what I would put where. I did know I wanted another rose and cucumbers.

So, I went to my favorite garden center and found flowers: petunias, daisies, verbena, and a rose. I also got some herbs: cilantro, dill and chives. And of course I got the cucumbers.

When I got home, our neighbor (not Holly) had her normal passel of kids over--her own, her nieces and nephews, and I'm pretty sure a few just come over that are no relation. Anyway, one little girl asked if she could watch me plant. Fine, I said. I was planting the herbs at the time, so I had them smell the leaves of each herb and I told them what they were and how to use them. I was pretty proud of myself. (Oh, and I say "them" because one little girl had grown to two girls and three boys, ranging in age from 5 to 10, most closer to 5).

Then, suddenly, it was not fun any more to just watch. Everyone wanted to help. Which was okay, because at the moment I was struggling with getting my rose planted. Well, before I knew it, the rose was done, as well as all the flowers, and all I had done was enough to show them how to plant. I showed them the proper way to get a plant out of it's plastic pot, how to carefully separate the roots, and how to cover it with dirt. I planted two flowers, and suddenly, each kid is at a different pot, planting "their" flowers however they saw fit. And, they didn't do too bad of a job, I have to admit.

They all begged me for the petunias. They asked how much they were, and could they buy them from me. I told them to ask their mommas to take them to Wal-Mart to get some petunias. I'm sure their mommas will appreciate that. But, at the end, we had a little dirt left over, so I asked each kid to fill one of the little plastic pots with dirt, and I gave them all seeds I had left over from last year's gardening experiment. They planted them and I watered them, and each kid took one home! I hope they have better luck than I did!

So, at first I was pretty proud of myself, able to handle five and sometimes six kids in a garden. Then I got a little frustrated, because I was reminded how self-centered kids are--especially young ones. But I think they had fun, and maybe they'll want to garden a little. And it was pretty cool, all in all.

I hope my plants grow! If not, I'm totally blaming it on the kids. :)

General Update

The kitties are still sick. :( No real change from yesterday. Smith is still pretty sick, though I've noticed little improvements: he's making better eye contact, has stood up more today, went to the bathroom on his own, and hasn't needed glucose but once today (four times yesterday). Wesson is still Mr. Sneezy, but he wanted to play a little today. Mostly they've just slept! But, they're stinky and grossie, so I think they're headed for another bath soon.

And, on another front, Jon and I are going to dinner with a seminary professor to talk about church planting tonight. He's the head of the Nehemiah Project at Southwestern, and will probably be an invaluable resource to us. I'm excited about our conversation tonight.

At work, I'm ALMOST done with a website that persists in acting dumb. There are some bugs I just can't figure out, and I've spent the whole day today on it. Very frustrating.

I donated to the Arbor Day Foundation, and got 10 free trees! I gave 5 to Holly, and we planted them a week or so ago. And our crabapples are starting to get leaves! Hooray!

Other than the trees, I haven't planted anything, yet. I'm thinking we might be done with frosts, but I'm not sure. I know a few things I want to plant, though.

I got a bike rack and basket for Christmas, and I got it put on a couple weeks ago. The weather has been too cold/rainy for biking, so I'm looking forward to a day pretty soon when I'll be biking to the park with a picnic in my basket! I'm so excited!

Anyway, I guess that's about it. I have Spring Fever, and I really want a vacation. I'm taking next Monday off, so hopefully that will suffice.

Surprises

I've gotten a few surprises in my garden this year! One is this beauty:
It's about 3 feet tall and the flower itself is 5 inches wide or so.

Then, because of all the rain, these came up:

And I don't remember planting these this year...I thought I planted them last year....

On the indoor front, my bonsai is making new branches!
They're bigger now than from this picture. I have three new branches. I'm glad, because with all the advances the tree has made this year, it still looks a little scraggly. New branches will be nice.

And in non-gardening news, Holly and Sophie went with us to the lake last week with our church. Here's Jon and Sophie: