Back on the farm, there was nothing like water from the rain barrel for steam ironing clothes or watering plants. Sweet and soft, the pure water had no iron, calcium, or salt to clog pipes or strangle the geraniums.
It was juice fresh-squeezed from the sky.
Anne Brown, Certified Master Gardener and Rainwater Harvesting Specialist, wants to help modern day pioneers enjoy those benefits of rainwater. So she’ll be showing us how to build an inexpensive rain barrel using common materials.
“A rain barrel is just what our grandmas used to collect water,” she said. “It is really pure water. Plants like it because it is pH neutral, and grandma used it to wash her hair.”
Brown has streamlined the barrel building process to where the average person can assemble one in an hour for under $35 in materials cost.
She crafts the setup using plastic downspouts, a recycled plastic flowerpot, and a filter to keep debris and mosquitoes out. The item hardest to procure is the barrel itself. But Brown has connected with a dairy that sells used food grade plastic barrels in bulk.
Near the bottom of the barrel, she attaches a common hose bib so she can use a garden hose to fill buckets to water the houseplants. And while the water collected in this system is not suitable for human consumption, boy, do the plants drink it up.
“I have seen a visible difference in houseplants in just two months. It’s amazing. We have an African violet that doubled in size. Plants just like it better.”
The one dilemma is that people quickly discover one 55-gallon barrel of water is not enough to quench their collective thirst. Brown notes that you can fill a barrel of that size with just 1/4 inch of rain. Her system is easily expandable. She’ll show you how to daisy chain as many barrels as you want, connecting them with a 2-inch pipe.
The popularity of this low-tech collection system has become a torrent. The Master Gardeners showed them at Market Days and sold out all they had plus took orders to build 65 more.
How interesting that something our grandparents did 100 years ago may help save a resource 100 years from now.
“I am concerned not for me, but for our grandkids,” Brown said. “They are not going to have any water. The state of Texas projects a water shortage in the next century because of our population growth. It is important we start doing what we can do now.”
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Anne Brown will conduct Make Your Own Rain Barrel on Wed, April 14 from 10 a.m. to 12 noon. Fee is $25, plus materials cost. For information or to sign up, click www.clubed.net, or call 830-895-4386.
Club Ed is the Community Education program of the Kerrville Independent School District. Each year, we offer more than 400 classes throughout the Texas Hill Country, along with online courses, business and individual training, and after-school and summer camps. Comment online at clubedcomments.blogspot.com, or follow us on Twitter @clubedtx.
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