Wonder of a Rain Barrel

 You wouldn't think that a porch garden in an apartment would have a rain barrel, but that is my latest acquisition.  Just now, I noticed that this is TARDIS blue- and that gives me an idea for later...

Right now this is just the un-sexy utility rain barrel that I got for free when I attended one of  Hillsborough County Extension's Compost, Water-Wise Rainbarrel workshops.  They give you a free rain barrel with one of these sexy things already attached.

They also give you a make-it-yourself compost bin and a micro-watering system.  Don't have the pressure for the watering system and afraid to use to bin at this point. Note that the rain barrel is still a mess, but you would not believe how wonderful that spigot is.  I don't have an outside water connection- but now all I have to do is attach a hose to that spigot and voila- no more carrying water.  Well sort of...

You see a 55 gallon rain barrel full of water weighs over 400 pounds, so the one thing you want to do is make sure that it is stable and can't be knocked over.  I keep mine in my storage closet which very conveniently is 6 inches off the ground level of my porch (because it floods which is another way to get water to the plants on the ground!).  You will notice that not much rain is going to fall into the rain barrel in the storage shed but collection is not my problem.

Every time it rains- one of these handy little things just off my porch will fill to the top with rain water- that is 5 gallons per pot.  The old problem was that you had to get rid of the water before things grew in them.  Now I simply take my little blue pail (which an old lady can carry easily), fill it with water...

And then dump it into the top of my rain barrel.  The little things off to the side are useless- just one attempt to try to get the water from one place to another.  Before I dump it, I give my barrel a fashion makeover- the latest in rain barrel hats..

This is actually to keep all the debris in the collection pots out of the rain barrel.  This is one of those useless vegetable fresh bags cut open- which is a pretty nice water filter.  This is what it looks like when the latest rain gets transferred to the barrel:

Not nice....

But with this handy, dandy accessory, I now have almost too much water for my garden and instead of having to water once a day, I now only have to water once or twice a week.  It took about a week ot two of filling three 5 gallon pots along with a tropical storm stalled over Florida to fill my barrel.  From that point, I just left one out there and that pretty much keeps the barrel full from there.  That is in the height of the tropical weather season- we'll see where we go from there...

And that is my wonder report for today!