Rain Barrels

ahhhhhh.... the rain barrels and the watering system! this is what i was really looking forward to. i had this plan in my head to create this automatic watering/irrigation system using wine barrels, buried hoses, soaker hoses, 4 headed water spickets, rain diversion devices and some other cool items i didn't yet know about. you see, stored in my head was this elaborate gravity fed water system plan (our backyard has a nice slope leading away from the house) that, in my mind, should work no problemo....well... let me breifly explain my plan first before i give the results.

the plan was to hook up the wine barrels to the rain gutters (not so tough), attach a 2-headed spicket to the last barrel with an underground hose heading down to the garden beds. that hose would then connect to a hose splitter with one hose leading to the first bed and the other to the fruit trees. the hose for this first bed would then attach to another splitter which attached to a soaker hose layed out in bed # 1, the other line would lead to bed 2 and to another splitter and would be the same set-up as bed #1. i would continue this daisy chain system to all the beds... each splitter has a valve so i could turn on/off any hose i wanted -- easy, automated (kind of), and slck as hell ... so i thought. so i decided to test it out with just one soaker hose and you know what, i now know one major fact about soaker hoses -- soaker hoses need a little something ... well actually a lota something called water pressure to make the water soak through them and you know ... to make them work!! my rain water soaker hose system would never work - DAMN!! oh well - i'll just connect the system to the water spicket coming out of the house which is full of pressure ... done - not as environmentally nice as using the barrels but waaaaaay easier ... so all is not wasted though ... now the rain barrels will end up watering the fruit trees, berry bushes and the other non-bed portions of the garden. and you know what, 3 barrels of rain water is really not that much water ... especially in the summer when it doesn't rain for 3 months....

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Lessons: 1) when setting up rain barrels, make sure they are in the position you want them because once they get just a little water in them ... impossible to move cause they are freakn heavy!!; 2) soaker hoses DO NOT work with rain barrels; 3) using a pressure backflow system when your barrels are full is a great way to keep mosquitos away as there is no open water to attract them.