Rain barrels in Florida are an investment in a valuable resource – water
Having rain barrels in Florida seem like such good things to do, and why not?
I watched rain sleeting off my roof, thank you Lord for every drop, the earth was dry for a long time. I got to wondering about when it stops. What then? It is not a new thought. Generations of people have been collecting water, saving it against that dry day.
A few years back I took a course about rain barrels. That barrel, from that class, sits out back, catching rain rolling off the roof. It is so full the overflow valve has water coming out of it.
Hummm. There’s a message here. Grab rain while it is raining. I went on line and looked at rain barrels. For such an ancient, earthy, simple thing the rain barrels I saw were hideously expensive. Hundreds of dollars. Not happening.
There is a better way closer to home. The Master Gardeners at the Agricultural Center on Old Jacksonville Road have rain barrels for $50. You don’t even have to take a class. You get a used food-grade 60 gallon barrel, already bored with a hole for a spigot and an overflow hole, and a small brown bag with parts.
In Florida, Check IFAS, (the Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences at UF), their Florida Yards & Neighborhoods program, for a free fact sheet on building rain barrels and call your local Agricultural Extension Office to see if they have rain barrels. Might want to look at the Yellow Pages to see if there is a barrel supplier nearby.
See the picture of the parts? I haven’t a clue what they are all for. No instructions came with the paper bag. The brochure from the Southwest Florida Water Management District shows how to put in the spigot (screw in halfway, apply PVC cement, finish screwing). Easy. Then even have a page showing how to paint your barrel (could be a fun project for kids). I opted for plain and functional.
Rain barrels in Florida – painting them is a good excuse for food, fun and fellowship
But that surface invited painting. So I gave the rain barrel a coat of outdoor house paint, then invited family and friends to paint designs – butterflies, a rainbow, flowers appeared. What fun! Rain barrels provide an excellent excuse for food, fellowship and fun with family, friends and neighbors.
I placed mine in the front yard under the roof at the edge near the carport. There is no gutter. The barrel itself is interesting. Once it was filled with olives from Europe. Shipped to the United States for canning, the barrels don’t make the return trip. They are sold to a barrel company. These are hauled to Marion County, Florida from Texas. Increased shipping charges are eating up the slim profit.
You need to elevate the barrel up on concrete or bricks. That spigot is down low. Hard to get a watering can down that low. The top of the rain barrel is solid plastic with a screw lid. I used a jig saw to cut a hole out of the top, then placed a piece of screening across the entire top and tightened down the lid. The screen lets rain in, keeps debris out.
Will mosquitoes breed in a rain barrel? Yes. Joannie has a friend with a horse farm and said they put fish in their water troughs to keep mosquitoes at bay (fish eat the mosquito larvae). Great idea. My rain barrel in the back now has ten small fish (10 for 99 cents) .
It rained this afternoon. My new barrel has water! Ah, conservation. It is contagious. Now in the back yard there is a gutter across the porch. The booklet shows cutting off the gutter pipe, putting in a flexible piece and having water run right down the gutter into a barrel.
Humm. Sounds like I need another rain barrel to catch that gutter runoff. But what do I do with the leftover parts?*
*UPDATE: Turns out the extra parts are for the overflow hole of the top of the barrel. Lori Ball, Staff Assistant II at Marion County Extension Service, read the blog and sent me an e mail. Knowledge is power! Thank you Lori. She also notes that Kathy Patterson, coordinator for the “Florida Yards and Neighbors” suggests buying a cheap hose and attaching it to the overflow. The spigot also has threads to attach a hose to help watering the plants (I hadn’t noticed this). Lots of ways to use your rain barrel.
And now the year is 2016. I live in Sarasota and have four rain barrels in the back yard (one I brought with me from Ocala). Excellent rain barrel classes given by Sarasota County UF/IFAS Extension & Sustainability once a month. The class is free, rain barrels cost $37 and have to be ordered ahead of time
Lucy Beebe Tobias is the Authentic Florida Expert for VISIT FLORIDA and the author of “50 Great Walks in Florida”, University Press of Florida, February, 2008.
MORE TO EXPLORE
Dade City celebrates with a kumquat festival once a year