We were offering a great deal on rain barrels ($40 for members!), so I bought one. In my imagination, I was going to decorate the rain barrel, perhaps with polka dots or stripes or flowers in hip colors. Everyone who came to my house was going to admire it as a piece of art, and I was going to be able to brag about its function as well as its form, thereby gaining cachet as an environmentalist and a gardener. I was going to save on my water bill, prevent groundwater contamination, and give the plants better water. And I was never again going to have to ask my next door neighbor to water my vegetables when I go away for a few days. 
I did not imagine that the accordian gutter extension would cost $15 (!), the cedar 4x4 would cost $40 (!!), the water off the gutter would be an unpleasant brown, and I'd have to go to the PTO Thrift Shop in search of old nylon stockings to prevent mosquito infestations. Plus, the guy at Fingerle's (who charged me the $40) was down on rain barrels. He'd installed one in his ultra-green, ultra-native, ultra-eco garden, forgotten to drain it before the first frost, and ended up with an ice cascade on the roof. "Why not just plant a low-water garden?" he mused while running my credit card through the machine.
I am still waiting for rain to see whether it will actually work. I installed it on Tuesday, and if you'll recall, it only rains on my days off.
3 comments:
don't know what happened above... anyway - I was saying, "hmmm - can't really visualize how this works, but it's a need idea... Of course, living every day with "neat ideas" I also empathize about the reality (the cost, the hassle, etc.). Good luck - can't wait to hear how it solves the need for watering intervention by neighbors ... ;)
Hmm. My rain barrel and I are very happy together. I didn't spend any extra money on it. Of course, since we have our own veritable junkyard, we already had a little concrete slab to put it on, and we just chopped off the aluminum drainpipe to fit.
What's the 4x4 for?
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