My Kitchen Garden Rain Barrel

We installed a new rain barrel a few weeks ago. It’s something I’ve wanted to do for a while now. It’s located at the downspout closest to the kitchen garden. The installation was easy. It requires cutting the original downspout and reattaching a flexible piece to go into the barrel. We held the connection in place with a screw on the main downspout because the force of the first rain disconnected the hose immediately. I’ll be honest, the instructions that came with this thing were not even the slightest bit helpful. But, we are learning as we good and in the end, I’m happy to be able to use the captured water to water my garden.

I took these pictures after a heavy rain shower, so everything looks a little wet. As you can see in the image above, it’s important to place the barrel up on blocks so the gravity helps the water flow out when you need it. The front of the barrel has a brass spigot which you can either use to fill a watering pail or use to connect a hose. There is also a plastic spigot in the back. Whenever we receive heavy rain, we attach hoses to both the front and back to divert water away from the house.

Do you have a rain barrel? If so, please leave any helpful tips you may have in the comments.