It is surely difficult to keep up with the gardening works
while we struggle with our daily hectic job routines. And amidst these busy
schedules it seems like a day-long job to indulge in the selection of a new
product among so many options available online. But don’t worry! We got this
all covered for you as we have crafted out this complete guide for you to pick
the best rain barrel for your garden.
What is a rain barrel?
For some of us, this may seem like a new idea, so let me
explain this to you. Rain barrel is a large tank that stores the rain water to
be used later for gardening. Generally it collects the water from rooftops
through a pipe and stores it in the barrel that can be used later through a
hose or two. Just to highlight its significance let me add that a rainwater
catchment can yield 2,358 liters of water from 2.54 cm of rain on a
92.9 m2 roof.
Rain Harvesting – How do rain barrels work?
From the word barrel you may get the picture of wooden
barrel in mind but let me tell you that is not the case as the rain barrel are
manufactured of many other materials and their shapes and sizes can also alter.
Generally, these are large tanks with a hole at the top and a spigot at the
side. The top hole is to collect water from the catchment system and usually
this hole is comprised of some screening material that won’t let anything but
water pass through it. While the second opening, spigot, is to use the
collected water via a tap or an opening to connect a hose.
Why you should get a rain barrel
There are number of perks associated with the rain barrels
and we have listed out some major ones here. Have a look!
Water conservation:
For starters let me share a fact that about 40% of the used
water is being utilized for gardening. So if we save this much amount of water
we surely can contribute a lot towards the water conservation. Rain barrel is
not a luxury but rather a necessity in today’s world when majority of areas
around the globe are struggling to have a clean water to drink.
Savings on Water bill:
You can clearly save plenty of bucks per month on your water
bill as you’ll be cutting a major portion of your water needs which was used
earlier for gardening. The good news is that the rain water does not come with
a bill in hand.
Clean and pure water:
Rain water is distilled water unlike the tap water of the
urban population as the city water is contaminated with the chemicals and waste
excreted by the industries. So irrigating your plants with the rain water will
surely be more secure and healthy.
Good for home foundation
As the rain barrel collects all the stagnant water in your
home so your home foundation will no longer possess a threat of water seepage
into the basement.
Water security
A barrel of rain water will no doubt come in handy if there
is shortage of water due to drought or simple delay because of maintenance
work. You can not only use it for gardening but also for other purposes as the
water is clean and pure.
Factors to consider before buying:
There are certain factors that you must consider once you
have set your foot out for shopping and here is the list of them:
Material: The durability of a rain barrel largely
depends upon the material it is made up of and plastic is considered one of the
really good ones as they are easy to use and highly durable. But the other
available material resin and steel also serves the purpose.
Capacity: We have all heard of the phrase; the
bigger, the better. Well this one does apply when it comes to buying a rain
barrel as the more capacity you have, the more water you’ll conserve and the
more bucks you’ll be saving.
Price: Price is always a major factor whenever you
are out for shopping and no one like to burden their pockets especially when
they are buying that product to enhance their saving.
Additional features: You may have to look the number
of features a certain rain barrel is providing as it comes with mesh screen
filter, over flow protection and the material of spigot.
