I was visiting a friend up in Portland, and I noticed he was collecting rainwater for his garden. Why hadn’t I thought of this?! He was using beautiful old wine barrels that enhanced the yard with their presence, and he had the full set-up gathering water from drainage pipes off his house and a spigot near the bottom of the barrel for utilizing. Genius!

It turns out this is a relatively common practice. I did some research and found numerous types available online for purchase, such as these from Green Goat Rain Barrels. Ready-mades aren’t bad if you’re not up for the complete DIY experience, aka – find an old wine barrel up in wine country, hit the hardware store, drill hole, insert spigot, buy piping, drill another hole, etc., you get the idea. Although that could be part of the fun, if you’re the right type of person. Which hopefully you are. Because that would be quite cool.

All this is well and good, but I’m not sure I need such a fancy set up. Unfortunately, a large water barrel would take up most of the space on my small, urban deck. Still, not wanting to be wasteful, I wonder how I could re-use water. How about saving the water I use after washing lettuce or kale and taking it straight out to the garden to water the plants? Perfect!

If you do have space, here’s more information on how to set up your own rain barrel system.

Image: Aaron’s Oak Whiskey Rain Barrels

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