Lisa here with my last topic: Rain barrels!

Rain barrels are vessels to collect water that runs off your roof into the gutters and away from your house. An average roof has over 600 gallons of water runoff for every inch of rain! They are easy to care for and are wonderful for watering your indoor and outdoor plants. We have 3 at this time - 2 attached to the gutters in the back of the house (where most of the watering occurs) and one very large one attached to the gutters on our tool shed. We have painted to match the color of our house which has held up quite well. We have had ours for quite some time and they work very well. Last year we enjoyed fresh rainwater for our garden even with the lack of rain we had. We have a device that works to send the water into the barrel when it is not full and to bypass and send down the gutter when the barrel is full (and into our rain garden). The large one off of our shed manages to keep our veggie garden watered all year long mostly by gravity into drip irrigation but we do have a pump powered by solar panels if needed. 
What I have found: Easy to care for with minimal work with immense returns! After we placed the barrels, we just close the spigot in the spring once we are sure the entire barrel will not freeze. In the fall, we open the spigot so that the barrel does not split. That easy. The indoor plants do so much better when I switch back to the rain barrel water in the spring. We also have to hook up the drip irrigation every spring but still easy and better for the plants than overhead watering.

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Why they are good for the environment: The most obvious benefit to giving your plants rainwater and not the water that has been through the water softener or processed with chlorine is it is so much better for your plants. Many people use it to wash windows or vehicles. You’ll save money on your water bill. Even if you have a well, you are not paying for the electricity to pump that water up and risk drying up your well. Something that you may not think of, however, is that it prevents downstream runoff and flooding. We tend to think, “Not on my property, not my problem” but when water runs off our property it can pick up that fertilizer you or your neighbor downstream put on the grass, the bacteria from dog poop, road salts that build up, and other hazardous debris and it becomes the village’s problem which in the end costs the taxpayers money. These pollutants get into our waterways and can affect aquatic animal life which can then affect humans.  It may not seem like a lot having 1 or 2 barrels on your property, but even if half of the residents participate in this, it will make a huge difference!
Where to find: One can find them all over the place. Even Sustain Greenville sells them! The diverters for the gutters are readily available at local retailers and online. They can be painted with paint you can also get where you found the diverters.
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Other: I love my rain barrels and each year in the latter part of winter I am always wondering when I can close the spigot and start collecting again. We have a closed system so no worries about mosquitos. You can paint to match your house or get creative and get the kids involved! Pictures of our rain barrels. We have since changed the color of our house and one of our projects is to repaint them! The large one we do not paint - not needed!
Thanks for joining me and learning all about my favorite sustainable things. Next up is Leanne! She has been a member of Sustain Greenville since its inception and has pretty much done every role. She will share her favorite sustainable activities! Stay tuned for Leanne!

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