Last month I built a (one barrel) Rain Barrel Water System for my garden. Unfortunately, one barrel full of rain water will only last a couple of days to feed all the plants, if there is no additional rain. Consequently, I added two more barrels (total of three), so that I would have garden water for a least a week without a refill. If there is no rain I have to supplement the water in the barrels with a garden hose. In order to have the rain barrels provide water to the garden automatically I also bought a water timer that comes on at a set time each day and allows the water to run out of the rain barrel through a main half inch hose. The main half inch hose is then connected to a network of smaller quarter inch hoses ending in drip emitters at each of about 50 plants. The emitters are preset for one gallon of water per hour for a garden hose pressure system. In the rain barrel gravity feed system with very little pressure, the water drips at about a quart of water per hour. I have the water timer adjusted for 30 minutes per day in the early morning to provide each plant with about a half quart of water.
The barrels are set on top of building blocks (8x8x16 inches) to give adequate support for a barrel full of water. The blocks are piled two wide and six high for a total height of 48 inches. This height provides enough water pressure for the water to run out of the barrel by gravity only with no need for a pump. It is also important to level the blocks so that each barrel is exactly level with the next barrel. I found for my set up that the two block sets had to be 26 inches apart on center so that the manifold pieces would be level and fit together.
The rain barrels are connected together with a PVC pipe manifold. As rain runs off my garden shed roof into a rain gutter, it is piped into the first rain barrel. Since the barrels are all connect at the bottom with a manifold, the rain water fills all three barrels simultaneously. Excess water runs out a top hole in each barrel. Make sure you have a good seal on all the PVC connections with PVC cement. In addition, put some silicone tub sealer around the connection where the PVC comes out of the bottom of the barrel. Once it gets wet with water, the seals are hard to fix.
I selected ¾ inch PVC so that all the connecting pieces could eventually connect to a regular garden hose with a simple pipe adapter. The total cost was about $200 for a three barrel system or less for a one barrel system. The approximate individual cost is as follows: Three trash barrels ($30), One Water Timer ($30), PVC Manifold for 3 barrels ($20), Drip Hose ($20), Drip Emitters and Hose Connectors ($30), Drip Irrigation Starter Kit ($25), and Thirty building blocks ($45). Although the cost may be a large investment, the system will last for years and save a lot of time with the automatic watering.
Most of the parts can be purchased at Home Depot (drip hose and kits). Additional parts can be purchased online from DropWorks.Com or DripDepot.Com or Amazon.Com. DripWorks.Com has an interactive catalog where you can flip pages and look at all the garden accessories.
I tried several water timers from Home Depot but they all had a diaphragm-valve and needed water pressure from a garden hose to work. I did some research online and found that a water timer with a simple ball-valve did not need any water pressure to have it open and close and could work with a rain-barrel gravity feed and almost zero water pressure system. Looking online I found the Gilmour Water Timer to work the best. I ordered one from Amazon.com and got it in a few days. It has been working great now for a few weeks.
You can see some photos of the three barrel system and its construction at the Picasa link below…
https://picasaweb.google.com/markryan312/GardenRainBarrelSystemPart2#
You can see a YouTube video at the link below…..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4XLihRNbfE
You can see my previous Blog on one rain barrel at the link……
http://opennutshell.blogspot.com/2011/05/garden-plants-and-rain-barrel-drip.html
Comments always welcome…. markryan82@comcast.net
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