capturing roof rainwater to water plants

 

   I pay water and sewer fees on every single gallon of water I use for
my plants.  I recently planted a hedge of blueberry plants, and noticed
that the house has 2 downspouts on that end, roughly 25 feet apart.

   I've never actually had rain barrels, though I did experiment with 5
gallon buckets a few years back. (a neighbor complained that he felt I
was the source of mosquitoes in the area, and he may have been right)
I'm not sure that I would have enough room to use an actual rain barrel,
since the plants are only a bit over 2' from the foundation, and there
is a chain link fence close to one end of the hedge.

   I'd love to build an underground cistern that would hold 2,000
gallons of rainwater, but I think that is probably out of the question
as well, due solely to financial concerns.

   Can anyone suggest a solution that might let me capture the rainwater
and use it for irrigation?  Keep in mind that the row of plants is about
25' long, the plants are between 2' and 2.5' from the foundation, and
there is a downspout at both ends of the hedge row.  I was kind of
hoping I'd find solutions for this at some of the big stores near here,
in the garden sections, but so far I haven't.

   Years ago, I seem to remember seeing some sort of plastic/rubber
device you could fasten to your downspout.  It would inflate with water
when it rained, and then slowly release the water over a couple of days.
  You could simply unroll it, like a huge hose, and put it near the base
of the plants you wanted watered.  As long as the land was relatively
flat, it would work fine.  I never bought one, but I think something
like that might work well.  Just can't seem to think of what it was
called, and there is no guarantee they still make anything like that, I
guess.

                                                           Thanks!

 



You could buy an inflatable swimming pool, if you get rain for a few
days, each month during the summer. The problem with that would be
mosquitos.
--
- Billy
"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the
merger of state and corporate power." - Benito Mussolini.

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Zinn/HZinn_page.html

 

Ohioguy wrote:

Instead of capturing the water why not just distribute it better, eg a
plastic drain pipe from the downpipes along the row with holes in it.  It's
cheap and doesn't make mosquito ponds.

David

 

On Wed, 26 May 2010 15:13:01 +1000, "David Hare-Scott"


It won't be so cheap when it can't dispel water quickly enough to
prevent water from backing up in the gutters, either the excessive
weight tearing them from the eaves and/or the water backing up into
the soffits destroying the house.

Buy a large plastic vat (not all that costly) or dig a pond.  Why does
anyone need to capture rain water in Ohio, it certainly rains there on
a regular enough basis to keep plants watered... Ohio isn't in Death
Valley last I looked.

 

brooklyn1 wrote:

You are assuming that this arrangement will impede the flow of water more
than the open end of the pipe and that there is weight hanging off the
downpipes. There would be many cases where a suitable design can be found
which doesn't have these problems.  Whether this is a good solution or not
depends on the details of the situation which we cannot see.  I just wanted
to throw up the idea that if retaining water is a problem then there is the
option to not retain it.

David