Collect rain water!!

This is indeed a great thing to do. Need a cover though since mosquitos will quickly find it and breed. The water is great for rinsing you hair too. Makes it soft!! Alot of water can come off the roof so more that one barrel will be needed if you wish to capture the majority of it. You houseplants will be happy if you use rainwater for them too.

Good Heavens, I haven't known anyone in years who still kept a rainbarrel except me! I have a large, heavy duty lawn and leaf bag I keep under a gutter downspout, and it sure comes in handy ALL the time. My neighbors think I'm nuts, but during a drought, I can still water my flowerbeds!

I've wanted to collect rain water for a long time, but couldn't make myself by one of those plastic rain barrels. Are there alternatives to those?

I used to do that when I had a big garden in my house, before I moved into a apartment. I try to use garden pots now when it rains, and I put the plants to where they will get the most water.

If it had been years ago maybe that would be acceptable. But with all the pollution and acid rain these days, won't the rain water just kill your plants slowly?

My uncle did this too. He burried a big barrel and let it collect rain water. He actualy did it for emergency prepearedness to use as washing water. I was thinking of burrying one and putting a small pump on it. The little pumps are only like $5 but take a lot of work. I will definately do this in my next home.

These are commonly available in the UK, even though most of us pay a flat annual fee for an un-metered water supply. Our common roof guttering systems have a 'down-pipe' to take the water directly into a suface water drain. The special barrels are shaped so that you can direct the pipe straight into the barrel, and often hav ea tap attachment for the garden hose. Because our mains water is chlorinated, it's not the best thing for plants. Rain water is much better. A tip for those who love their house plants, but don;t collect rain water is to use the additive required for tropical fish tanks. This is a special chemical that removes the chlorine from tapwater to make it safe for fish.

Rain water is the best thing ever for houseplants. City water has alot of chemicals in it and can kill houseplants. When i was a child, we did not have running water in the house. We had a spring under the hill. We always caught rain water to use for our garden and for our hair. It makes your hair so soft. It is great to clean the house with too. It is very important to keep it covered so bugs dont get in it though. We tied a feed sack over the top with rope. It workded great at straining the water. We heated with coal and wood and the feed sack would filter out the ash that fell from the air.

This would be a good idea..if we could ever get some rain here in Oklahoma!! Hopefully we will this year, because I REALLY want to be able to put in a garden once we move into a new house!! Great idea, I will have to keep it in mind!

Good tip! I do that to as I've heard room temperature water is better than using freezing cold water out of the hose ---it will shock your plants.