Happy Earth Day, everyone! (Also: happy birthday to Sherry’s little brother — the one featured in these very cute baby photos known as Almost-Doctor-Dan.) To celebrate this eco-friendly day, we wanted to share a short story about spotting a promising sign while driving down the street:
We’d been planning to get a new rain barrel ever since we sold the DIY barrel we made at our first house. We still meant to build another one, but life and that ever-growing to-do list had delayed finding a large, food-safe barrel. So when we noticed the sign, we took it as a literal sign and stopped to see what was available.
The spot turned out to be Carolina Mike’s Produce Stand, which wasn’t stocked with produce just yet. Though it looks rural, it’s actually on a busy suburban corner across from a Target — if you’re local to Richmond, it’s at Forest Hill Avenue and Cherokee Road in Stratford Hills. Mike was friendly and had two types of barrels: tall black barrels (previously used to transport jalapeños) priced at $60, and shorter blue barrels (formerly containing soy sauce) at $40. Both were 55 gallons.
Interestingly, $40 matched what we paid to make our last rain barrel in a local class, so we decided to take the easy route and buy a ready-made barrel. After dropping Clara and Sherry off at home to make room in the car, I loaded the new blue barrel into the back seat.
The barrel sat in the carport for about a week while we considered placement. We ultimately chose the small fenced garden area behind the carport next to the sunroom — a convenient spot for watering the plants we plan to keep around a future patio. (We’re planning a proper outdoor tour post soon; the photos are taken and uploaded, but we haven’t edited them yet.)
Right now that area mainly serves as Burger’s bathroom, but we’re getting ready to remove the liriope and replace the narrow brick path with a larger stone patio accessible from the living room’s sliding door. We still plan to leave several planting beds around the patio that will need regular watering, so the downspout beside the brick half-wall (which is actually the back of the carport) seemed like the perfect spot for a rainwater collection barrel.
Before finalizing the install, I checked that a watering can could easily fit under the barrel’s faucet (the hose bib). Because a can fit comfortably, I didn’t need to elevate the barrel on blocks. If we’d built the barrel from scratch, I might have placed the spigot lower to use more of the stored water, but our previous barrel had a similar spigot height and performed well over several years without noticeable odor or algae problems. If needed, the barrel can always be tipped forward to drain completely.
With the ground leveled where the barrel would sit and the downspout length determined, I used a small hacksaw to trim the downspout so the curved section could redirect runoff into the barrel.
The installation process closely follows the steps we outlined in our original “How To Build A Rain Barrel” post: cut the downspout, reattach the curved spout, slide the barrel into place, and test the fit. Once positioned under the downspout, the barrel was ready to collect rainwater — a simple way to save water for garden use and reduce runoff.
We’re still waiting for the first meaningful rain to put our new blue barrel to work, but it feels good to rejoin the rain barrel club. The bright blue color is cheerful, though it stands out more than we’d prefer. We may paint it a brick-red shade or plant shrubs around it to help it blend in with the yard, similar to how we camouflaged utility boxes and the propane tank in the past.
For now, the barrel is both practical and festive — a simple Earth Day celebration and a useful addition for sustainable gardening. When we start the larger landscaping work, we’ll likely hide the barrel a bit better with paint and plants, but until then it’s our not-so-subtle water-saving statement.
Are any of you returning to rain barrels after a break, or planning big patio projects this season? Sherry keeps nudging me to dig up the liriope — “Come on, you know you want to,” she says — so I guess there’s some shoveling in my near future. Until then, we’ll enjoy being back in the rainwater-saving game.