By Kirsten Zwick
Springtime, one of the best times of the year, we look forward to all the pretty flowers and the signs of summertime, but we live in Ohio and never know what to expect in these days leading up to May.
We start planning out the gardens and the flower beds, we ask ourselves “What should we plant this year,” “Where is the garden going to go? We need it close to the house for the water hose to be able to reach.”
Then here comes all the rain, which we often dread due to all the mud and dreary days we see. We wonder how we could save the rainwater and how we could stop all the water from coming out of our spouts on our houses, garages, etc.
After asking all those questions to ourselves, we see there is a rain barrel that would help us, our garden would not have to be right next to our houses then and we could save on our own water bills and wells.
Rain barrels help conserve water and help you catch it all and use that water then for gardens and flower beds.
These barrels you can buy already set up and attach them to one of the rain spouts from one of your buildings and have a spigot on the end as well to either attach a hose or to fill a watering bucket.
You may be asking yourself, “why would I want one of these, what are the benefits of these barrels?”
Some benefits of having a rain barrel at your home include the following:
1. Free water.
2. Reduce storm water runoff.
3. Improve water quality.
4. Closed system.
5. Give your plants the water that they will love.
Best of all you can build them yourself, buy them at Lowes or Home Depot, or you can always support your local soil and water conservation district.
(Kirsten Zwick is the ag and natural resources technician at the Harrison Soil and Water Conservation District. She can be reached at 740-942-8837 or by email at kzwick@harrisoncountyohio.org.)
