Beginner Gardening: using silver pony foot with rain barrel footings?, 2 by foxpaw

foxpaw wrote:
At last: Photos of my rain barrels. Depending on where you live, you may find that these easily pay for themselves. Austin, TX, draws its water from the Colorado River, which is dangerously low, albeit dammed at Ladybird Lake in the center of Austin, as it flows through our fair, but growing and thirsty city.

With cost a concern, I first bought two 250 rain barrels, and then after some consideration, decided I would regret it if I did not add a third. The higher cost will be adding gutters, but I still believe the cost will be paid off in five years or less. It takes only one inch of rainfall on one section of my roof, to generate 300 gallons of water! Even with three barrels, I will not capture more than a third of it. With heavier rains, I also won't capture more than my barrels can store. In one location, it might be worth adding a fourth barrel to store the overflow, as a friend just offered me another free rain barrel!

The question was, whether to plant ground cover coming out of some of the cinder blocks; then the question was raised as to whether it was wise to fill the cinderblocks with sand, as critters are sure to invade the sand. I'm not particularly concerned if they do, as I think the cinderblock base as constructed will do the job of supporting the structure. As I designed it myself, I hit upon the idea of building the cinderblock base, and, to be sure it was level, I thought I would start by building a treated 2X4 wood square, sized just half an inch wider than the concrete blocks, laying down the base, and leveling sand within it to assure it would be level. Adding sand to the inside of the concrete was more or less an afterthought.