Beginner Gardening: Anyone use a rain barrel for drip irrigation?, 1 by darius

darius wrote:
I guess I did an 'easy' version of catching and using rainwater in my garden.

I bought some used 55 gallon food-grade plastic barrels for about $8 each. Installed a regular (but plastic) hose bibb (that's the name for the spigot that comes out of the wall for our garden hoses) near the bottom, using silicone adhesive to keep it from leaking around the hole in the barrel. (Here's a pic of the barrel, just sitting on my back deck... the hose bibb handle got broken in my move so I'll need a new one.)

Then I could just attach a regular garden hose, or attach one of the seeper hoses, using the water how and where I wanted it just by opening the valve.

Oh, I also used the mosquito donuts Shoe mentioned above.

I cut off the downspout with a hacksaw and put one of the short curved pieces of downspout material (available at HD, Lowe's, etc.) on the cut place so the downspout directed water into the barrel. Overflow just went into the yard if the barrel was full which seldom happened.

Sierrawoman... you should throw some of those mosquito donuts in the swamp and springs you have.