Hi Jason, we don't have gutters but there are two spots where the water just pours off our roof (where the "roof valleys" are) to the point that its a problem here. Have you tried walking around your house just as the rain is subsiding to see were the most water is still dripping from your roof? That may help determine where best to situate your rain barrel.

The only place on my roof that collects a lot of rain like that is in the front yard by the front door, which is not where I want it located. I think I'm just gonna collect the water in 4-5 5 gallon buckets and empty those into the 55 gallon barrel after rain. May be more work but it should last awhile. I can capture water in a 5 gallon bucket to the top in 30 minutes or so.

Bummer. We have two 55-gallon barrels directly from gutters and they pretty much fill up with a big rain.

How much do you want to capture rain water? We didn't do a fancy system, just used the gutters we have, but a number of neighbors have installed a specialized gutter/capture system that's pretty impressive.

I don't care for the appearance of any of the rain barrels I have seen enough to put them right next to our patio (where the rain fall concentrates at our house). There is a pretty decent looking rain barrel that comes with the gutter connection system at Home Depot for 99.00. It is getting close to decent looking but in my opinion, its still not something I would want in a conspicuous spot.

The splashing and erosion from the concentration of rainfall "roof fall" on both sides of our back patio has been a problem - so so on one side I put a half whiskey barrel filled with gravel and sand with mint plants stuck in the top, it works well to catch the water and diffuse it more slowly throughout the flower bed through holes on the bottom. Based on how well that has worked, I am now working on a full sized rain barrel disguised as a planter for the other side. It will have a small shallow planter suspended inside the rim so the rain will pass through it to fill the container below.

Maybe (depending on the grade of your land) you do something in between: have a nice large planter in front where your water concentration is with a discreet drain hose running under mulch in the flower beds to divert the water to a storage tank in a less conspicuous spot.

For my mom's house (which gets a ton of rain water collecting in the front yard), I have been trying (so far to no avail) to get an aerobic company to give me a quote for installing an underground 500-700 gallon concrete tank with a pump and sprinklers that would collect and use rain water to irrigate instead of gray-water. I think it would cost around 4K for the whole set up which is only about 400.00 more than the sprinkler company quoted just to install sprinklers.

Blah blah blah, ok I am rambling now ;-)

I feel your frustration. I think installing gutters on one side of your house shouldn't be too dificult for a do-it-yourselfer. That would really increase the amount of water you collect.
I've been trying to imagine a rain collection system that is elevated so gravity would do the work and you could just attach a water hose and use it like your spiget! Maybe something along the lines of a small deer stand???

Good luck. Let us know how you fix it!

Well I have a solution for now. I have five 5 gallon buckets lined up under my roof to catch the rain along with the 55 gallon barrel. An inch of rain should give me roughly 30 gallons of rain which will be plenty.

Just don't keep water in open containers for too long. Mosquito larvae can show up within a few days this time of year.

I have found a fantastic set up that I bought from some folks making rain barrels in the Austin area. They can be found at http://austingreenwater.com/

Also, for you lynnmariep86, they are set on stands with a spigot on the bottom so sedimentation does not build up either. They are made from food grade recycled steel barrels and really do look quite nice. You can even get them linked up 3 in a row for a 155 gallon storage which is the option I went for. I have had them all summer and they work great.

I had the same problem with mosquito larvae, and solved it by buying goldfish from a pet store for .20 to .27 each. So far, these have been in five barrels all summer and I only had to replace them in one.

Cheep and easy. I feed them about three times a day and have from two to six in each barrel....just dumped them in.

Now maybe, I can sell the gold fish as bait....no guess that's going too far.

ginnypenny,you could use them for fertilizer!

Don't know how your property is laid out, but i'm in a subdv. and I have a diverter on my downspout (2 of them) that routes water from the gutter to 10-55 gal used food grade plastic drums hidden behind the front fence. it's out of site, but convenient to access when needed.

Hadn't thought about that....also didn't do a good job of checking my entry before posting it....I only feed the fish about 3 times a WEEK, not daily...I'm much to lazy for that...read that as energy effcient rather than lazy!

Where did you get yours from, Greenleaf?

Ginny, I think the goldfish idea is brilliant! If/when I get one, that is what I'll do too!

Lynnmarie, the barrels I got were delivered to my house. These folks are in the Austin area so I am not sure they sell in the DFW area. You can check www.austingreenwater.com to see how far they deliver.

All the best

I have the same rain barrels that greenleaf has, from AustinGreenWater. They are great! They have a mesh screen over the hole in the top where the water goes in. the screen holes are like screen door screen, VERY tiny. Thus, mosquitoes can't get inside to breed. However, the company said that it may be possible for some eggs to be washed into the barrel with the water, but the screen is so tiny that if a mosquito hatches in the barrel, it can't get out. Sounds reasonable to me. The barrels work great!

I don't think you are going to be happy with the water pressure of the pump. It will be good for a soaker hose but it is not going to be strong enough to run a sprinkler.
Most houses have between 30 to 40 lbs of pressure, that pump only runs at 13.

Please be sure and give us a report on how you like it.

actually, you can put a spigot in the bottom of the barrel before you fill it. This can be done with a pvc spigot or a metal one. I haven't done it 'cause I was in too big of a hurry. But have seen it done. Not a big deal.

However, it doesn't take much to empty a barrel when you are using a sprinkler. But would be great for the soaker or just getting enough for hand sprinkling.

One more update on this subject. After 12 degree weather and 2 inches of ice....the fish are doing great. Lots of green water, but hungry fish in the barrels!!!!

I figure the green water will be great for the plants. At least I hope so 'cause that's where its gonna go.