They're recycled olive barrels. My neighbor purchased on last year and attached it to his downspouts. You can purchase 2 and link them together to catch overflow. They seem like a good idea to me.
Who uses something similar? Does it help with the watering?
Do you feel like you save money on your water bill? Enquiring minds need to know.
Interesting.....But, there was no picture to see it....wonder what it looks like? THEN, what do you do to use the water? Like, how do you get the water from the barrel, to the garden.....
Lucy, it's a large green barrel. Shaped like a root beer barrel candy. It has a spigot at the bottom that you can attach a hose to. Here's a picture that looks very similar to the one my neighbor bought last year. I assume this year's are the same.
It attaches to the downspout...and if the barrel gets full you just flip up that gray piece on the downspout and it opens it up to run out the bottom of the downspout again.
Or..you can attach a second barrel to the first one. I think I'm going to buy one this year and if it fills up frequently I'll consider a 2nd one.
Hi Pat
I have a rainbarrel my big brother made for me. It's not quite as pretty as the one in the picture. Mine is a recycled barrel that another brother had. Big brother brought a bright blue one, and fortunately one of the pack had a black one that he offered to trade for the blue one. It has a screen on top, a spigot on the bottom, a cover I can put on when it's full, and I rigged up my own system to divert the rainwater when it's full. You've seen my place, so you know that one rainbarrel isn't going to make a whole lot of difference in how much water I have to get from the well, but I use it on my potted plants and selectively in the garden. The plants most likely to get a drink of rainwater are newly planted hostas. I use it to water when I'm planting something new, and for the first few weeks while the new baby is settling in. I haven't had any trouble with mosquitoes in it, because I put the lid on when it's not raining. I've had my eye on those pretty green ones for some time, but I'm really happy with the lovingly homemade one.
Linda P
I have that barrel but had no idea they cost that much since I garbage-picked it. Mine is used mainly to divert water away from my foundation, a hose leads the way to a dry area. It does re-distribute a lot of water coming off the roof during a summer downpour that might otherwise be wasted.
My downspout runs right into it as Menards or HD have never heard of that downspout diverter gadget.
Ten years ago, my BIL brought me 2 blue HD plastic pickel barrels that would have been perfect except I thought they were too garish looking so I tossed them out. Now I happen to love blue.
I would search local sources for recycled food-grade barrels. The hose fittings are easy to attach with silicone caulking. Do you have Freecycle? You might get lucky.
I have a 325 gallon water tank that we bought back in 2003 in order to bring water to the plants here at the new property (long before we had a well dug and electricity to run it). I'm thinking about using it to collect rain water, but kept wondering how to get the water from the downspout to the tank. That downspout diverter looks like exactly what I need! Thanks for posting that picture. If I can find one of those I'll just put some corrugated pipe over it and into my tank to help catch the rain and the 325 gallon tank could collect quite a bit of water.
When we were watering here we would park the truck at the top of the hill with the tank in the bed, drop a hose in the tank and hook a sprinkler to the other end. The house is high enough above the growing areas that gravity pulled the water fast enough to run a sprinkler.
Thanks for posting this! Now to find that downspout diverter
Linda, If I had a source for a homemade barrel, I'd grab it in an instant!
Maryann, the price that the city is charging for those barrels is half what they cost if you buy them commercially.
I think they'll last forever. I havn't seen them offered on the local freecycle. Couldn't you kick yourself for throwing out those pretty blue barrels?
Chris, I borrowed that picture off the internet. The site where I found the picture sold the diverters, I believe....I'll see if I can find it again.
I took a look at other sites and a couple just showed corrugated pipe snaked off the end of the downspout into the barrels. I think I can manage that one, and Yup, probably will cost about $1.77
Thanks for the ideas. Looking forward to hooking up my 325 gallon rain barrel
My 117 year old masonry homestead has deep eaves. With gutters to channel the water away from the foundation we collect off the garage and the house. Because my husband works for a chemical company, we get free barrels. He graduates the sizes and we can full up 4 barrels with one good rainfall. Andy and I use up all the rainbarrel water before we break out the water wond. We sprinkle but spot h20 till the barrels are gone. He promised a irrigation system to be instahled in 03. HAH! We couldn't tear up the lawn because our garden was on tour twice that summer. Now he used a wagon to pull numerous watering can to all corners of the garden on his brick paths. I call it the plugger irrigation system. We usually use up the water pretty quickly as NOT to propagate our state bird, the misquito. We have treated the h20 with cooking oil so Larve don't start swimming. We also use the rain barrels to teach garden rodents to swim/sink. I love my rain barrels. I supose I'll continue to use'm til I tear a rotator cuff. Later, Love, Lisa
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Have I mentioned lately that my drinking team has a hosta problem?
I use it to water when I'm planting something new, and for the first few weeks while the new baby is settling in. I haven't had any trouble with mosquitoes in it, because I put the lid on when it's not raining. I've had my eye on those pretty green ones for some time, but I'm really happy with the lovingly homemade one. 
Now I happen to love blue. 
