Rain Barrels

[mywebinfo]

Do any of you catch your rain. How? I have a 50 gallon tank. Just took this picture, frozen but full.

[Jardin du Fort]

Here in Indiana, there is hardly ever need for saving rain water. Last summer, though, was an extreme exception. We had severe drought with NO rain from late May until early September, with the exception of two light sprinkles in mid August. I don't know if there is a way to prognosticate what this next summer will bring, but last year it would have been a great boon to have had water cachement.

I always know when my vocabulary is excessively educated, since spellcheck doesn't recognize half of my big words....

[mywebinfo]

The last two summers here in MO we need rain so I started my rain barrels last year late. We watered some with city water and you sure could tell the difference when we started using our rain catch.

Unless there is a need the only time I use the water is the initial watering in for the seeds or plants. I do my absolute best to mulch around everything so I don't have to water at all once the plants get started but the last two years were the exception.

Got some straw this year to mulch everything then gong to try the cover crop farming through the summer and fall and then winter cover crop for the spring. Hopefully that will keep water usage down to a dull roar. I am sure we will still need the rain barrels. Never hurts to keep it handy.

Sounds like catching rain water is pretty standard.

[mywebinfo]

You have a nice looking garden!

[rainbowgardener]

I have two 75 gallon rain barrels like this:

http://www.woodlanddirect.com/Outdoor/5 ... -75-Gallon

Mine weren't so expensive. Look around or look on line, there's lots of plans for making your own.

They are nice for ordinary years. If we are getting even occasional rains to fill them back up, then I can never use hose water. In prolonged drought such as we have had twice in the past five years (and that may be becoming more common here), the rain barrels sit empty. If our climate is becoming more like Texas, then to help the water situation, we would need a system more like MarlinG's.

[Halfway]

Keep 'em cheap unless you have serious pest issues or a need for cosmetic beauty.

That 30-50 gallon batch of gardening water saves so much over time it is crazy.

[Jardin du Fort]

I had mentioned in a previous post that there was a drought here last summer. My assumption was that the drought had ended. That may have been an erroneous assumption.

I just checked the "Indiana Interactive USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map" website, and it says that the current conditions are:
Drought Conditions: Severe Drought
Palmer Drought Index: -3.80
Precipitation Needed to End Drought: 8.68

So there you have it. I am thinking that a couple or three rain barrels might be in order just to catch the water that runs off the roofs of the house and garage that would otherwise run into the street!

Has anybody heard when this mid-America drought is supposed to end?

[Jardin du Fort]

Here's a map that supposedly gives the current drought conditions for the USA:

http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/

This is slightly alarming. Why haven't I heard anything about this on the news????

[rainbowgardener]

Interesting question about why the news never mentions it. The powers that be do not want us thinking about it or asking questions.

I've posted about it elsewhere. Parts of Ohio are pretty ok right now and some of the area right next to the Lake is actually ahead on rainfall. But where I am in Cincinnati, we are still in Severe Drought. We went from warm drought in spring to hot drought in summer to cold drought. But dry....

Incidentally very nice website. Where you wrote Indiana Interactive USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map, I just substituted Ohio and it came right up. The home page is www.plantmaps.com From there it has a left side menu listing all the states and some Canadian provinces. You can go to your own state and it has tons of info, including distribution of a lot of different native plants, information about the different eco-regions in your state, etc. I found a couple different drought maps of Ohio and different Ohio cities, but I never found where you got the Palmer index and the number of inches needed to catch up.

[mywebinfo]

Well it is on the radio, maybe not TV. I figured it would be drought this year, cycles through like that. I got about 32 bales of straw and the local newspaper say I can have all of their old print and end rolls so I will be mulching very heavy. Wish I had that commercial paper shredder. It's on my list of things to buy from FM money.

In MO we had a pretty good drought for the last two seasons and the only thing that saved any crops at all was mulching. Unfortunately I did not have enough but I found a source for organic straw at $3.00 a bale, going rate here is $5.00.

Excellent link to the map. I will be bookmarking this. My area shows severe to moderate drought. Hang on to your hats this is going to be a challenging year!

[mywebinfo]

Just as a side note, find a radio station that forecasts for Farmers. Lots of good up to date info there.