I’m already reaping the benefits of [houseblogs.net][]. One of the other families mentioned in the WSJ article referenced the story, so I decided to check their blog — Their tagline is “[Humphrey House](http://www.humphrey-house.com/) – Transforming an Arts and Crafts Bungalow into a Green Home for the Future”. (“Arts & Crafts” and “Green Home” are two major cool points right there!)
One of their recent posts is [Installing a Loopy Rain Barrel](http://tinyurl.com/346a64), which looks like an excellent project for our property. Our shop building will have about 1400 ft2 of catchment area, and it’s right next to the garden. (Unfortunately we won’t be able to take advantage of Chicago’s discounted rain barrels.) The [downspout diverter](http://tinyurl.com/32mrqh) is the slickest part of this system, and something that would be an absolute necessity in Sacramento–*lots* of rain in the winter (when we won’t need it for the garden), so once our barrel is full we’d need some automatic way to dump the excess.
[houseblogs.net]: http://www.houseblogs.net/
Hey Jim, glad you found our rain barrel post interesting. If your roof collects a lot of water, it is possible to link multiple barrels together via the overflow. Or alternatively, you could have the barrel’s overflow go into a “French drain” (essentially a ditch backfilled with gravel) alongside the garden. This wouldn’t water the garden directly but some of it could saturate the surrounding ground. Good luck!
Get your rain barrels at http://www.plastic-mart.com It is where I got my plastic tank and it works out!!
plastic tanks and water tanks at great prices
FYI, Jim Henderson’s email address is in the same domain as the site he mentions. Caveat Emptor!
I have a Cascata rain barrel in my backyard. The great thing about these rain barrels is that not only are they a gorgeous terracota color, but they also can be linked in series. Check out my blog for further details:
http://garden-pond-accents.blogspot.com/2008/05/great-new-pictures-of-my-rain-barrel.html