Anyone Have a Rain Barrel?
 

I'm considering getting one but will I be able to water vegetables with it? That is, will the water be safe for things that will be consumed? Or will I be able to use it only for watering flowers and trees. I've found them for purchase on the internet but haven't found a lot about how they work, etc.

I have two that I use constantly. It's been a very dry summer here so I have emptied them several times. It's the same water that comes off the roof during rainstorms, so, yes, I do use the water on tomatoes and pepper plants as well as herbs and flowers and have had no problems. I do have several layers of screening over the opening to keep mosquitoes and other bugs out of the barrel. Under normal conditions they save me a considerable amount each year. BTW - mine are of the homemade variety rather than the commercially produced ones.

i have 3 green plastic ones, 75 galleons, .got them in spring of 2011. so far this year i have empty them 3 times. i water everything, if you are concern put a drop of bleach in it. i really saved on water bill till the 3 weeks of 90-100 degree weather. i also used the water for the birdbath. hope this helps.

You may want to check for local ordinances to make sure the barrels are legal where you live. My brother's neighbor in West Valley, Utah had one and was told to remove it as the rain water running off their roof didn't belong to the home owner.

That really sounds crazy. that like you cant have air,water, dirt your hous is on, etc.

Sounds to me like a homeowners' association "official" that has too much time on his / her hands...or it's some self-important local bureaucrat whose job it is to harass homeowners. Remember, the more run-off we collect and use for gardening, that's less money the local water district collects (sarcasm and pun intended). They're all looking for ways to grub money.

No rain barrel here, not alot of rain last year or this year.

I have four rain barrels. Nothing fancy, just the tops cut off of plastic 100 gal. barrels DH brings home for free from work. They had soap in them. After rinsing, they are perfect for rain barrels. Some years I put gold fish in our barrels to eat the mosquitoes. This works really well. I buy the fancy tail ones that I sell back to the pet store at the end of the season. They get really big in the barrels.

Rain falling on an area is part of the ecology of the region and is accounted in the water distributions of the local governments. Rain replenishes lakes, creeks and rivers that supply certain regions of the country. If we didn't have laws like this, ridiculous or confusing as they may seem, we'd revert to the days of the old west when ranchers damned creeks and riverbeds on their property (some of those Texas ranches back in the day were tens of thousands of acres large) causing small towns and smaller homesteads down stream to dry up. Range wars were started over this sort of thing.

And in regions where there is heavy snowfall, the 'powers that be' use this precipitation to help determine how to distribute their water.

By the way, the air space over your property doesn't really belong to you either; it is governed by the FAA (or some other such aeronautical organization.). When you buy land, though, depending on the real estate contract and/or the local laws, you do own the soil and the minerals on it. That's how many Texans and Okies became rich oil millionaires back in the day!

Jan in VA