Rural Gardening: Water Harvesting, 1 by Jayryunen

Jayryunen wrote:
Finally got my rainwater collection system all hooked up, and just in time... we got a bit of rain today!

I've only hooked up one side of the house; we're thinking of doing a second tank at the other end of the house and would hook up the other side to it. We're going to see how it works out with just the one side per tank... if it stays well-filled, then we'll do a second tank. If it draws down too quickly, we'll just do one tank.

The down pipe on the corner of the house collects the first flush of the gutter. It's got a loosely fitted screw cap on the end that drips, so it slowly, slowly empties itself onto my mint bed around the base of the old rain barrels. Once or twice a year I can unscrew that cap and get the roof gravel out. I've also got a piece of window screen over the entry hole of the tank to keep out mosquitos. Glued in place with some silicon caulking.

I haven't finished the overflow on this yet... we've a ways to go before the water level reaches that. The overflow is going to water a tree or some raspberry bushes... haven't decided yet.