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Watering your plants can cost you a kings ransom in the summertime. Rain barrels are cheap when you stick to basics and are easy to maintain. You need something that won't rust and a way to keep the mosquitoes out. Stringing mosquito screen fabric across the top is enough. Tape it down and you're ready to rock. A large plastic trash can is ideal and one with wheels is best. Put it close to your garden's edge if there's no wheels and ferry watering cans of it back and forth where it's needed. You'll save hundreds if not thousands of gallons of water.
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I plan on buying a rain barrel this year,,we have a small back yard(live on a corner lot)My side and front yard are bigger so the area we have planned for a garden is small,,only a few plants this year but next year will be larger.Im wanting a rain barrel to help with water cost.My husband said he always thought gnats and bug harbor around the barrels and the water would become stagnet....anyone have one to know if it does?
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I haven't got one yet Donna. I've read a lot about them though. I think that's why you put the mosquito net across it, to stop them getting in and laying eggs. I found these tips.
(1) Empty your barrel monthly
(2) Clean your gutters regularly to reduce debris
(3) Once a year, tip it over during a dry spell and rinse it out with a hose
(4) Don’t let rainwater sit in your barrel longer than a month if smell is a concern to you or if you start accumulating algae. You can also put a capful of chlorine bleach into the water. That small amount won’t hurt plants, but vinegar might -- don’t use any type of vinegar in your rainbarrel.
There's more tips in that article.
Rainbarrel Maintenance
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Thanks for the info savannah!
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This is also handy. It's a slide presentation how to make one for under twenty dollars.
http://www.yorkccd.org/xmisc/Newrainbarrel.pdf
That's one thing that has always made me hesitate about growing a big vegetable patch. I was scared it would be too expensive to keep it watered and would be a waste of time. I don't have a very green thumb and it wouldn't take much to be a disaster. Thank you for the tip!I think I'll price them and see what it would cost.