Upcoming rain barrel workshop

On Sunday, May 15th at 2 pm there will be a workshop on installing and using a rain barrel. Imagine Grinnell has purchased two 55 gallon rain barrels and a linking hose from Upcycle Products, which will be delivered to Grinnell on May 7th as part of the Spring Rain Barrel Sale. We'll install the rain barrels along with a salvaged gutter and downspout on the north side of the City-owned shed next to the garden. It does not take much roof to get enough water to fill a 55 gallon barrel. In fact, for every 1,000 square feet of roof area served by a downspout, 600 gallons of water runs off during a 1-inch rain! Even an 8 ft x 4 ft sheet of plywood is sufficient to fill a 55 gallon barrel. Considering how likely it is that the barrel will overflow during Grinnell's wet summers, we will likely construct a rain garden next year to receive that excess water. The barrels at the garden will be raised off the ground with cinder blocks and we will use the water for the garden as much as possible, supplementing with the well water when necessary. We may have some difficulty getting sufficient pressure for a garden hose, so we've considered the possibility of a pump, including a solar-powered pump.

Rain water is actually much better for plants than well water because rain water is naturally soft, devoid of minerals, chlorine, fluoride and other chemicals. It may seem obvious that rainwater would be better for plants, but so often well water is used on gardens and lawns. Grinnell College starting catching water on their new athletic building and using it to water their football field and they've found the grass has done much better. Using rainwater alone to water lawns would probably lessen the need for chemical fertilizers to boost the appearance of the grass.