Sick of me yet? One last thing tonight......we set up 2 rain barrels this spring, it rained all spring, summer and fall to the point where we had to empty the rain barrels at the end of the season before winter, I loaded up tons of 2 lt. pop bottles with the rain water for my houseplants, never needed the rain water for the outside plants since all it did was rain. Anyway, at this time I do not have a picture but will this spring, so try to envision this. One of the rain barrels is actually a huge copper wire holder spool of wood that we set a barrel on and attached to the gutter and installed on on/off spigot. The great thing is the base is large enough to set potted plants all around (which I
am painting this winter different pots of assorted colors for spring) and underneath I screwed in cup hooks to hold small garden implements. My husband even connected a hose to the spigot to reach the closest flower gardens.
Once it is painted and all the pots of plants are set all around the base I think it is going to look really nice.

I hope you post pictures of your rain barrel when you are done. It sounds like a pretty one!

A rain barrel is on my 2015 To Do List. I think, like you, once I put up one barrel, it will rain and rain and rain and rain. Oh well, I will be ready for the next drought cycle.

I am looking forward the the photos also.

For anyone contemplating purchasing a rain barrel, I do not recommend the 'Systern' made by Norseman Plastics. They look good and have a screen top to keep out insects and debris, but we bought 2 of them; they both developed a vertical crack when the barrels were only 1/3 full of water. Not a good investment for us.

I just went out and took a picture, LOL any reason to go outside, 60 degrees here in Omaha today!
Anyway this past season it had a barrel attached which is down for winter now and the base held
all sorts of potted plants, so I have grand plans for it this season and am beginning to paint pots
to set on the base, so after it is a done deal I will send a picture. Freedombelle

I have two rain barrels on my property and last year I managed to never water from the hose. I keep about 20 gallon jugs, plus two five-gallon buckets for overflow.

I buy mosquito dunks in bulk by the way...130 gallons of standing water in Memphis in July takes some attention. I'm not trying to be Typhoid Mary over here or anything

We have two rain barrels as well with screens. My husband build a stand for one but I am still waiting for the other one but now I think I will scout Craig's list for a spool. I've seen them offered before and what a great idea!!!

I use my rainwater to water mainly houseplants and this time of year, all my young seedlings being started inside.

I like that spool idea.
Mine are only a foot or two off the ground on concrete blocks.

In my small space, I like this design:

http://www.instructables.com/i...

I located a better picture of it when it was hooked up when we put it up. We have a second rain barrel on
the other side of the house as well. What I like besides it being up off the ground high is there is so much
room on the bottom for potted plants!

Love your ideas there, Linda! I'll be watching this, because rain barrels are on my 2015 to-do list also! Great job!

Okay, I just showed this to DH and he's on board so I'll scout CL for one!

abhege said:Okay, I just showed this to DH and he's on board so I'll scout CL for one!

Also try your electric company, hope you score one!

Aha! And I have a friend who works for the local utility company. I'll check with him too.

We have four 50-gallon Rubbermaid water barrels -- the roof line that feeds them is pretty long so they fill up fast when it rains, but when they overfill the water runs into a drain pipe that goes to a ditch. DH came up with a system to hook the barrels together with PVC fittings, and dug the drain lines...

Since this photo was taken we've added one more tier of cement blocks so the barrels are higher up. To water the garden we use a submersible pump dropped down into a barrel -- DH keeps an eye on the water and the pump, while I direct the flow of water to the plants. There's probably a better system but we don't really need to do it all that often.

Love the idea of filling up bottles for watering the houseplants, we always end up "wasting" a lot of the rainwater at the end of the season!

Weedwhacker, I really like your system, plus it is pleasing to the eye. Whatever works, better than no system!
Yours is very tidy looking right along the house, very well done, I like it!