GRECIAN URN RAIN BARREL

After the extreme heat and drought of the summer, I asked Mr. Thrifty for a rain barrel for my birthday.    The next blog will show how he installed it in the backyard.  Here are a few pictures of the rain barrel itself.

This barrel has a nice feature.  On the top, it has a reservoir to plant a plant.  There are drip holes for the plant in the back of the barrel.

                                                                                                       

He started with a base.  First, he dug out the grass in the area and leveled the ground.  Using leftover pea gravel from the retaining wall project, he covered the ground and leveled it again.

                                                   
                     Believe it or not, we still have leftover brick from the building of the house. 

Besides having a sturdy base for the barrel, the brick raised the platform up enough that I could put a reused plastic milk gallon underneath with clearance to refill the container for watering.  Otherwise, I would have had to use a hose connected to the downspout of the barrel.


                                                      This is the finished project. 

 

                Mr. Thrifty laid a brick with the date 1991 directly under the spout.  I had pulled the brick and replaced it with another brick this summer while visiting the old homestead back in Peoria. The brick represents to me the fact that at one time, years ago, with help from a bricklaying friend, I had completed an outdoor patio project with success and basically,  no training.  That patio was laid with old street bricks.  Talk about history!

 

  That experience taught me that a person can do more things than you can imagine.

 

 

The Maywood brick patio.

 

 

The brick 'cornerstone' inlaid into the patio corner.

 

 

The brick transferred to our recent home.

 

 

Here is a view from the side. The barrel fits flush against the brick.

 

 

 

Now, it is time to show you how this system collects the rain water.

 

 

 

                                                 This hooks on directly to the downspout.

                      This hose comes directly from the gutter to the side of the rain barrel.

Here is the last picture.  I really like the way that the terracotta look blends well with the brick.

Better yet, conserving our rain water is saving money.  I really believe that rain water is better for the plants anyway.

                       I forgot to mention that this rain barrel holds 65 gallons of rain water.