If you like to garden in any capacity, then you know and understand how much your plants love, not to mention thrive when they get enough rainwater, unfortunately, we don’t really have anything to do with what the weather does, so it’s not unusual to experience dry spells with little to no rain leaving you with just a garden hose to shower your plants with love (and water!) with. But there is the option of installing one or more rain barrels near your home so you can preserve rainwater to use on your plants. If this is something you might be interested in, check out our list of pros and cons before you fully decide.
(image via: love your landscape)
Cons
We’re going to start with the negative aspects of rain barrels because you’re about to learn that the pros heavily outweigh the cons.
- Rainwater from a non-filtered barrel is not safe to drink. And it will look very crisp and refreshing so we understand wanting to drink it, but without the proper filtration system to clean the rainwater, we highly recommend you heed our warning and not consume any dirty rainwater.
- A dry season is a dry season which means there very well could be times when your barrel is empty, but hey, you’re tryin’!
- If you need a lot of water, like, you’re considering using rainwater for things besides just watering your plants, you’ll want to check into multiple barrels to ensure you gather enough water.
Pros
- Aside from watering your gardens and/or plants and flowers, rainwater is also great for filling pools or birdbaths.
- If you notice that your water bill tends to be higher in the summertime because you’re using water to water your garden or outdoor plants or fill swimming pools, then you can kiss those days goodbye. Start collecting rainwater early in the season and fill that bucket up so you never have to worry about a dry barrel (hopefully!) Having water ready to be harvested and used for watering plants or a pool refill can save you some big bucks.
- The biggest pro, in our humble opinion, is that rainwater is free from any harmful chemicals, so your plants will most certainly thrive when they’re being watered with fresh, nutrient-rich rainwater.
- Believe it or not, rain barrels are super easy to install, and the empty barrels are easy to move around. Double pro.
- If you find that you usually deal with a little soil erosion on your land or big, muddy puddles in your yard, rain barrels should solve this issue by collecting the water and keeping it away from your foundation.