Although I respect this companys' entrepreneurial spirit. I really hope no-one wastes their money for one of these barrels. $80 for a 55 gallon rain barrel is ridiculous. Anyone can build one themselves for less than $30. The plastic 50 gallon drums can be bought for $15 on Craigslist. A brass spigot costs $5, a tube of silicon is less than $5, and mesh/screen for the top will cost maybe $2. This is such a simple project, even the less-than-handy could build it in under twenty minutes.

I can't find any drums on craigslist (Orlando) but there is a company on Hoffner that sells them for $20. And I agree, this is a bit too expensive since he sells them so plain. Somehow the price doesn't seem right.

Evelyn

abendwolke - I typed (55 gallon drums) into the Craigslist search and found over a half dozen ads. You could also post a wanted ad in the farm & garden section and let those with the barrels email you. Thats what I did. At least four people with drums available responded.

msmarion, I don't know if you have a rain barrel yet or not. After Michelle posted about her rain barrel I stopped by the UF Yards & Neighborhoods Program in Martin County (288-5654). If you attend a 40 minute program they give you a rain barrel. The coordinator expects to have a class within 30 days. The last class was held at the T.C. Mall a week or so ago. She'll send you a notice if you provide your address for the wait list.

Its worth a visit to the extension office if you're in Stuart someday: very friendly people, great info from UF and some nice plants from area Master Gardeners.

chris, thanks, I did the search again and the barrels came up, but only after using your search phrase. I had tried '55 gal drum' and 'drum 55 gal' and nothing came up.

oh, and for orange county the rain barrel classes are filled up for this year.

:-)

It seems like it has rained every day since I got my barrel. I don't know, if I get really frustrated I might consider paying someone to put it together for me.
I'm really less than handy!

Here is a link that might be useful: How to make a rain barrel

Y'all will enjoy this.

I went to the rain barrel day here in Miami-Dade a few months ago. I thought it was at the Miami Beach Convention Center, so off I go to the beach early one saturday morning, all decked out in my gardening attire _ beat up cargo shorts, beat up t-shirt, beat up flip-flops. I wandered around the convention center for awhile, looking for any sort of sign, but couldn't find anything, or even anyone else who seemed to be looking for anything like gardenware. Finally, I found a sweet little old lady manning a door.
And she said: "Honey, we got porn and we got motorcycles this weekend, no rainbows on the list." Looking around at all the women NOT dressed anything like me, I gave up on trying to explain that I was looking for big plastic barrels to store rainwater to water your garden, not rainbows.

It was the porn convention weekend and some motorcycle show. Gotta love the beach! Turns out rain barrel day was across the street at the little botanical garden I didn't even know was there.

That said, once I found it, I wished I had a bigger car. Couldn't fit the two they would have let me have into the hatchback, so I just got one. And I can set yours up for you Kristi. Another reason why we'll have to get together again soon.

Susannah

The Charlotte County Extension Office sells them for $35 each. For that price you also get a brass spigot and a pvc pipe fitting for connecting barrels together.
The ones I bought had once contained apple juice from China. You could smell it 20 feet away.

We have two that we made from the closed top barrels, which we have no problem finding, but we are looking now for the screw top barrels. The kind that you put screen over and screw the lid over it. Does anyone have any idea where we can find those? We told a friend without gutters that we would make him 2 in exchange for him giving us his law mower (he xeroscaped his front yard and had no need for it), and it would be way easier if we could find barrels with removable lids. Any tips would be appreciated! Thanks

I purchased some from a man in Daytona (that a GWer had suggested) for $15 each. I can probably contact him to see if he has more. He delivered 6 to me a few months back. If anyone's interested lemme know and I'll drop him a line
V:)

Yes we are looking for two of the 55 gal screw tops. His price is comparable with the other kind. If you wanted to put me/him in contact with each other that'd be cool. We aren't too far from Daytona. Thanks!!!!

Check with your local water department . They have nice clean 65 gallon barrels and they are opaque so you can see the water level . Best of all - they were free ! Also post a wanted on Freecycle.org . Couldn't hurt !

flanative, I just checked with the guy and he's not selling them anymore, sorry :(

Aww man! Thank you so much for looking into it for me though. I will keep looking for those particularones, and will definitley call the water dept. to see what they have to offer. Thanks for the suggestion.

How do you actually hook up a rain barrel to your down spouts?

Mine go all the way to the ground and I am dying to get rain barrels hooked up to the five I have along the sides of the house but it's the installation that I have no clue about...I want it done right.

Also, when you have the rain barrels w/ the hose attachment, will the water flow through the hose or do you need that pump to get the water out to the plants?

thanks! teeka

Hi
I built my first water garden as a place to store rainwater and also to remove excess runoff away from the house.. Built a 5x10 stacked 4x4 duginto the ground an addition foot . Holds almost 1100 gallons cost 200 bucks
As a side benefit I have a self cleaning water garden self watering marsh garden. with a great place to keep fish. I use the water primarily to water the shadehouse and 100 gallons was not enough even without the drought. The best part about it is that it doesn't require "hiding"LOL Everybody thinks it's a water garden.
I still keep two water barrels but that water is filtered and used for my tropical fish. gary

Hey Gary...got pictures?
Hillsborough co. has workshops and the rainbarrels are free. If they have extras they will sell them for $15 w/ spigot and screen.
Other sources of the barrels are feeds stores especially ones that cater to horses. (Shell's Feed store in TAmpa and Holloway's in Land O' Lakes to name names)

I'd rather my RB smell like apple juice. I still smell Greek peppers when I stick my nose in there.

I don't know how far you are from Tarpon Springs but this guy has the barrels with the twist top.
$30 each or 4 for $100.

I need to get another one but I just haven't gotten around to it yet.

Here is a link that might be useful: rain barrels

I'm putting a link to a PDF guide to making rain barrels thta I found on Orange County Extension Office website. It has everything you would need to know, we used it in making ours.
Here is a pic from our first barrel we made...we have since upgraded to add a second one attached plus some extra irragation out of the overflow...I'll take a pic of the new set up this weekend (I'm proud of it) I love watering my plants without using the City's water!!

Here is a link that might be useful: Rain Barrel Guide

Hmm...the guy in Tarpon Springs thinks pretty highly of his barrels! Shell's in Tampa has them for $15...that is w/o the spigot.

Teeka you asked "will the water flow through the hose or do you need that pump to get the water out to the plants? ." We have 3 barrels hooked together and we have a double spigot - one for filling a bucket and one with a hose attached. Our yard slopes down in the back so the barrels are higher than where I water. The water comes out but not with enough force to use a spray attachment on the end of the hose. I am happy with it but it though. Hope that helps.

I have to tell you that in a trip to Wally World my husband spotted rain barrels in the garden section. *lol* Looks like rain barrels have gone mainstream. They cost $40 something and what they were was hugh plastic garbage cans with a hole near the bottom to put a faucet in. (I didn't look close enough to see if they included a faucet.) Nothing fancy, but I was glad to see that they were selling them. What I liked was the top was a garbage can lid that came off. Mine are made from 55 gallon drums and the only way I know if they are getting empty is if I can move them.

If you're thinking of doing this, look closely at Flanative's set-up. The concrete blocks underneath are really not optional. They seemed like an extra step, why bother, when I put mine in. My pressure is lower because I skipped that step. And I had trouble getting the hose attachment to fit without crimping it. I still use mine plenty, and was only planning on having it for a drip hose, which doesn't need real high pressure. But take it from me, that's not just for looks. And now that mine is set up wrong, it's going to be a huge hassle to redo it because I'll have to wait for it to empty out and probably recut the downspout.

Teeka, you cut the downspout with a hacksaw or sawsall a couple feet above the top of the barrel (when it's already sitting on the blocks) and then hook up a connector. Flanative's set-up is great, but you can also buy a plastic expandable, bendable waterspout connector thingy at any big box. Then you don't have to worry as much about measuring everything exactly. Not as pretty, but easier to work with.

And flanative, yours looks great! What did you paint it with? I've got a couple visible downspouts and I'm thinking of trying to do it fancy like yours. (The only one I have now is at a very hidden downspout.)

Susannah

Great information and pictures, everyone...thanks for sharing!

DH is so tickled that you called them fancy! My father used the flexible downspout attachment on his, I saw it this weekend, and it looks like it makes it much easier to fit then attaching several elbows to make it work.
This is a picture of what our one barrel morphed into.

We added a second one, and since we have drainage problems there anyways, where the dirt was being chuncked out of the yard on a hard rain, he took a long PVC pipe, poked holes in it and attached it along the side of the house so the overflow would come out at different points, in one of our plant beds. You can see it in the second pic.

Have I said how much I love my rain barrels lol? We plan on adding some more on other parts of the house.

We used Krylon plastic paint on the first one. ACE has a plastic paint too, I think we used that on the second one and the irrigation pipe. It works pretty well. I have seen some people get really creative and paint pretty garden scenes on theirs. I sorta wanted mine just to blend in and be a little neutral since you can see them from the pool.

~Lisa B

I don't use the down spout at all. I removed it from the above gutter. The water freefalls into the rainbarrel (through the screen). Any over flow just splashes (or gushes) out. I don't have to worry about back up on the roof...it is only a porch anyway.
I had this picture with the rain barrels in it...the best I can do now (it's dark)

Laura

it looks so beautiful...what an awesome job, and from someone who has put down stepping stones herself, that must've been quite a job.

What did you put down between each flagstone?

Thanks for everyone's tips on the rain barrels. I need to sign up for one of these workshops here in St Pete and find out where to get the cheapest ones,but with the spigot and the extra one to fill buckets.

teeka