Saw a cool rainwater setup at a community garden in Denver

I was walking through the Bluff Lake Nature Center last weekend and noticed their vegetable plots had these simple rain barrels connected to the gutter downspouts. The barrels were just old food-grade plastic drums, but they'd painted them dark colors to stop algae growth. One volunteer told me each barrel catches about 55 gallons during a decent storm. It got me thinking how easy it would be to copy that for home use. Has anyone here set up something similar and had problems with mosquitoes?

2 comments

2 Comments

beth_anderson18d ago

Did they mention what they do with all that water when the barrels are full? I've always worried about overflow causing problems with my foundation. Also, painting them dark is smart, but does that actually keep the water cool enough to stop the bugs?

diana_bell7418d ago

Actually overflow is a good thing because it means the system is working and you can just direct it away from the house. Dark paint might even make the water too warm and welcome more bugs, not fewer.