Chose a rain barrel over a fancy irrigation system for my garden

I was all set to drop like $400 on a drip irrigation setup for my veggie beds last spring. Then my neighbor mentioned she just got a cheap 50 gallon rain barrel from the city for $60. So I grabbed one, hooked it up to my downspout, and ran a soaker hose from it on a timer. Honestly the water pressure is lower than I'd like on hot days, but it's saved me a ton on the water bill and the tomatoes loved the rain water better. Has anyone else had luck with a simple gravity-fed system like this?

2 comments

2 Comments

jade_hernandez8d ago

Gravity is free, unlike your water bill.

sam_anderson8d ago

Did you read that piece in the science section about how we're basically just paying for the pipes and pumps? It made me realize gravity does all the heavy lifting for free, but someone still has to move it uphill. So yeah, gravity's free, but the infrastructure to use it isn't.