come again and fill my barrel! If you recall from my
previous post I picked up two 55 gallon barrels from CraigsList and constructed a composter from one. The second one was destined to water our raised bed garden. I purchased a downspout
diverter from Amazon as well as a
spigot for the bottom.
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| Barrel location at the back of the house. |
I put the barrel up on three concrete blocks to get it up high enough to get a bit of pressure out of the spigot when it is filled. Next was modifying the downspout with the diverter. I used a hacksaw to cut the aluminum following the instructions that came with the adapter. I used some outdoor caulking on the bottom adapter of the diverter to prevent leaks.
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| Downspout cut. |
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| In position. |
I had to cut a large opening in the top of the barrel in order to get my arm inside to fasten both the diverter supply and the bottom spigot. I will probably cover this with a screen later to prevent debris from falling in.
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| Arm hole cut. |
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| The diverter adapter and supply tubing. |
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| Bottom spigot attached. |
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| All done! |
After attaching everything I put a few gallons of water into the barrel in order to water test the spigot and to weigh down the barrel in the very windy conditions on that day. Not more than two hours after I finished the barrel a large storm rolled through and filled my barrel to the brim! It was good to see that everything worked well and that we will be able to use this for the garden instead of manually water the plants everyday. All I need to do is get the soaker hose.
