Tag Archives: Rain Barrel

Environmentally Friendly Ideas, Garden Tools & Tips

How to Thrill the Thrifty and Excite the Environmentalist at Home

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photographs,puddles,raindrops,rains,weather

Thanks to a furry little friend, I happen to know that spring is coming a little early this year.  The coming of spring means the coming of rain…and lots of it, depending on your locale.  You don’t have to be a gardener or conservationist like me to see the benefits of capturing some of that impending rainfall in a rain barrel and using it for watering garden beds, container plants, and lawns.  You just have to like saving money.

Sure, using collected rain that falls from the sky to sprinkle our plants saves water, which is a resource thatGarden Rain Barrel - 60 Gallon is becoming more and more scarce.   For many people, though — like my thrifty spouse — the only real requirement for owning and using rain barrels is the desire to save money.  Saving money is a big motivator for many homeowners, especially for those of us who work harder than we’d care to in order make sure those monthly bills are paid on time.  Rain barrels are one of the easiest ways to save on those monthly bills.  Set up a rain barrel or two near your home’s downspouts, and let Mother Nature fill them up for free.

Home maintenance practices that combine money savings with conservation are my absolute favorite because they meet the needs of both my spouse and myself in one package.  Have you adopted other practices at home that save money and help the environment at the same time?

Environmentally Friendly Ideas, Garden Tools & Tips

3 Money Saving Gardening Practices

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Garden Rain Barrel - 60 Gallon  Earthmaker Aerobic Composter Is The Fast Green Way To Deal With Organic Waste  Square Cedar Planter Box

Gardens enhance the beauty of any home, but more and more homeowners choose to garden as a way to save money on grocery expenses.  Home-grown vegetables, herbs, and fruits not only taste better and provide greater nutrition than store-bought varieties, they cost less.

Keeping costs low when maintaining a garden, no matter what kind of garden you have, can be as easy as adopting three easy money-saving practices:

  1. Collect Rainwater — There’s no point in paying the local water department when you water your gardens if you can simply use the free stuff that falls from the sky.  According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the average homeowner “uses at least 30 percent of their water outdoors for irrigation,” and some studies suggest that “more than 50 percent of landscape water used goes to waste due to evaporation or runoff caused by overwatering.” Collecting rainwater in rain barrels and using it to water gardens is one way to save big on your water bill, and it plays an important part in water conservation.
  2. Make Your Own Compost — Compost enriches the soil and makes for happy, healthy plants.  Sure, you can buy compost from your local garden center or nursery, but you can also make it yourself for free in the backyard.  With the right compost bin, making compost can be easy and somewhat hands-off.  In addition to saving money by making your own compost, you also reduce the amount of lawn and kitchen wastes that go into local landfills.  Not everything can be composted, though.  For a handy listing of what you can and cannot put into your compost bin, take a look at this brief article on Composting Basics.
  3. Use Raised Containers — If you frequently lose your plants to nibbling rabbits, deer, or other garden-invading critters, you should consider planting your more delicious plants in a raised container.  Raised containers allow gardeners to keep plants safe from animals, thereby saving money that would have to be spent replacing those plants.  Raised containers also make it easy to relocate the plants as necessary, and they prevent sore backs and joints that sometimes come with tending a garden at ground level.
Environmentally Friendly Ideas, Garden Tools & Tips

Update Your Garden with Environmentally Friendly Products

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Earthmaker Composter

Looking for ways to update your garden? Why not add some elements to make it more environmentally friendly! Composters and rain barrels are both options that can add value, ease, and appeal to your gardening projects – all while protecting the environment and conserving valuable resources.

Composters are a must have for the environmentally friendly gardener! They provide an easy, green way to deal with organic waste by producing natural, nutrient rich compost for your plants. A three chamber variety is a popular choice in composters. In the first chamber,  water, oxygen and heat help micro-organisms (fungi and bacteria) break down the raw material. Kitchen waste, such as fruits and vegetables pieces, and yard waste, such as grass clippings and leaves, are both great options to add to your composter. In the cooler middle and bottom chambers, macro-organisms (worms and invertebrates) work to further break down material to mulch and, finally, compost. You can produce up to 10 gallons of compost every month! That provides savings on fertilizer and an opportunity to recycle.

Recycling is also an important factor in adding a rain barrel to your garden setup. Rain barrels are designed to collect and store rain water for later use in your garden or around your home. It is estimated that residential irrigation can account for up to 40% of consumption in many cities across the US. Collecting free, clean, rain water can drastically decrease the high demand for domestic water, with savings of up to 13,000 gallons during summer months! A 60 gallon rain barrel can fill up in approximately twenty minutes during a normal rain fall and multiple barrels can be linked together to increase storage capacity.

Garden Rain Barrel