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Re-purposed Rain Barrel Summer Project

Need a project this summer? How about if you purchase a rain barrel and make it more attractive with some PAINT or PLANTS. When it comes to at-home water conservation, nothing equals a rain barrel. Placed near a gutter or downspout, it collects precious rainwater that can be used to water your garden and indoor plants and even to fill your pool, lowering your monthly water bills.

There are numerous ways available for you to re-purpose your rain barrel:

Painting – a splash of paint goes a far way
Planting – growing vines around the barrel

Painting

Painting is not just for ornamental reasons, either– it’s a practical measure you can take to extend the life of your barrels. According to the University of Tennessee, a coat of paint can help protect your barrels from breaking down due to sun exposure.

In five steps or less, quickly update plastic surfaces to better reflect your personal style:

• Clean project surface.
• Lightly sand surface if previously painted.
• Remove dust with a tack cloth.
• Let plastic surface dry.
• Apply Krylon® Fusion for Plastic® spray paint according to the directions on the spray can label.

Planting – growing vines around the barrel

Add some wire mesh and a few vines to your barrel and make it blend into your garden this Summer.

You will need a mesh wire and about 6 to 8 plants.

Wrapping the wire around the barrels

• Simply roll the wire out and around the barrel until the ends meet. Bind them with stray bits of wire (paper clips will do) and gently push down until it is slightly set in the ground and stable.
• Don’t worry if your wire doesn’t come all the way to the top of the barrel. Eventually your plants will grow up along the upper edge and fill it out. Until then you can place potted plants with overhanging tendrils on top of the barrel to hide the wire at the top.
• Make sure you allow your spigot and other fixtures to peek out of the wire so they remain accessible.

Plant the Vines

• Plant your vines at the base of the mesh surrounded barrels. Get them as close to the wire as possible but be sure to space them away from each other according to the needs of the particular plant.
• Coax the plants into growing up the wire by guiding already formed vines into the wire and gently weaving them through. To prevent vines from developing sparse foliage low on the mesh but dense on top (as they tend to do), pinch back the terminal growth of the stems as they develop because this forces lower branching and more evenly distributed foliage on the wire.

Now let’s get started! Purchase your rain barrel  and decide on if you are going to paint or plant. You can even share your progress with us on Facebook Canada | USA  & or Twitter Canada | USA .

Enjoy !

Forget jewellery & flowers this year, give Mom a gift that keeps on giving.

Why Buy A Rain Barrel from Us?

• Rain Barrels are perfect for capturing and harvesting rain water and therefore helps in water conservation
• Rainwater is free from chlorine, ammonia, fluoride and other chemicals – perfect for Mom’s garden
• By buying a rain barrel from us you would be supporting a non-profit organization in your area.

Where to BUY A Rain Barrel ?

See our full list of sales HERE

Below is a list of our non-profit fundraising partners that are now accepting orders for pick up May 12th or 13th. Click on the location closest to you to submit your order. Make picking up your rain barrel part of your Mother’s day plans.

Belleville , ON – Quinte Conservation

Eden , NY – St. John’s Community Church

Peterborough, ON  Grace United Church Men of Faith

Sarnia, ON – The Alzheimer’s Society of Sarnia-Lambton

Val Caron, ON – Confederation Secondary School

Grimsby, ON – Grimsby Kinette Club

Ottawa, ON – 62nd Ottawa Scout Group

Cookstown, ON – Inn Services Utilities Inc.

Don’t see your location here? Order one for later pick up and tell mom about it on her special day!  For a full list of sales please click here.

It may be helpful to look at our scheduled sales on THIS MAP. We are unable to sell individual barrels during our truckload sales season. You may want to consider contacting one of our non-profit partners directly to see if you can arrange pick up at a more convenient time when you are in their area. Contact information is on all of our sales pages listed at RainBarrel.ca/truckload-sales.

Buy A Rain Barrel and Support Stirling Lions

Many Benefits to Rain Barrels

Amherstview Lions and Loyalist Township Team Up To Bring Rain Barrels to Community Members

ARLENE VANDERBEEK COLUMN Hamilton

North Bay Regional Health Centre

Question: I am looking for a design that I can use to connect my downspouts to a 1,000 liter tote, or a couple of plastic rain barrels. My downspouts are connected to pvc piping near the ground, and the pvc piping continues underground and to the edge of my lawn and drains into the woods. I’d like to find a way to fill the containers and then have any overflow travel through the buried pipe to be dispersed away from the house. Even better would be a way to set up a pump so I could let the water rip when it was watering time. I’m on a well and watering is a challenge with low flow rates and lack of volume. Any ideas or links would be appreciated!

Answer: Our universal downspout diverter will help with this. Take a look at how it connects to the white rain barrel (below). When full the water backs up and continues down the downspout. A tote tank can be set up the same way.