According to the City of Vancouver, 40% of household water is sprinkled on lawns and gardens-- which is not the most efficient way to water plants. 40%!  That's an incredible amount of water that we are paying to have 'treated' so it is safe for us to drink and then we promptly put it into the ground! 

How would you like to have a way to 'reduce' the amount of 'city water' that you use on your garden, reduce the amount of water that has to pass through the city waste water treatment plant AND have healthier water for your house plants! 

The solution can be found in the lyrics of a very old song that goes like this: "shout down my rain barrel, slide down my cellar door."  Yup, a 'rain barrel' is what I'm talking about.  Using a barrel to catch the water flowing from rain gutters is one of the simplest, cheapest ways to conserve water and divert it from the sewer system.  Many municipal water systems put chlorine in the water.  Chlorine is bad for soil bacteria, not to mention our air.  Rainwater is oxygenated, unchlorinated  and warmer than tap water, qualities that actually make it a better source for plants and safer for the environment.

And if your city or town bans watering during times of dry weather, it may be the ONLY way to avoid having to watch your garden wilt.  You don't need something expensive like a cistern and you don't need to buy a fancy setup.  In fact, you can make one quite inexpensively.  All you need is a 'recycled' barrel of the 50-85 gallon size, an overflow connection (to drain the excess water away from your foundation), a tap to draw water when you need it, and a rain gutter on your house or garage.  When it rains, the water that would normally run off the roof and down your driveway into the sewer system is instead collected in your rain barrel

With only a few dollars and a bit of your time, you can collect over a hundred gallons of water that is free of chlorine!  And it is also FREE!  The next few pages will spell out in detail, how to make your own 'rain barrel'  collection and storage system.
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