Rain Barrels!
Welcome to our very first Wonderful Tiny Farm (WTF) Blob post! We moved into our farm in August of 2020 and have been massively busy putting our infrastructure in place.
Wonderful Tiny Farm - October, 2021
My intent has always been to start a blog just for our farm and now a year later, and the timeline in October - I can finally slow down and start working on it. We’re finishing up our first year on the farm, and I’ve got lots to post about, so look for more content over the fall and winter months.
We’ve dabbled quite a lot in rain barrels over the last few years with our gardens, and I finally feel like we have a pretty good system - not perfect. There are things still to work out, and we’ll talk about that in this article. Previous to starting this blog, I’ve worked many years on The Tech Grandma blog, and here’s a blog post we did in 2017.
Upon coming to Chelsea, my neighbor Ken kept telling me about The Washtenaw County Conservative District, so when it was time to order a few things for our new farm, we contacted them for our needs. Our good friend there Doug Reith delivered our order and had a few questions. Apparently we hold the record for number of rain water collection containers - at least so far. He wanted to know what we were doing with all these containers.
Fair enough, so ….
I started researching the best approach for irrigation in our gardens last winter and really wanted to have a hybrid approach. I wanted an automated system in place, so we didn’t have to physically manage it. I found this You Tube video that was done by Don’t Screw It Up and so I bought all the components to automate it. I thought this really was a great solution and still do.
We have 3600 square feet in the barn and lots of roof space, so we started minimally I with (5) 275 gallon totes. We did research larger containers for rain barrels, but it was not cost effective. Shipping alone kills the value and the WCCD had just what we needed at a reasonable cost. There’s only 4 pictured here, we moved one of them to the front garden. This gives us 1,100 gallons of water.
Daisy Chained
Using the pictured plumbing supplies, Burke daisy chained them all together, so they rise and fall together. So the system drains or fills them all equally (mostly). Although, we learned that the last chained barrel empties the quickest and it takes time for the other to settle or even out. Each barrel has it’s own shut off valve.
On Demand Pump
We purchased 2 irrigation boxes from Lowes (1 for the front and 1 for the back) and use them to protect the system from weather.
Inside the irrigation box
Burke cut out plywood for the bottom and mounted the on demand pump, attached the inlet and outlets for the water and electricity to power the pump. Currently, it’s plugged into the barn electricity 200 amp service, which is running off the township grid, but one day - we’ll move it over to solar. I can’t say enough about how I really like the on demand pump. When it senses pressure from the irrigation timer or a hose head, it comes on. When you turn off the timer, it shuts off. Easy as pie.
Timers
I have the back garden divided into 4 zones with a garden host connecting the timer to the on demand pump. I also added a spliter between the timer and garden hose so I could hook up a separate hose for spontaneous water for new plantings and such.
Overhead Sprinkler
Because of time, I elected to do overhead spinklers in the back because it was easy. I think drip lines are better for this type of setup since it’s low pressure. This was one of our lessons learned this year - water pressure and also proper filtering. Drip is better for tomato health too because their leaves do not like to get wet and bacteria growth is more susceptible. But, I did leave lots of spacing between plants and tried to keep things pruned and I didn’t have an issue with this. Next year, these guys will be in a greenhouse and drip irrigation will be the way to go.
Honestly, the biggest challenge lay in getting the irrigation into the garden and time. I was running out of time as most of my beds were laid so some of my decisions were meant to be temporary. In the front garden, I started to run 1/2 black irrigation tubing experimenting with different irrigation components by Rain Bird. I had originally divided the garden into 2 zones. I set it all up but the pressure was so bad. My solution was to make more zones that would need less pressure. The low pressure systems (like the drip emitters) definitely faired the best, but that more up front labor. Time I didn’t have this year.
In the back garden, I used Rain Bird sprinkler heads to over head water, dividing the garden up into 4 zones, but the delivery system were only garden hoses. Again, next year we want to bury PVC and run lines out to the garden.
Don’t do this.
System for the front yard. There are 2 different size rain barrels here. We daisy chained them together as well, but because the last one on the chain drains first. There was times that I would run out of water in the last of the chain barrel and the others couldn’t even out quick enough. You risk running your pump dry. Next year we will move the black ones and use them elsewhere and replace it with another of the same 275 galloon container. This one has a pump on it with a filter, so I eliminated anything getting clogged up.
So in summary, here are some of my lessons learned.
Use the same size barrels throughout your chain.
Make sure you use a filter in your delivery mechanism. Guard against blockages in your hoses or pipes - whatever you’re using.
Some items we still need to build out:
An overflow - how we handle water when the barrels are full.
Automatic switchover - the process for when the barrels are empty. We have our own well on the property, so right now we use that when the barrels are dry and not pressurized properly. The well is nicely pressurized. I eventually want the well to cut on when the barrels are empty using a float value.
And lastly - next year, I want the soil to dictate when it needs water and not use a timer anymore. When the moisture data hits a threshold, it kicks on for having a drink when mother nature wants it. I’m putting in the farm insights plan this October, so I hope to be collecting more data about my farm and gather insights from it.
