Rain water catchment system

In the Garden

I have the perfect set up for doing rainwater harvesting.  For some reason, there are multiple downspouts on our home and garage (probably our previous homes had this too but I just did not notice).  I have at least 4 places where I know there are downspouts that I can use to collect rainwater.  There are 3 downspouts located in the back of the home.  I consider the garden area "behind" the house so these are perfectly located.  The home/garage are situated "above" the garden area so we have gravity on our side back there.  

There is not as much slope to the front area of the home but I can still envision a way of collecting rainwater and diverting it down to an area where I want to put in a duck pond.  That is a project for next year...

Buying all these containers to catch the rainwater is going to be expensive.  I am hoping to maybe configure one system each year i.e. one downspout each year.  I remembered that we have a stock tank that we kept because it is in good condition.  We found it in a wooden box with insulation around it.

Stock tank hidden in wood box with insulation around it to keep it from freezing in the winter.

So, I started thinking that I could use this stock tank as a way to catch water for the garden until we can get a "real" catchment tank.

Here is a nice blog post about how someone else used a stock tank to catch rainwater.

I found this piece of metal in the barn and decided to use it for a "lid"

Henry help me put on a spout.

I bought a gutter diverter to put the rain water into the tank.

Then, I sat the lid on.

I then went to the Goodwill and bought a brown curtain and I draped it over the tank and secured it with bunge cords.  You don't want insects to be able to get in there so that is why I put a cloth cover over it too.

Here is the finished catchment system.

Anyway, it ain't pretty but it works!  It is a 100 gallon tank and it filled up 3 times in the spring.  I used it to water the asparagus and blueberries.  Of course, we haven't had any rain for a while so it will just sit there until the fall.

~Denise