Rainwater harvesting for your garden
Rainwater harvesting is an ancient technique that is enjoying a big revival in popularity in North America because of its inherent qualities. Rain or "living water" is valued for its purity and softness. Rainwater is almost chemical and chlorine free, neutral in ph and many gardeners feel that watering with rainwater promotes healthier plants.
The most basic form of rainwater harvesting is the collection of rainwater for the watering of your outdoor plants. Many municipalities are encouraging the collection of rainwater for this purpose. Since rain water doesn’t undergo any water treatment it conserves our valuable drinking water, lowers your water bill and lowers the cost of community water treatment (33% of the City of Toronto's electricity use in a year is spent on water pumping and treatment).
There are many sources for rain barrels that are designed specifically for this purpose.
Irrigatia Kits and Rainwater Harvesting
Most commercially purchased rain barrels come with a dispensing hose for filing a bucket or watering can. Instead of manually filling and carrying the water to your plants, set up a Irrigatia kit to do it for you. The solar pumps draw water from your rain barrel and pump the water to your plants through an, easy to set up, drip irrigation system. They water the plants every three hours. The solar panel collects more electricity on sunny days so the Irrigatia units pump more water to your plants on sunny days than on cloudy days.
Once set up, you may never need to pick up your watering can again! Don't worry if your rain barrel isn't in a sunny location. The maximum run of tubing can be 60 meters and the pump can be located up to 20 meters away from the rain barrel.