Green Landscaping and Gardening - Collecting rainwater for lawn / garden

We were below our usual rainfall this year, and the lawn took it pretty hard. I'm considering collecting rainwater by connecting a barrel to downspouts from the gutters on the roof, then using the water only for gardening and irrigation.

I looked up articles on the web and mostly all they talk about what a good idea it is. What is missing is answers to practical questions like...
~ If water sits in a rain barrel too long, does it become stale? Is any kind of preservative or treatment needed, since I intend the water for irrigation?
~ How do I distribute this to the lawn / garden? What gallons-per-hour pump would approximate the flow coming out of the hose from the house, or drive a sprinkler?
~ Is this any kind of health or building code violation?

Anyone tried this? I'd appreciate your thoughts.

Thanks!

I haven't tried this personally and am certainly eager to hear from anyone who has, but have you checked : http://www.harvesth2o.com/resources.shtml ? Looks exhaustive and practical. Good luck!

That looks a lot more informative than the other sites I saw- I'll check it out. Thanks!

I've seen it done with low volume things like garden plants like a drip irrigation system. No pump needed for that. The only thing I'm aware of with the water itself is you want to put mosquito donuts in it to keep larvae out.

Keeping rain barrel covered will also keep out the mosquito larvae. When I was a kid, we caught rain water for laundry and other purposes. To keep rain barrel from freezing in winter, we kept a board standing in the barrel for breaking the ice.

just got some 60gal plastic barrels & ran garden hose to the front of the house,,, happen to have a h/o battery charger along w/small 12v pump,,, works fine & no tickets from the waterpolice,,, there's not enuff wtr power to run the lawn sprinkler & the wtr pump'd height's about 6' from down in back to the front elevation,,, no, the barrels don't add to the look of the backyard but we stay on the deck from which we can't see 'em,,, dog has yet to complain, either.

most pumps're measured in gpm's (minutes, not gph's - hours ),,, bas'd on that rating, my 55g bbl'll be emptied in 30min,,, about right compared to actual pump time to empty.

in theory, there's no difference 'tween theory & practice,,, in practice, there is.

I built a dam at the side of my house, it catches the rainwater.

containers up to 2,500gal if i remember correctly,,, we us'd 1,000gal tanks on our conc sawing trucks,,, make that tractor supply - no financial interest in either, tho

here are some links:
http://www.watertiger.net/articles/rainwater_collection.pdf
http://www.greenbuilder.com/sourcebook/
http://www.twdb.state.tx.us/publications/reports/RainwaterHarvestingManual_3rdedition.pdf
http://rainwater.org/

that should keep ya busy for awhile good luck

Knick

We were below our usual rainfall this year, and the lawn took it pretty hard. I'm considering collecting rainwater by connecting a barrel to downspouts from the gutters on the roof, then using the water only for gardening and irrigation.

I looked up articles on the web and mostly all they talk about what a good idea it is. What is missing is answers to practical questions like...
~ If water sits in a rain barrel too long, does it become stale? Is any kind of preservative or treatment needed, since I intend the water for irrigation?
~ How do I distribute this to the lawn / garden? What gallons-per-hour pump would approximate the flow coming out of the hose from the house, or drive a sprinkler?
~ Is this any kind of health or building code violation?

Anyone tried this? I'd appreciate your thoughts.

Thanks![/QUOTE]