It’s been raining the past few days so I haven’t been able to get much done in the garden this week. But I have been researching rainbarrels.

Using the average rainfall for my area (find yours here), I have calculated that we get an average of:

Then to figure out the size of my total roof catchment area I measured the length x width but added 2 feet extra to each to allow for the overhangs. So I had:

Since one inch of water equals roughly 600 gallons per 1000 square foot catchment area I estimate my potential gallons to catch off the roof per each inch of water to be:

Now figure in the yearly rainfall to figure out the total yearly catch:

So now I need to figure out how many rainbarrels that would take and what kind of system I would want {plus where on earth to put them}.

Since we don’t have secondary water we have to use our municipal water for watering our lawns and garden, I wonder how much less municipal water I would use if I used rainwater for the yard instead. I still need to figure that part out. Seems like it would be nicer to be able to use what Mother Nature is already providing.