"Jeff Thies" wrote in message
...
I'm a small gardener and I've heard anecdotal evidence about using rain
water rather than tap (city) water. If nothing else it would be free of
chlorine.

I've found a source for free rain barrels (55 gallon plastic drums), so
I'm thinking about this. Other than hand watering, I'm unsure how you
would get this to work. Last year, with help from these groups, I put in a
drip irrigation system. I don't want to go back.

It looks like each foot of water height yields .43 psi and the pc
emitters need about 10psi, so that is about 25' of height to get this to
work gravity fed. That is impractical for me and probably for most people.
Seems like it would have to be pumped.

Anyone using rain water for other than spot watering? Is it worth it?

I use rain water for the garden at our other farm. That farm has no
electricity, so the water is gravity fed from a header tank on a hill (we
pump the water up to the header tank using a petrol driven fire fighting
pump from the rainwater tank connected to the guttering of the house). I
don't use a lot of it given that it isn't our primary residence.

I agree with David about the size of the water recepticles you plan to use.
Our tanks hold 5,000 gallons and that sort of tank is the very minimum I'd
want to be of any use. However, having said that, I do have a friend who
uses small containers in a village near me. She uses it because of severe
water restrictions and it keeps her garden alive during +40 degree C days
over summer.