Billy wrote:
In article
,
"J.R. in MI" wrote:

On May 27, 7:35 pm, "David Hare-Scott" wrote:
Bob F wrote:
cshenk wrote:
"Ohioguy" wrote

Can anyone suggest a solution that might let me capture the
rainwater and use it for irrigation? Keep in mind that the row of
plants is about

If you want to go back the rain barrel, just add a thin layer of
vegetable oil to the top. Kills the mosquitoes and won't hurt the
yard.

Or fine screen acros the top. Water goes through, mosquitos can't.

This is standard practice on both inlet and overflow where
roof-water tanks are common.

David

I bought a cheap plastic garbage can and wrapped the top with window
screen. Drilled a hole in the bottom and added a spigot and hose. I
have it elevated with a few cinder blocks. There is not enough
pressure to use a sprinkler but I can attach a short piece of soaker
hose and water small segments; most of the time I use a can to carry
the water to the plants.

Just don't try this in Colorado, where capturing rainwater is illegal.
http://articles.latimes.com/2009/mar...ed-rainwater18

We have a similar accounting system where various people have rights to
different amounts of water in different situations and many of these rights
can be bought and sold. The difference here is that built into the system
is the concept of harvestable right. Every landholder has the inallienable
right to harvest 10% of the water that falls on their land. You might think
that this is very hard to determine but in practice it is managed by setting
limits on how large the container may be that holds it. So I am allowed to
have a tank up to 2.3 megalitres (about 600,000 gal US). In addition you
have the right to pump water from rivers and other permanent water for
domestic purposes which includes vegetable gardens and orchards that are not
commercial.

On the whole this seems a fair compromise between the rights of the
individual and giving certainty to commercial operations, the Colorado law
does not.

David