Rain barrels come in more variations than a barrel of monkeys.
• Size for one. A barrel can be as small as a party cooler, but Audubon Arkansas makes a big-big-big deal of rain barrels at the organization's headquarters in Little Rock: three 500-gallon barrels.
Even more water storage is possible with an underground rain harvesting system -- such as the 10,000-gallon reserve at Hollywood environmentalist Ed Begley Jr.'s house.
• Linkage is another. Raven Lawson of Central Arkansas Water gardens with rain water thanks to a "two-system": a pair of rain barrels connected by a tube on a platform made of salvaged pallet wood.
"I probably used 20 gallons yesterday," she says, watering her raised beds of flowers, vegetables and herbs. Carrying water from the barrels to the garden is another benefit, the way she thinks of it. The buckets make her aware of how much water she is using.
• Rain barrels can be painted with decorative flowers, raindrops, garden insects, even made to look like the Star Wars robot R2-D2. Pinterest.com shows dozens of ideas.
• For about $30, a rain barrel diverter is another way to handle overflow. When the barrel is full, the diverter (it looks like a vacuum cleaner hose) channels excess water into the down spout.
• A plastic rain barrel stand costs about $30, looks like a small step stool, and is easier to carry than the other common choice: a pair or more of cinder blocks.
HomeStyle on 07/11/2015