We’ve mentioned once or twice in this space how much we love our fancy watering cans. The reason we need their awesomeness is that we attempt as often as possible to eschew watering our garden with well-water and a hose, opting instead for rain water from collection barrels.
It can be a total drag, taking one person 90 minutes to water the entire garden thoroughly. The delay comes from just waiting for the cans to fill from the barrels, meaning you’re forced to spend time outside just chilling. Quelle horror!
We were inspired to get rain water collection devices because the previous owner of Maple Hoo had one installed; the thing was ingenious! We did a tiny bit of research and discovered there’s gold on them there roofs during rain storms. So we got a bunch (five) of barrels made from old olive containers from Greece.
From some reason, I’m constantly amazed that the water that comes out of them is sparkling clean and beautiful. Maybe it was my youth spent learning about acid rain. In any event, I love using rain water on the garden because I’m sure the plants appreciate it. I mean, they don’t want to get shocked by over-chilled well-water! They want extra doses of water au natural. So it takes six trips back and forth to water everything (not including the pumpkins, which might have to just live on what actually falls from the sky), it’s worth it for scenes like this:
Those are happy, happy onions!
IPB Living 
We had rain barrels for our garden a few years ago. Rather than waiting for water to dribble into them from a spout, we just dipped the water out with the water cans. It was much faster. We haven’t had new gutters put up yet after replacing the roof last fall. Luckily we’ve had enough rain so we haven’t had to water but a few times.
akhomeschoolfun, that sounds like an excellent bit of problem solving!
Yep, just ordered my own fancy watering can thanks to your blog. Just in time since the outside faucet for our back yard sprung a leak this weekend and it floods the inside apartment every time we use it. So I’ll be hauling my big can up and down the apartment stairs quite often until its fixed.
akhomeschoolfun, you’re a GENIUS! I can’t believe this never occurred to us. I mean, I can believe it, but… Wow! I’ll have to try this.
Liz, I am so sorry about the faucet problem! I’m keeping my fingers it’ll get fixed ASAP and you can be enjoying your fancy new watering can stair-free!
Liz, I’m so excited for your fancy new watering can! I’m less excited that you’ll have to lug it up stairs… That’s not so cool. :(
It wasn’t problem solving. We didn’t have a fancy rain barrel, just some empty drums so we had no choice but to dip it. This has it’s own drawbacks like trying to get the water out of the bottom of the drum (I’m short). We also didn’t have a screen so the water can kept getting clogged with birch seeds and leaves. Live and learn, next time a screen and bottom spout. Still, gardens are worth the effort.
It really does seem like a lot of work sometimes, but you’re so right, akhomeschoolfun — gardens are TOTALLY worth the effort! (The rain barrels we installed all have screens and spigots at the bottom, but the one we inherited when we moved in is WAY fancier. It’s got a solid top fitted to the downspout, and has a little hose that runs from a hole at the bottom. I wish all our others were that swanky, although I certainly appreciate how much easier they probably were to install! :D)