"Free" Water Irrigates Big Garden

Free Water Irrigates Big Garden FARM HOME Miscellaneous Robert Thomas Oak Grove Mo used old gutters and downspouts from his house to drain water off his 50 by 35-ft pole barn and into a 1 200-gal water storage tank which he uses to water his garden “The gutters and downspouts were recycled when we put a new roof and siding on our house We grow our own vegetables in a big 50 by 30-ft garden and this homemade system provides a low-cost way to irrigate it ” says Thomas He bought the poly water tank used on Craigslist for $150 He set the tank up at one end of the pole barn which is peaked at the middle and has a 14-ft wide lean-to attached to one side He mounted a gutter on the lean-to’s metal roof and then attached a long downspout to it The downspout angles down across the back of the barn and is hooked up to a short length of 4-in dia non-perforated drain tile that enters the tank’s fill hole Water gravity flows out the tank from a garden hose that’s connected to a series of low ground sprinklers “It works great and I saved a lot of money ” says Thomas “I came up with the idea because we have to pay the county for the water we use and irrigating a big garden gets expensive I used a total of about 50 ft of gutters and 16 ft of downspouts “We grow peas beans cucumbers potatoes and sweet corn Our growing season is long enough that we can usually plant two crops one in April and the other in July However the weather usually turns dry in late summer so we need irrigation water then I plan to add another lean-to and tank on the other side of the pole barn to increase the water storage capacity ” The low ground sprinklers won’t work to irrigate sweet corn when it gets tall So for sweet corn Thomas uses a Harbor Freight transfer pump and sprinkler heads that he mounted on top of 6-ft high metal uprights “I used black field pipe to make the uprights and welded on a base made from short lengths of rebar ” he says To prevent algae from forming in the tank Thomas’s wife Jackie bought a floating chlorine dispenser that’s designed to hold 3-in dia chlorine tablets in above-ground swimming pools “The tablet has minimal contact with the water so it dissolves slowly I tied a string to the float which lets me easily fish it out of the water ” he notes Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Robert Thomas 1701 Mannaseh St Oak Grove Mo 64075 ph 913 940-5123; jarokoro@aol com

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