Catalan Garden

Rainwater Barrels - Do Looks Matter?

As promised, its the continuing series on rainwater barrels. I shall forgo practical thoughts for a moment in favour of the superficial. Does it matter what your rainwater barrel looks like?

We have plenty of space so are fortunate in that for the most part, we can ignore what our rainwater barrels look like. Pretty they most definitely are not. We opted for cheap and functional because we needed them initially as movable forms of water storage to speed up works when we were going through our ‘covering the land in concrete’ phase (otherwise known as renovating a finca and stopping the surrounding land disappearing). So, we have many bright blue recycled containers to store water for the garden.

Hidden behind the shed who cares if we have three sturdy, rather bright blue recycled plastic drums? Indeed it doesn’t even really matter that the connecting overflow system is fetching day-glow green hosepipe. For that matter, even the ‘covers’ are a tad rustic being old wooden shutters. But, the system works. When it rains we have the capacity to harvest over 600 litres of rainwater (which I believe is about 170 gallons) from the small shed roof. That keeps the seedlings, cuttings and other ‘greenery’ in the nursery area moist enough which is surely more important than what they look like?

The barrels (or butts) which harvest rainwater from our shed are a few terraces down from the vegetable plot so we need more water storage higher up to enable reasonably speedy watering of the crops. So we run excess rainwater from the cisterna under the house, out to the garden water barrels. This is an area we use all day every day, close to the house it is often thought of as quite pretty. But those blue barrels really do spoil the view!

Now, as I say we did not ‘choose’ blue they were just too cheap to dismiss (9 euros each!) as the perfect water storage system on a building site. But now we live here and can imagine that one day the house might even be finished it would be nice to have something a little more aesthetically pleasing! Today I shall show you an embarrassing photograph to prove that sometimes it does matter what rainwater barrels look like. This was taken a few years ago and shows the chaos which springs up near all forms of blue plastic or corrugated iron. It is in fact my ‘homage‘ to the average British allotment! Now things are much more stream-lined. And, I would prove it too, but since I’m writing about harvesting rainwater we actually have a little light drizzle falling so I’m not taking the camera out there this morning!

Because we already have them and they work just fine we’re not going to get rid of our beautiful blue rainwater barrels anytime soon. But, we have wrapped them in chicken wire and planted succulent leaved climbing plants around them. This year they are only partially green but next year I hope we will have a vegetable plot free of all signs of blue plastic. I must say I can’t wait.

For those of you with less stingy frugal tendencies may I suggest the water collection systems of immense beauty on the right. I am completely torn about how I feel about them. They’re still plastic after all, but just changing the colour from blue to ‘terracotta’, grey or black (my personal favorite) makes a huge difference. I thought they were pretty expensive at first with pretty good looking 55 gallon drums from $135 but then I looked into the prices for a bright Blue version and they’re $99 and more. Of course they have brass ’spigots’ and mesh debris/mosquito filters unlike our blue water butts but still that seems pretty steep. I think if you’re looking at buying a blue rainwater barrel you really should have found a bargain or be looking to turn an old blue drum into a snazzy water butt with the addition of your own mesh and tap. Once you start looking at spending $100 surely you want something that will not detract from the rest of your garden.

Looking at the customer reviews regarding these water storage systems is quite interesting. It’s amazing just how happy a rainwater barrel can make a person. But they really do, people are so excited about having something useful and finally, not incredibly ugly! Quite a few come with planters to cover the lids so you can go bedding plant crazy with them too. It is worth checking out the reviews though, because one of the best selling ‘attractive’ barrels makes all its customers very happy with how it looks but also slightly miffed at how cheap the connecting hoses and overflow system (or lack of it) are.

I’m quite surprised at how many ‘features’ you can find on rainwater barrels too. There are collapsible versions to stow away when you don’t need them? Not really sure when you wouldn’t need your rainwater harvesting but still. And, one feature I thought was ‘genius’ is that many are ‘Flat-Back‘ so at last they actually stand tight up to the wall. I have to admit to still being far too much of a snob to opt for a plastic wood-effect wine-barrel-style water butt though each to their own. Now of course if one was being given away I would oust one of my blue monstrosities in favour of it, but something inside me just feels they’re wrong!

Maybe its just me but I think looks do matter if your rainwater barrel has cost any serious amount of money! If its cheap, recycled, frugal or free flaunt your bright blue ugliness but if you’re paying you may as well get something at least a little more discreet. And, while blue plastic works on the allotment the front of your house really needs something a little more gentrified. But hey, climbers work (they take a while and they really need to be soft plants so they don’t attack you when you’re filling your watering can) and are even more environmentally friendly than the rainwater barrel itself!

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