Revisiting Rain Barrel

November 17, 2012

January 1, 2013

In mid-November I had aspirations of winterizing our rainwater barrel in advance of the winter snows. Early on, I had it in my mind to (possibly)  disconnect the rain barrel from the gutter downspout during the winter months.

The thought was to attach an additional extender (or simply reconnect the downspout using a coupling) to divert water away from the home's foundation. After doing some preliminary online research, including the quick read How to Winterize a Rain Barrel on eHow.com, and wandering the local hardware store for just the right materials, I went with a less complicated option.

I drained the barrel of water that had remained after the fall plants had been brought indoor, and left the faucet in the "on" position. The next steps was to... leave it alone. Once the melt begins in a few months, I'll reinspect to insure that the flow guide (not pictured above) leads away from he foundation, but there is really no additional other snow water at the base than would be present had we gone through the more extensive process. I am anticipating needing to replace the mesh at the opening, but otherwise, we should be good-to-go in late-May or early June.

This being our first winter with a rain barrel, we'll see how this minimalist approach to winterization works out.