My neighbor's rain barrel hack saved me $40 this summer

I was dumping money into my water bill every July watering my vegetable patch. Then my neighbor in Portland showed me how she hooks a simple soaker hose directly to her rain barrel using a $12 adapter from the hardware store, and now I barely touch the spigot. Has anyone else tried rigging up a gravity fed system like that?

3 comments

3 Comments

clairen8520d ago

My neighbor actually used a regular rubber soaker hose for 3 years straight on her raised beds and had the best tomato crop on the block. The whole leaching thing sounds scary but the reality is most of those studies are about tires breaking down in landfills not garden hoses sitting on top of soil. Plus if you're really worried you can just run the hose for 15 minutes before you hook it up to flush out any initial residue. I think people overthink this stuff when the savings are literally in your backyard.

seanjackson20d ago

Nah you're right. I've used cheap soaker hoses for years on my own tomatoes and never had a problem. Just let em run for a bit first to clear the dust and you're good.

lucasschmidt20d ago

Hold up, you gotta be careful with the hose material if youre using it for veggies. Most generic soaker hoses are made from recycled rubber that can leach stuff into the soil over time. If your barrel collects roof runoff youve already got some chemicals and bird droppings in there, so adding a cheap hose might make it worse. Spend a few bucks extra on a food grade or polyurethane soaker hose if you're growing anything youre gonna eat raw like lettuce or tomatoes.