Rain Barrel

We're trying our hand at water conservation this summer with the addition of our new rain barrel. We got a set from the county park district. The barrels were originally olive barrels from Greece and then were converted to rain barrels complete with insect screens and spigots attached. I'm excited to see how it works and how much rain it takes to fill it. We placed it in the corner of our garage so it will get rain from the back half of the garage roof. Neil (and his little assistant) built a stand for it in hopes of getting better water pressure for the hose and we got it in place just as it started to rain today. Unfortunately, the rain never amounted to much, so we'll have to wait for another day to see it in action.

Building the platform

The finished product

Downspout diversion

Starting the Garden

Spring is finally here and the weather is warm enough to start our gardening projects. We took a trip to our favorite greenhouse this weekend to stock up on vegetables for our container garden and a few perennials to fill in spots that weren't looking so good last year. Most of our plants are looking good with all the rain and slowly rising temperatues this spring has brought. Now we need to work on stopping the dogs from trampling plants while they're chasing bunnies!

front yard- all white and green

Container garden planted and ready to grow. We're trying some seeds this year... keep your fingers crossed!

herbs in one of Neil's new planters