Rain barrels, the hot product of spring 2008

When I visited Bayview Farm & Garden in 2002, the year it won our Innovator Award, I noticed that rain barrels were hooked up to downspouts throughout the property. The store is on an island in Puget Sound, which makes protecting and conserving fresh water a big priority.

Those barrels stood out in 2002. They were a throwback to slower times. Charming. Rare.
Judging from the e-mails I’ve been getting from retailers over the past couple months, rain barrels have transformed into up-to-the-minute fashion. Everyone wants them and is trying to figure out the best manufacturers to use. I visited a store last month that had an extensive rainwater capture system in place, holding up to 15,000 gallons.

Homewood Nursery in Raleigh, N.C., which is just now moving out of a record drought, has a WaterWise section on its Web site, where it shows off a customer’s homemade cistern. If they can’t get a convenient supply of rain barrels, consumers are making their own.

The last product I heard this much buzz on was Crocs. But the way people are talking about rain barrels is a little different. I’ve yet to hear anyone talk about the huge volume of sales made, or the margins. I get the impression that customer demand snuck up on a lot of retailers, and they are now scrambling to bring in supplies and haven’t had enough time to analyze sales, projections and marketing.

So are the e-mails I’ve gotten isolated? Have you had any requests for rain barrels? Are you having a difficult time finding sources? Are customers satisfied with the relatively small size of rain barrels, or are you hearing of more ambitious projects like the ones undertaken by Homewood Nursery customers?

-- Carol

Comments

[Rosella]

Just installed a water barrel at my house in northern Virginia -- after last summer's long dry spell, I felt I needed a little insurance that what rain does fall won't go to waste, and I wanted also to stop water running off and carrying pollutants into the Chesapeake Bay. My county has had a number of water barrel workshops -- you could sign up to make your own with materials supplied or, for a little more, you could just pick up an already made one (my choice). It's a big blue pickle barrel from Peru, christened The Blue Torpedo at my house, it holds sixty gallons, and filled in less than an hour in a thunderstorm. I am ready to add another, as soon as I can find one. My county calculates water charges with the assumption that all water used will eventually return to the county water processing plant--makes watering the garden Expensive!

[Elegant rain barrels]

Always be sure to find rain barrels which offer mesh mosquito guards, and also look for barrels which have overflow valves-allowing the excess water to flow out of the rain barrels and away from your foundation. Hooking a drip hose to this valve is a great way to give your garden or flower bed a constant source of moisture.