My bosses let me do crazy things (and sometimes encourage me and/or help)…and I’m dragging 10 teenagers with me. I love designing water systems – so I designed this (somewhat) and my boss constructed it over our break.
It gathers rain from two downspouts that originally hadn’t been attached to anything into a single catchment and then into a pair of rain barrels that my kids painted.
The water from the barrels flows down a hose that irrigates the split bed (i’d designed it a single height, but my boss got creative when he built it). There’s an overflow in the side for drainage and two standing drains in case water pools up too much. My kids studied rain gardens and chose the plants (and we went to Weston Nurseries in MA to get a tour and pick them out).
Obviously – we have some kinks to work out – WHOA – and the hose doesn’t appear to be flowing into the low bed – I thought the pressure would be enough, but it’s not pushing up and over….but that’s it so far!
Sweet Honey in the Rox 