There are many reasons why anyone should use rain barrels.
Georgia is currently enforcing stage 4 drought restrictions on 61 counties including ours; Fulton. This means that we are prohibited from using water outdoors.
Since we started gardening last year, we became hooked on the idea of growing our own vegetables. They taste better than most anything you can buy at the market. Gardening also provides a calming and constructive activity to channel our sometimes ADD behavior.
Rain Barrels provide an economical and responsible solution to our watering needs. Originally, I collected 8 55 gallon barrels from some nice folks that were posting them on Craigslist. Two of the barrels were for me with the rest going to different friends that were interested in the idea of collecting rain water. I didn't get around to setting the barrels up until 3 months later. You can see them here. After setting them up, I anxiously waited for some rain. You know how 'they' say, "Careful what you wish for"? Well the following weekend, Atlanta was hit with an EF2 tornado that caused much damage and claimed two lives. We were lucky that there was no damage to our home. The 2 55 gallon barrels I had setup were mostly filled even after a very light rain and completely overflowing during the storms. When I saw how much water we could collect, I sort of became addicted. The thought of all the water that I did not collect almost bothered me. I quickly began searching craigslist for more barrels and came across an individual that was selling 275 gallon containers for a very reasonable price. I am now working on replacing the 2 55 gallon barrels I currently have setup with the 3 275 gallon containers that I just obtained