Re: Collecting rain off of the roof

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Yeah, I didn't mention the water temperature, though that is one of the primary reasons I would like to do it.  That, and I have a HUGE shed in back, with a lot of sq ft of roof on which to catch water.  Half of it gets dumped in the space between our shed and the neighbor's fence.  So, unless it is recharging some aquifer there(doubtful), the water is being wasted.   My wife and I have a dream of someday adding a greenhouse on to our shed, and I want to set up some sort of system, which collects all of the rainwater and then slowly distributes it where needed.
 
From my own research on the web yesterday, I found only one page that brought up concerns such as unknown water quality if the materials of the roof contain chemicals, and also pollution in the water if you are in a metropolitan area.  I think the same could be said of rainwater itself(as for pollution anyway), so collecting more of it should not be too bad.  At very least I could use it to water any non-edible flowers, etc, and then not worry about what's in the water too much.
 
(I say "non-edible" flowers because I just found an interesting page on the web -
www.bobvila.com/garden/gd.htm - then click on "You can eat the flowers" - I think I'm going to plant some of these in my sqft garden this year.  It would be kinda cool to be able to say everything is edible).
 

Jeff Tulley  (j*@novell.com)
(801)861-5322
WebSphere on NetWare Developer
Novell, Inc., the leading provider of Net services software.

>>> Bill & Vera Missen<bmissen@telusplanet.net> 2/28/01 12:18:33 PM >>>
Square Foot Gardening List - http://myweb.flinet.com/~gallus/sqft.html

Jeff- Thanks for your comments concerning rain water collected off a roof. I have given it some thought, and come to the conclusion that while many things in this world are wrong, I believe my family and friends are not endangered by this practice.
 
One thing you did not mention that I think is important regarding rainwater collection- the water collected is air temperature. When we water with tap water straight from the tap we risk stopping the plants from growing for a time. The noted author and nursary owner Lois Hole says cold water shocks the plants. When I run out of rain-collected water I fill the barrels with tap water and let it raise to air temperature before watering again.
 
Have a great day,
bill missen.
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