Can you believe the rains? Can you believe the growth of plants (and… groan…grass) from the beautiful rains? I mowed Monday, and I should mow again today, Thursday. Not a chance.
Well, I’m certainly learning as I go along and I hope I can help you avoid some of these same issues. I talked about cleaning gutters to insure debris doesn’t clog the downspouts, right? Well, I did that earlier this spring (what spring, you say?), but apparently not good enough. Here’s what happens when you let gutter debris dam up the gutters and clog the downspouts (regardless if you have a rain barrel or not)…
At first I thought the rain was just falling so hard and heavy that it was running between the two gutter systems (I had half the house done a few years ago and the other half done last year, but they couldn’t connect them so there is a small gap between the two systems).
Upon closer examination of the gutters, lo and behold, my gutters were again dammed up with cedar and spruce buds/crud and pine needles and once I cleared that away the downspouts took the rain into the barrels like they were supposed to.
So much rain, however that I had all overflow fittings running their hoses out and I had the spigots open to hoses into the yard to relieve the pressure of the rain into the barrels. Although I have 4 rain barrels, I wish I had more and had them daisy-chained for rains like we’ve been having. I’m having fun being creative with ways to use the extra water…but I’ll save that for another Water-log blog.
Lesson: be sure to clean out those gutters. Once in the spring might not be enough. It wasn’t for me. I’ll probably need to check those gutters every 4-6 weeks with all the trees and junk that I have around my house.
Meanwhile, enjoy the harvest!
Well, I’m certainly learning as I go along and I hope I can help you avoid some of these same issues. I talked about cleaning gutters to insure debris doesn’t clog the downspouts, right? Well, I did that earlier this spring (what spring, you say?), but apparently not good enough. Here’s what happens when you let gutter debris dam up the gutters and clog the downspouts (regardless if you have a rain barrel or not)…
At first I thought the rain was just falling so hard and heavy that it was running between the two gutter systems (I had half the house done a few years ago and the other half done last year, but they couldn’t connect them so there is a small gap between the two systems).
Upon closer examination of the gutters, lo and behold, my gutters were again dammed up with cedar and spruce buds/crud and pine needles and once I cleared that away the downspouts took the rain into the barrels like they were supposed to.
So much rain, however that I had all overflow fittings running their hoses out and I had the spigots open to hoses into the yard to relieve the pressure of the rain into the barrels. Although I have 4 rain barrels, I wish I had more and had them daisy-chained for rains like we’ve been having. I’m having fun being creative with ways to use the extra water…but I’ll save that for another Water-log blog.
Lesson: be sure to clean out those gutters. Once in the spring might not be enough. It wasn’t for me. I’ll probably need to check those gutters every 4-6 weeks with all the trees and junk that I have around my house.
Meanwhile, enjoy the harvest!
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