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My rain barrel in Portland overflowed and washed out a flower bed last spring.
I didn't have an overflow hose hooked up, so now I use a 6-foot piece of tubing to direct the extra water into the garden. Anyone have a better fix for managing overflow during heavy rains?
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zara_sanchez5mo ago
That overflow hose problem is a perfect example of how we're always patching things. We buy a rain barrel to be green, then scramble when it actually rains. It's like buying a fancy coffee maker but never descaling it. The fix is never in the original plan. My compost bin did the same thing, turned into a soggy mess because I didn't plan for the wet season. We set something up for the ideal situation, not the real one.
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david_reed225mo ago
My buddy in Seattle had the exact same thing happen, but his overflow flooded right into his neighbor's yard! He ended up getting a longer hose and running it all the way to a dry creek bed he made with rocks. It was a whole weekend project, but now when his barrel fills up, it just looks like a little stream. He said the key was making sure the hose end was secured so it wouldn't pop out and cause a new mess. Honestly, your tube idea is probably the smart move, keeping it simple.
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