Did you know that 1 inch of rain on a 1,000-square-foot roof will yield 623 gallons of water? Yes, that’s hard to believe…until you attend a workshop, receive your rain barrel, take it home, hook it up and it rains. With an average annual rainfall of approximately 50 inches, each household can save more than 31,000 gallons a year if they had sufficient storage capacity.
We offer rainwater harvesting workshops one Saturday a month via Zoom currently through the Extension office in Seffner for a cost of $5. By participating in this workshop online, you will learn how to collect rainwater for landscape irrigation, the benefits of capturing rainwater and how to set up and create additional barrels.
Information is shared on creating an overflow, connecting multiple rain barrels, maintenance needed, painting if desired and mosquito control. Harvested rainwater can be used on ornamental plants, but not edibles, and this will also be fully explained during the workshop.
Did you know that we offer triple workshops (rainwater harvesting, composting and microirrigation) nearly every month of the year, currently via Zoom? These educational programs are $5 per household per workshop, attendance one time only, as a Hillsborough County resident.
If you have not attended, think about this: after the rainwater harvesting workshop, you will receive one rain barrel that staff and Master Gardeners have drilled and spigoted. After composting, you receive a compost bin, kitchen compost bucket and compost thermometer. After microirrigation, you receive a microirrigation kit, hose nozzle and rain gauge.
Prior to the workshop, registrants will receive information about workshop item pickup locations and times. Pre-registration is required. Check out our website, which contains the calendar of events, at: http://sfyl.ifas.ufl.edu/hillsborough/upcoming-events/.
For horticultural assistance, contact the UF/IFAS Extension, Hillsborough County at 744-5519.
We do hope that we will soon all be able to again stroll through the Bette S. Walker Discovery Garden, our perennial garden and Girl Scout Troop-created Pollinator Garden. We hope to ‘see’ you via Zoom at our upcoming workshops, and remember to reduce, reuse, recycle and repeat. Thanks, and be well!
