Nei­ther a drench­ing down­pour nor a tem­per­a­ture of 90 degrees on a July after­noon could deter thirty stu­dents in grades 3–5 intent on sand­ing and paint­ing 30 rain bar­rels for their vaca­tion bible school (VBS) ser­vice project at First Pres­by­ter­ian Church of Howard County. The chil­dren worked dili­gently to sand, wash, and prime 55 gal­lon plas­tic ice cream bar­rels. These painted bar­rels were then ready to be taken home, painted with a color coat and fit with about $30 of hard­ware to serve as rain bar­rels. This ser­vice project reflected the clean water mis­sion theme of the VBS. It also helped the chil­dren under­stand and use water con­ser­va­tion at home, which in turn, involved their par­ents and mem­bers of the congregation.

On Fri­day evening, after the clos­ing pro­gram for the VBS, par­ents and friends who came to pick up their rain bar­rel were greeted by a team of Mas­ter Gar­den­ers. The Mas­ter Gar­den­ers answered ques­tions and pro­vided help­ful infor­ma­tion about installing and using the rain bar­rels. Rain bar­rel hard­ware was also avail­able for purchase.

The Mas­ter Gar­den­ers pre­sented a rain bar­rel work­shop at the church to show how to install and use the bar­rels to pro­tect water­sheds, prac­tice water con­ser­va­tion, and pre­vent storm water runoff in yards. Mas­ter Gar­den­ers, vol­un­teers for the Uni­ver­sity of Mary­land Exten­sion, have long been con­cerned with the impact of gar­den­ing and land­scape prac­tices on the envi­ron­ment.  The Mas­ter Gar­den­ers have actively pro­moted Bay-friendly land­scap­ing and gar­den­ing through their Bay-Wise com­mit­tee and gar­den­ing prin­ci­ples.

The large com­mu­nity rain bar­rel project was the result of close coop­er­a­tion, cre­ativ­ity and par­tic­i­pa­tion by the Howard County Office of Envi­ron­men­tal Sus­tain­abil­ity, Howard County Bureau of Envi­ron­men­tal Ser­vices, and the Mas­ter Gar­den­ers pro­gram of the Uni­ver­sity of Mary­land, with VBS staff and the Earth Care Com­mit­tee of First Pres­by­ter­ian. All worked together to pro­vide an inter­est­ing, prac­ti­cal, and unique learn­ing project for the stu­dents and to encour­age more peo­ple to pro­tect water here in Howard County.

The bar­rels were pro­vided by Howard County Gov­ern­ment and are free to res­i­dents of the County.  Please con­tact us if your com­mu­nity group is inter­ested in hold­ing a rain bar­rel work­shop.  Rain bar­rels can also be picked up by indi­vid­ual res­i­dents at the Alpha Ridge Landfill.

This spring the Mas­ter Gar­den­ers part­nered with Howard County to dis­trib­ute recy­cled, food-grade, 55 gal­lon plas­tic bar­rels to county res­i­dents to use as rain bar­rels, to col­lect storm-water from down­spouts.  Once county employ­ees cleaned the bar­rels and cut the needed holes in them, Mas­ter Gar­den­ers greeted county res­i­dents at the Alpha Ridge Land­fill and gave work­shops on how to make a func­tion­ing rain bar­rel and use it in the land­scape.  About 80–90 bar­rels have been given away to county res­i­dents, who pledged to add the hard­ware needed to cre­ate a func­tional rain bar­rel and to use the rain bar­rel for at least two years.

There will be four more bar­rel give-aways this sea­son at the Alpha Ridge Land­fill (gazebo near entrance, on right), from 9 — 11 am on Sept. 4, Sept. 18, Oct. 2, and Oct. 16.

This blog was writ­ten by Guest Blog­gers Nancy Fayer, First Pres­by­ter­ian Church of Howard County, and Barb Schmeck­peper, Mas­ter Gar­dener.  Many thanks ladies for shar­ing your suc­cesses with us and help­ing the County dis­trib­ute the barrels!