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Barrels
From Page B1
rain barrels at the soil and water district’s May workshop and they ended up saving her quarter-acre garden.
“We wouldn’t have any vegetables if it weren’t for these,” she said. “I don’t think we would have had anything because it’s just so dry.”
Instead, Zinn-Day’s family was able to enjoy asparagus, strawberries, tomatoes and other home-grown fruits and vegetables this summer. They also used some of the stored rain to fill their pool. Plus, they saved electricity by using their well’s water pump less frequently.
If there has been any downside to Zinn-Day’s experience this summer, it was that the 50-gallon barrels couldn’t hold enough rain.
“When you get a downpour, it’s full within seconds ” she said.
So she and her husband, Kevin Day, are planning to install some more rain barrels on their property and are even thinking of building a large cistern to catch ^nd store water like a large-scale rain barrel.
How bad is the
drought?
Drought conditions are hitting Southern states hard and forcing some localities to enact restrictions on water use.
Earlier this month, Gov. Tim Kaine requested that the U.S. Department of Agriculture declare Virginia a statewide disaster area due to reductions in farm production caused by drought and high temperatures this year. To date, more than 70 Virginia counties, including Rappahannock, have asked for drought disaster status. There are 95 counties in the commonwealth.
“We have never sought a statewide drought disaster designation before,” Kaine said in a press release. “This year’s drought is so pervasive, however, that we decided to act on behalf of the entire state.”
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