Proof of concept

So this spring, I built a water collection system to irrigate my new side garden. The garden runs down the hill along the back side of my house.

As illustrated in this picture, the collection system is simply a garbage can with a spigot at the bottom. It rests on two cinder blocks to hold it higher and to give room to place a watering can below the spigot.

At the top, I've installed another piece of gutter to redirect overflow into the existing rainwater runoff channel. In the winter, the bucket can be removed to the garage, and the downspout s-bend can be removed and replaced with a direct downspout into the runoff redirect.

Unfortunately, because our gutters are very clogged right now, it has taken me two months to fill up the bucket. We are having our gutters cleaned this week, so I decided to set up the soaker hoses I will use for the garden and open the spigot to test whether the full bucket will drive soaker hoses. My hope was that the pressure of the full bucket with the downward slope of the garden would be enough to drive the soaker hoses.

These pictures show the relationship of the collection bucket to the garden.

And here it is, the proof. Look at those little droplets on the hose and the puddle underneath. We have irrigation!!!