I Added a Rain Barrel to My Downspout and Now I Water My Entire Patio Garden for Free

Last summer, my water bill hit $180 in a single month. I have a 400-square-foot patio garden — raised beds, container herbs, climbing tomatoes along the fence. All of it needs water. Daily watering through a hot July just destroys your budget. That’s when I started seriously researching a rain barrel downspout garden setup to stop paying for water I could catch for free.

I’d thought about rain barrels before. Honestly, I always figured they were a “nice idea” that didn’t actually move the needle. I was wrong. After one solid summer with a barrel in place, I watered my entire patio garden from June through August with almost zero tap water. My bill dropped by roughly $60 a month. That adds up fast.

Here’s the full story — what I bought, how I set it up, and whether it’s actually worth the effort for a backyard DIYer like me.

Why I Started Looking at Rain Barrels for My Rain Barrel Downspout Garden

My patio sits off the back of a 1940s colonial. The house has two rear downspouts — one at each corner. Both dump directly onto a stone splash pad I poured three years ago. In dry spells, all that potential runoff just evaporates. During rain, it oversaturates one low corner near my raised beds.

I spent about two weeks on YouTube and homesteading forums before landing on a shortlist of barrels. I also asked my landscaper buddy Tom, who’s been in the trade for 20 years. His advice was simple: get something with a flat back, a solid spigot placement, and a screened top. “Don’t cheap out on the overflow,” he said. That conversation shaped exactly what I looked for.

Most of the cheap barrels I found had plastic that felt brittle at the hardware store. Some had spigots placed so low they were nearly useless without elevating the barrel on a platform. A few had no real overflow system at all. That’s a problem when a storm dumps two inches overnight.

The Flat-Back Barrel That Actually Fits Against My House

A standard round rain barrel takes up serious real estate, and most patios don’t have the spare square footage. The RTS Home Accents 50-gallon flat-back design solved my biggest installation problem — I could tuck it tight against my downspout without it jutting into the walkway or blocking access to my garden beds.

What works

• The flat back actually does sit flush against the house or fence, freeing up patio space you’d otherwise lose to a bulging barrel.
• 50 gallons is the sweet spot for daily garden watering — enough to get through a dry stretch, but light enough that I’m not dealing with hundreds of pounds of weight when it’s full.
• Made from recycled plastic, so it won’t rust or degrade like metal barrels, and the black finish blends in better than bright blue alternatives.

What doesn’t

• 50 gallons runs out faster than you’d think during a hot stretch with no rain — I quickly realized I needed a backup plan or a second barrel for sustained watering.
• The downspout diverter kit isn’t included, so you’re buying that separately, which adds to the total project cost and install complexity.

I almost gave up on the whole system after the first barrel emptied in five days during peak summer, wondering if I’d wasted money on a partial solution. But once I committed to the setup and understood the barrel as part of a rotation rather than a complete replacement for watering, everything clicked — and my water bill dropped by 40%. Check out the RTS Home Accents 50-Gallon ECO Rain Barrel Made with 100% Recycled Plastic, Flat Back Rain Water Collection Barrel, Black.

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