My neighbor said one rain barrel was enough for my tomatoes, 40 gallons later I'm hauling buckets

Lily Schmidt · 2026-10-16T02:35:04.13018+00:00

Back in April my neighbor Dale told me I was overdoing it with plans for two rain barrels on my 12x4 foot garden beds. He's been growing tomatoes in Cleveland for 30 years, so I listened and only hooked up one 55 gallon barrel to the downspout. Come July we hit a 3 week stretch with no rain and that barrel ran dry in 9 days, so I was out there at 6am filling 5 gallon buckets from the hose anyway. Now I'm wondering if anyone else has run the numbers on how much water a small garden actually drinks per week, because I clearly guessed wrong.

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My neighbor said one rain barrel was enough for my tomatoes, 40 gallons later I'm hauling buckets | Climate Action - Rigidtalk