Rain Barrel

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Issue 46

The Food Issue

Make a meal to die for
Make wine crate cabinets
Learn to screen print

Rain Barrel

A year ago, ReadyMade challenged readers to reimagine their outdoor spaces on a razor-thin budget. Three teams submitted plans that won them $300 to fund a garden makeover. Frankly, we’re impressed by what they’ve grown.

by Katherine Sharpe

Photos by Jack Thompson

The building that houses Robert Rausch’s GAS Design Center provides a home to design interns who regularly eat meals on the back patio. But after dark the outdoor area, which has no electricity and no light, became a wasteland. Rausch came up with a fix—a modern twist on the old Southern tradition of bottle trees. His are festooned with a strand of solar LED Christmas lights. The “trees” are welded from leftover construction rebar, and the bottles have been slumped, or heated until they sag, for a drippy, melted effect. Rausch picked up a wooden Jack Daniel’s barrel at an antiques shop (at $75, it was his largest single purchase), and installed a spigot. The barrel collects rainwater from the studio’s gutters, which Rausch uses to hydrate the revamped garden. The LEDs’ after-dark glow, “like bright candlelight,” Rausch says, subtly lights the intimate evening space.

Solar Light Bottle Tree

1. Draw a plan of your bottle tree on paper, to use as a rough guide when assembling your structure. For a freestanding bottle tree, you’ll need to plan for a base that’s the same diameter as the branches so the tree is stable.

2. Bend one 8-foot-long piece of rebar by inserting it into the pipe, leaving one end of the rebar on the ground and pulling on the pipe. (You could also hand-bend the rebar using a rebar hickey.) Then bend the rest of the rebar in the same manner, according to your plan.

3. Weld together the pieces of rebar that will form the base, trunk, and main branches of your tree; add more branches as desired. (Remember to don your gloves and eye shield.)

4. Use a grinder to smooth out any rough welded spots.

5. “Slump” the bottles in a kiln. (If you don’t have a kiln, a bonfire could work. Place the bottles before you start the fire, wait until the fire burns out and the area cools down, then see what you have. This is not a foolproof method, and you should always wear protective eyewear.)

6. Place bottles on the ends of the branches. Twine solar LEDs around the tree and push bulbs into the bottles. Construct a nest of welding wire to hide the LED solar panel while also leaving it open to the sun.

Rain Barrel

1. Drill a hole the same diameter as the spigot near the bottom of the barrel. Cover the spigot pipe well with glue and insert into the barrel (tap with a hammer if it’s a tight fit); let dry.

2. Place the barrel where a rain gutter will run into the top of it. Elevate the barrel with bricks to prevent rot and elevate the tap.

Note that old barrels may not be watertight, but filling the barrel with water and allowing it to sit can sometimes entice the wood to swell and reseal tight.