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Was told my rain barrel setup was hurting the garden, not helping
A neighbor who runs a local composting group saw my rain barrel last spring and said I was collecting water wrong. She pointed out that roof runoff from my asphalt shingles was leaching chemicals into the soil around my tomatoes. I switched to a downspout diverter that sends the first 10 gallons of dirty water away before filling the barrel. Now my plants look way healthier and I'm not accidentally poisoning my own veggie beds. Has anyone else gotten serious pushback on something they thought was eco-friendly?
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dianaanderson21d ago
My 80 year old neighbor has been collecting roof runoff in barrels for like 30 years and her garden is literally the best on the block. Her tomatoes win the county fair almost every year lol. I think the chemical leaching thing gets blown out of proportion unless you're using really old shingles from the 70s or something. Modern asphalt shingles are pretty stable once they've been weathered for a season. I get the logic of your diverter setup and it's probably not hurting anything but I've never seen any proof that normal roof water does real damage to soil. My neighbor's been proving that wrong for three decades with her prize winning veggies.
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olivia39821d ago
Pretty sure most of the "toxins in roof runoff" thing is just gardening blog fearmongering. Your plants probably got healthier cause you watered them more consistently, not cause of the shingles.
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wells.olivia21d ago
Are you kidding me, diana's neighbor is basically living proof that rain barrels work just fine?
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