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1. Choose a rain barrel made with food-grade plastic that holds at least 55 gallons of water. Locate it uphill from the area you’d like to irrigate, near a downspout, and on a hard, flat surface. You can increase the water pressure coming from your rain barrel by elevating it on cinder blocks. To create a cinder-block base, place three 8-by-8-by-16-inch cinderblocks lengthwise (flat surface down, holes pointed out) and arrange them so they form a triangle. Check to make sure the blocks are level and then center the rain barrel on top of the base.

2. Select a front side for your barrel and attach a 3/4-inch spigot about 2 inches from the bottom using a bulkhead fitting. Reach down into the barrel to determine the lowest spot you can position the fitting, and drill a hole in the outside of the barrel. Thread the spigot into the fitting (using a reducer, or bushing, if necessary) so you get a tight, leak-free fit. “Use a spigot with a 3/4-inch male inlet, rather than a 1/2-inch one, because it allows more water to flow through, which is especially important if you plan to hook a soaker hose up to the barrel,” says Lenny Librizzi, who has installed 40 rainwater-harvesting systems for community gardens (including a couple as part of the Organic Gardening WaterWorks project) in his work for the Council on the Environment in New York City.

3. Prevent your rain barrel from overflowing by installing a downspout diverter. This ...

Group/Class: P.J.M. Series

Description:

A pretty broad-leaf evergreen shrub with showy purple-pink flowers in spring and a compact upright habit, very hardy, interesting fall coloration; absolutely must have well-drained, highly acidic and organic soil, use plenty of peat moss when planting

Ornamental Features:

P.J.M. Rhododendron is covered in stunning clusters of lightly-scented lavender trumpet-shaped flowers with rose overtones at the ends of the branches in mid spring, which emerge from distinctive fuchsia flower buds. It has green foliage. The narrow leaves turn an outstanding purple in the fall. The fruit is not ornamentally significant. The smooth gray bark is not particularly outstanding.

Landscape Attributes:

P.J.M. Rhododendron is an open multi-stemmed evergreen shrub with a more or less rounded form. Its relatively coarse texture can be used to stand it apart from other landscape plants with finer foliage.

This shrub will require occasional maintenance and upkeep, and should only be pruned after flowering to avoid removing any of the current season’s flowers. It has no significant negative characteristics.

P.J.M. Rhododendron is recommended for the following landscape applications; 

• Accent
• Mass Planting
• General Garden Use

Plant Characteristics:

P.J.M. Rhododendron...