Rain barrels repositioned ~ 6/24

I didn't have the time to set up the rain barrels the first time when we had bought them.  Both barrels were situated under rain chains by the front door and obviously did not collect a lot of rain at all.  Now that I have bought a couple of downspout diverters it's time to get to work as there is rain in the forecast! 

It's like performing an operation on the downspouts. I'm so glad I have some proper tools:

I was looking to buy the diverter that we had in CA but it's out of stock.  So I'm going to try these instead and it seems to be quite functional.  The only thing is those flexible downspouts are not very pretty:

At least for now, the taller plants are somewhat making the rain barrel look less conspicuous:

I managed to find some thick pavers too around our property, in order to raise those barrels just enough so gravity will help with getting the water into watering cans.

As for the 2nd barrel, I needed some "muscle" to remove a metal post by the garage:

The barrel is a bit far from the downspout but seems to be the only good spot where we can easily access the water from the barrel:

Definitely need to figure out how to make this flexible spout more pretty!!

I did purchase a decorative downspout and other parts, so maybe we can "MacGyver" something up :-)

And in the meantime, also had to fix up the edging on this side of the house. I noticed that the foundation was a bit exposed from some soil erosion:

4 bags of top-soil, 6 bags of river pebbles, some weed-control fabric, and lots of sweat... ta da!!

Now we just need more mulch!  Can't believe how much mulch we need. By the time we are done, we're going to need even more for next season. LOL!!

We've had quite a bit of rain now that I haven't needed to water anything, and both rain barrels are still totally full!!  So glad we have them though.  Just have to figure out how to winterize everything when that time comes.  That downspout diverter should just close up and I think you're suppose to invert the barrels upside down.  Hopefully it's that easy!