Skip to main content

Rain Chains

Why do I always hear Rex Harrison's voice from My Fair Lady when I hear "rain chains"?  We're not in Spain, nor in the plains, but by George I've finally got it, I mean, got one.  It's been sitting in a box at least two years waiting for me to repair the fascia and soffit, then paint, then install a short section of guttering just so it could be deployed.  No doubt you know how that goes.  But it's all completed now and ready for the reveal.


The bottom of the chain is anchored in a large pot full of stones, something I decided to do to further slow the runoff.  Underneath and surrounding the pot are more of the same stones.

After watching it in action through some hard rains, I can report it functions very well.  The water gently cascades down and no longer washes out the bed or the gravel along the side of the driveway, and it's just so darned pretty to watch in action.

However, we have three oaks and a crape myrtle in the front that drop leaves and little bits of themselves on the roof and surrounding area.  Too much of that stuff finds its way onto the roof and gets washed into the gutter/rain chain.  Knowing this, I probably should have chosen an open chain design, rather than one that has these little cups.   I'm tall enough to pick out most of it, but that same darned leaf in the very top cup has eluded my grasp. 

  
It's not enough to block drainage or cause problems, but leaves and tree debris should be a consideration if you're thinking about installing a rain chain in your garden.  I was looking for the dark metal finish to blend with other garden elements and leaves simply weren't part of my sorting algorithm. 

This lovely came complete with that metal adapter from Rain Chains Direct (thank you Clayton!) which sells a large selection on their website as well as through Amazon.  It was furnished in exchange for my unbiased evaluation.

All material © 2017 by Vicki Blachman for Playin' Outside. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.  

Comments

I think rain chains are so pretty. Glad you got yours up, even though one rouge leaf is challenging you to reach a little higher.
Gail said…
It looks great...Leaves are a huge consideration here. Will check out the open chain design.
Margaret said…
Love rain chains and saw some great ones in Buffalo if I recall. One of these days I'll get one, I'm sure.
Laura said…
Very pretty! I love rain chains :)

Laura

Popular posts from this blog

Ho-hum to Habitat: My Path to Native Bees - Resources

San Antonio's Festival of Flowers will resume this Saturday, June 3, 2023, after a break of three years.    I've been given the opportunity to share how I garden, as well as a general overview of our native bees.   A link to a Google doc containing my handout (the info dense slides from my presentation) follows this list of resources.  Note that if you didn't attend, some of the handout pages may not make complete sense.     Hyperlinks to more resources: https://www.wildbeestexas.com/ https://w3.biosci.utexas.edu/jha/research/native-bee-communities https://www.wildflower.org/collections/collection.php?collection=TX_central https://www.pollinator.org/pollinator.org/assets/generalFiles/BeginnerBeeFieldGuide_11March2022_LowRez.pdf https://tpwd.texas.gov/huntwild/wild/wildlife_diversity/nongame/native-pollinators/bumblebee-id.phtml https://www.pollinatorphotos.com/ https://www.homegrownnationalpark.org/       https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yOIlJFjzgAlhc5nfTXkqrVutPxWHLwfQ/vie

A Plant with Purple Leaves

There are a couple of groups on Facebook where I lurk and occasionally dip my opinion into the fray.  They're places where people with knowledge of unbelievable scope can be observed, deftly identifying this obscure native plant or that scraggly left-behind orphan found in the backyard of a newly purchased home.   One such backyard orphan recently was posted in need of identification.   If it were a native plant, two people on "Texas Flora" would've named it within minutes.  Even the taxonomy of those impossible grasses is typically put to rest in seconds.  Not so with this poor guy.   At first I was fairly certain it was one of the purple leafed basils, maybe 'African Blue'.  It's fairly impossible to find it still thriving in a Texas January, but two plants in my yard are still hanging in there.  They even look like they'll come back if we don't have a deep freeze before spring.  BTW, this basil has one heck of a botanical monik

Ho-hum to Habitat

  For lack of a better way to reach everyone in person and online who attended my presentation to Williamson County Master Gardeners on 08 May 2023, I'm posting a handout here.  These are only the slides that were particularly info dense, so forgive the lack of context if you weren't an attendee.  Note that the list in the handout is only suggested for Travis and Williamson Counties - the Wildflower Center will have suggestions tailored to your specific location, and NOT just in Texas! These are live links to some of the items shown:  The Wildflower Center , The Jha Bee Lab , NPSOT's plant lists by Texas region , NPSOT Wilco ,  and finally, Lynne & Jim Weber (their books are available at your local bookstore & on Amazon.) T here's a world of other resources, too!  Check out Sam Drogge's incredible photography at the USGS Bee Inventory , follow Heather Holm on Facebook and read her books, follow Carol Clark on her blog "Carol's World" .  Seri