Jamie asks another great reader question. She asks us the following:
“Is it OK to use rain water collected from a roof with asphalt shingle roofing on it to use in a vegetable garden?”
This is another great question. While you may be worried about using rainwater from an asphalt shingle roof on a vegetable garden – don’t be. Your vegetables will be just fine. When you think about it, before you had a rain barrel, you most likely had rain water from a downspout pouring out onto that spot in your lawn, and everything’s been alright. In this case, you are talking about vegetables, and we understand you’re going to eat the vegetables. However, there’s no worry. You’re going to take the water and pour it in the dirt, and it will get filtered by the dirt, and then the root of the plants…so it’s no problem at all.
So in summary, it’s perfectly fine to use rainwater in your vegetable garden! Have at it.
Thanks for your wonderful question, and best of luck with your garden! Hope it turns out quite well!
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I would like some statistical numbers of how much rain water comes off the roof.I have heard,but have forgotten the numbers. Thanks
Eleanor,
You can collect hundreds or even thousands of gallons of water from your roof top. It all depends on the amount of rain the size of roof and your ability to store the water.
Here is a quick formula to figure out how much rain you might collect on your roof.
1 inch of rain on a 1000 sq ft roof yields 625 gallons of water. To calculate the yield of your roof, multiply the square footage of your roof by 625 and divide by 1000.
I hope that helps!