Oh My, maeve. That is a lot of rain at what I imagine is a critical time of year in Maine, when you want enough rain, but still need to work the soil.

The hot temperatures here are starting to take their toil. We had some good rain this spring, and the water tables are replenished, but have had heat and no significant rain for the last two weeks, and the clay soil is starting to crack and dry out.

I'm wondering just how many rain barrels it would take to adequately meet irrigation needs for a relatively small garden here during the heat and dryness of summer. Also wondering what would be involved in terms of labor, design and cost of materials to use rain barrels for drip irrigation. Watering by hand sufficiently takes much more time than I have available. It also seems like it would take significant storage capacity when the rains come (hopefully in winter and spring) to store enough rain water from roof run off to use that as a primary irrigation source during our hot, and usually dry summers.