I know the feeling Corn Woman i just got yelled at by the housing office about my garden apparently brown gardens in winter is wrong. which is why i posted the premade one too.
I found a 250gal tank on craigslist. I bought several items from the fellow and he gave me the tank for $20. I put an adapter on the outlet nozzle so it would take a standard garden hose. It fills with rainwater from the woodshed and is gravity fed. Not much drop from the shed to the garden so pressure is rather poor but it does run down there and I don't need a pump.
Good deal unclejoe ; That certainly was a find. And slow water is better than no water. I'm a poet and don't even know it ) Sorry don't know what came over me
I'm interested in doing an underground cistern to collect rainwater. We would need a pump to pump it out for watering things outside. Does anyone have any personal experience?