If you’re an eco sinner like me and have a yard you probably also have a little grass and that means you have to water it. The general rule of thumb when watering grass is to lay a frisbee down on your lawn and when it’s full you’ve given your grass enough water. The only problem is that you need a rain gauge to know how much it rained during the week. I have children running around my yard which means that an upside down frisbee doesn’t stay that way all week. I decided to build myself a rain gauge with stuff around the house and this is what I came up with.

An official rain gauge uses fancy graduated cylinders to provide more accurate readings but that’s not important for this purpose. All I need is a rough idea of how much water dropped in the past few days so a glass jar will do me fine.

Materials:
Glass Jar: To capture your rain
Clear Tape: To waterproof your measurements
Coat Hanger: To suspend your gauge
Screw

Tools:
Pliers: To bend the coat hanger
Tape Measure
Marker: To mark the measurements
Screw Driver

Step 1 – Measurements
Cut one piece of tape the length of your jar. Using a tape measure mark a line at each inch. Then take a second piece of tape to cover the markings to waterproof it.

Step 2 – Gauge Holder
This is a bit tricky and may take a couple tries. I twisted one end of my wire so that I could use a screw to hold the wire. Then I took a second piece of wire and wrapped it around my jar, tight enough that the jar won’t slide through. I wound both wires together, the first is vertical the second is horizontal. Lastly I bent the bottom of the horizontal wire so that it acts as a bottom support for the jar.

Step 3 – Fasten Gauge
Now screw in the rain gauge holder somewhere out in the open so that it will collect rain.

Step 4 – Install Jar
Holding the jar with your thumb and index finger slowly…ya ya ya you know what to do. Now start collecting rain.

Now when you get to watering day you can simply remove your glass jar set it in the middle of your yard and start watering until the jar has reached the right level. Afterwards dump it out and start all over again. Keep in mind that the more you water your grass the more you’re going to have to cut it. Grass is basically a weed that feels nice on the feet when you cut it so don’t feel bad about letting it dry up a bit, it will bounce back.

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