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Kerry's Glass Rain Gauge
Kerry's Glass Rain Gauge
Dispatched within 1–2 business days
30-day money-back guarantee
Insured & free shipping with tracking
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Kerry's Glass Rain Gauge
A rain gauge built for Australian dry spells and summer storms
Split tomatoes, yellow leaves, seedlings that collapse in the heat: most summer garden losses come from watering that doesn’t match the rain. This gauge shows exactly what fell in your own beds. Kerry Pascoe, 69, spent forty years making scientific glassware in Melbourne. Now he blows the glass and forges the iron for every one of these himself, in the shed behind his house. His hands are slowing down and every piece now takes more out of him, so this batch of 96 will be his last.
What it does for your garden
Four things change the morning after you put one in the ground.
You stop guessing whether to water
“We got a good drop last night” is usually a lot less than it felt like. One glance in the morning tells you whether to drag the hose out or leave the garden alone.
You save water when every litre counts
Under water restrictions you only water the beds that genuinely need it. The tube tells you whether last week’s rain was 2 mil or 20.
It measures your backyard, not a grid kilometres away
The number on your phone is a radar estimate spread over hundreds of properties. Everyone who gardens has watched a storm soak the next street and skip their own.
You see the heat where the plants are
The dial reads the air out in the beds, not on the shaded verandah wall. When it’s already 30 degrees at ten, you know to water deep early tomorrow or get the shade cloth up.
“A garden won’t tell you what it needs. It just quietly gets too much water or too little, and by the time you can see it, you’ve already lost something. All this does is take the guessing out of the morning.”
— Kerry Pascoe, Castlemaine, Victoria
Made by hand, from the glass to the dragonfly
Kerry blows the glass, forges the iron and shapes the ornaments himself. The sealed thermometer dial is the one part he buys in — and he checks every one on his bench before it goes on.
Blown at his own furnace
Gathered on the pipe and shaped by hand, then annealed overnight so the stress leaves the glass. Skipping that step is what makes cheap glass crack under stress.
Forged, not cast
Bar stock heated, bent and hammered, the stake drawn out to a point. The scroll under the songbird is curled by eye, not around a jig.
Colour pulled from the fire
The dragonfly’s blues and greens are temper colours, not paint — the shades steel passes through as it heats. No two come out quite the same.
Still readable in ten years
Moulded plastic yellows and clouds after a couple of Australian summers. Properly annealed glass does none of that; both scales are marked onto each tube by hand.
What’s in the box
Arrives ready to go in the ground. No tools, nothing to assemble.
Glass tube
Hand-blown, scale in mm and inches
Forged frame & stake
Pushes straight into the soil
Dial thermometer
°C and °F, nothing to charge
Songbird & dragonfly
Hand-forged, coloured in the fire
Perfect for
Where these have ended up so far.
30-Day No-Questions Guarantee
Put it in the ground and live with it for a month. If it isn’t right, send it back — full refund, return postage on us. And if the glass ever breaks within two years, we send a new tube free.
Product details
| Tube | Hand-blown glass, annealed overnight |
| Rainfall scale | 0–17 cm (170 mm) down one side, 0–7 in down the other, calibrated against a lab measuring cylinder and marked onto each tube by hand |
| Frame & stake | Hand-forged iron, matte black finish |
| Ornaments | Forged songbird; dragonfly coloured by tempering heat, not paint |
| Thermometer | Sealed dial, bench-checked by Kerry. −30 to 50 °C and −20 to 120 °F, no batteries |
| Size | 70 cm high × 21 cm wide including stake |
| Winter care | In frost areas lift the tube out before the first hard frost (usually May); the frame stays out all year |
| Handmade | Glass wall, rim and dragonfly colour vary slightly from piece to piece |
| Shipping | Free, insured and tracked across Australia |
| Origin | Castlemaine, Victoria — Kerry’s last batch of 96 |
A Note From Kerry
A Note From Kerry
A note from Kerry:
I blew glass to other people’s orders for forty years, most of it in a scientific glass workshop in Melbourne. When I retired I lasted four months before I built a bench in the shed out the back. The first winter the frost split two plastic rain gauges, so I made one that wouldn’t: a blown tube, cooled slowly overnight, sitting in an open forged ring you lift out when a frost is coming.
I’m 69 now, and my hands have slowed right down — every tube takes more out of me than the last. So this batch of 96 is my last. When it’s gone, that’s the end of it.
Free Shipping
Free Shipping
Free shipping across Australia
- Dispatched within 1–2 business days
- Insured: every parcel is fully insured
- The glass tube travels in its own sleeve, packed separately from the forged frame
- Size: 70 × 21 cm including the stake — push it into the soil, no tools
Frequently Asked Questions
Got a question? Here’s how to reach us.
Got a question? Here’s how to reach us.
Our small team replies to every single email – as fast as she possibly can. Whether you have a question about your order or just want to talk gardens, we're here.
You can reach us:
- Mon – Fri: 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM (AEDT)
- Saturday: 10:00 AM – 3:00 PM (AEDT)
Email: info@backroad-goods.com
Can I return it if it’s not for me?
Can I return it if it’s not for me?
Of course. If the rain gauge isn't right for your garden, just drop us an email within 30 days and we'll refund you in full – no hassle, no headaches. And if the glass ever breaks within two years, we send you a replacement tube free.