Rain Water Harvesting-Part 1

I have lived in the Sonoran Desert for 30+ years and have never given water conservation any thought. Ironically, I owe my awareness of water as a precious commodity to my godparents who live in the northeast, not the desert southwest. On a recent visit, I was surprised to hear that they are afraid their well will run dry. They live in an area of the country that I consider "wet". Water flows under their bridges and rain falls frequently. How could it be that water is so scarce in an environment like that? And if it is scarce there, why are we using it so freely in the desert where it is even more scarce?

During my visit I learned that they harvest rainwater in barrels and it made me think about trying it at home. I have gotten very serious about it since starting my little garden. So until my husband and I get the gutters on the house, I am using 8 five gallon buckets from Home Depot to collect rain water.  I simply place them under a drip from the roof and watch them fill up.

The results? I had 40 gallons of water in less than an hour during a light steady rain. It blew me away that it was that easy to do and we could collect so much so quickly! I have used this water on all of my plants in the yard and garden for the past 3 weeks and I still have 20 gallons left.

In Part 2 of Rain Water Harvesting, I will show the new gutters and the rain barrels that we are going to install. There are many choices when it comes to rain barrels. There are giant cisterns and smaller rain barrels that are easier to move around. I have read that during a good storm I can collect up to 600 gallons from my roof. My tiny yard can't handle a water barrel that big, but I could harvest a couple hundred gallons comfortably. I expect that we will have a good harvest of water this monsoon season!

How to Build an Easy Drip Irrigation

In an effort to maintain a consistent watering schedule and conserve water, my husband and I created a fairly simple irrigation system that we can set on a timer. Here is a photo of our system...

What you need to build your own:

• 1-6 foot garden hose
• 1-hose end piece that will stop water from coming out the end
• 2-50 foot soaker small irrigation hose
• 1-packet of irrigation hose plugs
• 1-packet of barbed irrigation hose connectors

We also purchased this strange little tool that holds the barbed connectors while you push them into the garden hose. I'm not sure this is necessary. If you talk with people in the plumbing department of your local home improvement store they can help you find what you need.

Here's how we built it:

1. We laid the garden hose over the end of our raised garden to mark the spacing of each soaker hose that will run the length of the garden. We marked it with a pen.
2. We used a nail to puncture the garden hose on each pen mark so we could insert the barbed irrigation connectors.
3. We inserted the barbed irrigation connectors into the garden hose.
4. We measured out lengths of the irrigation soaker hose and cut it using scissors.
5. Then we connected the soaker hose to to garden hose by pushing the barbed connectors in the end of the soaker hose.
6. We then used the irrigation hose plugs to plug up the ends of all the soaker hoses.
7. We connected one end of the garden hose to a long garden hose that ran to the backyard faucet, and connected the other end to the cap that prevents the water from running out the other end.
8. We laid it across the width of the garden and placed the soaker hose where we wanted it.
9. Turned on the water and watch the magic.

 

In the photo above, you can see the end cap we purchased. Its the bronze color metal at the end of the garden hose. I think there is a smaller version that is not as enormous but we couldn't find it. Also you will notice that we attached the garden hose to the garden bed. This keeps the hoses in place since our garden hose is 6 feet long and our garden is only 4 feet across. I should mention that there are a variety of irrigation kits that you can buy online or at a store. These probably have great instructions and are built to fit together. This might be a good option too.

The next step will be to mulch heavily in preparation for our summer heat. I am told that mulching will keep the moisture from evaporating in the summer.