Feb 26 2009
Collecting Rain Water: Good For Your Garden & The Planet
Whether you live where it rains or where it pours, there’s a great, easy way you can conserve water for garden use.
Where I live (Calif.) that’s a very big deal, as we Californians head into a third consecutive drought year.
Rain “harvesting” isn’t a new concept, but let’s just say this oldie is a goodie.
It’s as simple as setting up a simple capture system to redirect rainwater off the roof to a barrel.
Collecting Water - photo by Prem Anand
Whether you use a wine barrel to collect rainfall from your rooftop or recycle waste water from household sinks, bathtubs, showers and washing machines, you’re doing your water bill and the planet good.
If all this sounds like too much work, there’s always a very easy way to save–turn off the sprinklers during the winter, sunless it’s really dry and windy, in which case run them every so often. Get to know your sprinkler system and learn how to turn it off.
According to local experts in my hometown, Sacramento residents devote 60 percent of residential water use to their outdoor irrigation, and of that, 40 to 60 percent is wasted, as most homeowners over water by 200 to 300 percent.”
You can buy rain barrels here. Or buy a whole rain water collection system here. Or, take a baby step and turn off your sprinklers in the winter time.
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Lots of good information here about the subject. Rain Barrel water also is chemical free, which is great for your garden (no chlorine or fluoride). I am glad that you are bringing the subject of rain barrels back up, because it is so important for sustainability reasons.