Harvest The Rain
So far this year rain levels here have been pretty good. Everything is growing and looking wonderful. I can't wait to start harvesting fresh vegetables.
Last year was a different story with an almost 16 inch deficit in rain. I've decided that I want to set up a rain barrel system to harvest some of the rain now for the drier months. I have to get my husband on board to help me.
In surfing the internet I found a wonderful article about harvesting rain at Mother Earth News. Great info for those who are interested in building their own rain system suitable for whole house use.
Then there is the pdf file The Texas Manual On Rainwater Harvesting. Pretty dry reading but it contains fascinating facts about how rainwater is captured and used in different parts of the country and world. Did you know that The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Research Center in Austin, Texas, harvests 300,000 gallons of rainwater annually from almost 19,000 square feet of roof collection area for irrigation of its native plant landscapes?
And finally there is this article from the Maryland Environmental Development site with even better info on a simple barrel system that seems more in keeping with a small home garden.
3 comments:
What do you do to prevent mosquitoes? We had about 10 drops fall last night on the way to town. Already it begins. That is one of the reasons I hate summer. There is almo0st no rain here. We did not ever make it out of our deficit even though we had quite a bit of rain over the winter and early spring.
The answers to most questions are at the links. I believe that you put screen over the barrels to keep out bugs and such. The large cistern systems are really cool albeit expensive.
Thanks for the great links! I've been trying to get hubby on board to set these up for our yard - hopefully these articles will help my efforts!
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