Re: Fwd: Hello medit-plants! Water conservation

Hi All,

This has been my thought too, that in a region where rain is seasonal, it would be difficult to store all the water that passes over a roof for the dry season. It has seemed to me that the rain barrel idea is better for climates that have rain off and on during the growing season, sometimes falling short of needs, or ones that are so very dry (desertic) that every gallon counts and wouldn't overfill tanks. In our small urban property, even one or two rain barrels would look huge, and and more than that would overwhelm the garden. 

Carrying rinse water is good, also putting a bucket or watering can under the faucet while waiting for hot tap water. Also, important to make sure you have low flow toilets (there are programs for rebates or even free toilets in some counties) and low-flow showerheads.

Pam Peirce
San Francisco, CA



On Friday, March 13, 2015 8:48 AM, Jeanne Bardems <jeannebardems@gmail.com> wrote:


Dear Diane,
Thank you for responding to my question.
Yes, my husband did some preliminary collection from our downspouts and we were both very impressed with how much water was running off our roof!  Trying to store all of that would be far beyond anything we could imagine doing.  I have a small collection of potted plants, flowers and herbs, close at hand that could be watered with whatever I might be able to collect from the house or the roof.
Where we live, especially this year, the winter rain is very uneven and we have lengthy dry periods.  Many of the plants that I thought would be find are suffering.  Some of these are fairly young and probably don't have deep enough roots, but others have been in the ground for a number of years and are also looking very dry.
Jeanne
Solano County, California

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Don/Diane <v*@islandnet.com>
Date: Wed, Mar 11, 2015 at 10:20 AM
Subject: Re: Hello medit-plants! Water conservation
To: Jeanne Bardems <j*@gmail.com>


On 2015-03-11, at 9:46 AM, Jeanne Bardems wrote:
> I have been considering saving water for the garden from both my household use and my roof runoff.  I would love to hear ideas from any of you who may already be doing this.

Most of my half acre grows plants that are OK with our five months without rain.  The vegetables are an exception, of course.

I carry the dish pan full of rinse water out to dump on an area where I grow plants that need summer water.  I have them all together just outside the door so I don't have to carry it far.

I did the math once to figure out how much winter rain could flow from my roof, and what size container would be needed to hold it.  It would be a huge tank, and I'd need to pump the water uphill, but even so, it wouldn't be nearly enough water for our five dry months.

Diane Whitehead
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
68 cm rain  (27 in)




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