Rainwater-Harvesting Principles

Even though it is summer and we aren't getting much rain right now, you can still think about rainwater-harvesting and start getting ready now for when the rain and snow does come.  I have been reading Brad Lancaster's website, www.harvestingraingwater.com, a lot lately.  He has a lot of great information and suggestions on how to capture and keep rain water.  One of his practices that I find interesting is how he keeps the water that falls onto his property, on his property.  He encourages others to do the same.  By using swales and berms and by amending your soil so it is more absorbent, you too can keep more of the rain that falls onto your property, on your property.

Here are Brad's Eight Rainwater-Harvesting Principles.  If you want more info, he has two books out as well as his website.  They are all worth checking out.

1.  Begin with long and thoughtful observation.
      Use all of your senses to see where the water flows and how.  What is working and what is not?  Build 
       on what works.
2.  Start at the top-or highpoint-of your watershed and work your way down.
      Water travels downhill.  Start at the top where there is less volume and velocity so it is easier to follow
       the next principle...
3.  Start small and simple.
     Work at the human scale so you can build and repair everything. One thousand small strategies are far
      more effective than one big one when you are trying to infiltrate water into the soil.
4.  Spread and infiltrate the flow of water.
      Rather than having water run erosively off the land's surface, encourage it to stick around, walk around
      and infiltrate INTO the soil.
5.  Always plan for an overflow route and manage that overflow as a resource.
     Always have an overflow for the water in times of extra-heavy rains and use that overflow as a resource.
6.  Maximize living, organic ground cover.
     Create a living sponge so the harvested water is used to create more resources, while the soil's ability to
     infiltrate and hold water steadily improves.
7.  Maximize beneficial relationships and efficiency by "stacking functions."
     Get your water-harvesting strategies to do more than hold water.  Berms or swales can double as high
     and dry raised paths.  Plantings can be placed to cool buildings.  Trees can be selected to provide food.
8.  Continually reassess your system:  the "feedback loop."
     Learn from your work-we begin with the first principle.

I know a lot of this information seems daunting, but Brad breaks things down and takes them one step at a time and makes it seem like a much more manageable way to keep our yards and gardens.  By getting more water to stay on your property, you will be able to decrease your dependency on irrigation in order  to keep your landscape green and healthy.  So think about taking some baby steps toward keeping more rainwater on your property instead of letting it run down the road. 

Monday Musings

August is here!  Wow, where is the time going?  Wasn't it just the 4th of July the other day?  Well, we still have lots of summer concerts and the Jazz Festival to look forward to before we head into Labor Day weekend.  July went out spectacularly.  What a lovely, rainy weekend.  While I didn't get any painting done on my shed, I can't complain.  The rain was well worth putting off the painting for another week. It will probably take me until Christmas time to get it done anyway.  The rain was a good excuse for staying inside and napping!  I did do some inside chores, but I also took the liberty of goofing off as well.  I just love waking up to a cloudy, rainy morning and it puts me in a good mood for the remainder of the day. 

This morning as I walked to work, everything looked so refreshed.  I think most of the pine pollen has now been washed away, as I saw very little of it during this storm.  The last storm that came through created yellow rivers and puddles, due to the large amount of pine pollen that had settled onto everything.  I noticed the plants and trees all looked extremely happy this morning.  Freshly showered and cooled off, they were standing taller, looking greener and I think some of my trees actually grew over the weekend!  Rain is an amazing gift and it rejuvenates everything living here on the mountain.  The plants and trees  Rain is so incredibly refreshing during the summer.  I tire easily of the heat and the dryness.  But the rain brings a coolness to the air that is invigorating and I think plants, animals and humans are grateful for the break from the unrelenting sunshine. 

We have a couple more chances for rain this week and I do hope they pan out.  Here in southern California, I don't think we can have too much rain in the summer time.  At least not in my opinion.

Wet Winter Ahead?

The weather station has recorded a whopping 2.52 inches of rain so far for the month of October. Wow, that is great. Is this a sign of things to come for the winter? I keep hearing a drier than normal winter is in our future, but who knows for sure? I sure wasn't expecting this much rain in the past week.

I do hope that we will get at least a normal amount of moisture this winter. With October typically being a bad fire month, I am also hoping that all this rain will at the very least eleviate some of the fire danger that we normally have to deal with at this time of the year.

Another good thing is that if you have done any fall planting this you, you didn't have to do any watering recently. Plants always prefer rain water over tap water, so this is a really nice start to anything you may have planted. I personally transplanted a bunch of cedar trees. I am hoping they take root and grow. They were in an area that was way over crowded with cedar saplings, so I hope to give some of them a chance to grow big and tall by moving them. They seem to have enjoyed the rain as they are all still alive!

Soon the leaves will be turning in full force and the Thanksgiving holiday will soon be upon us. As fall turns to winter, I hope we are blessed with more precipitation, expecially in the form of snow, so that we can continue to be fire free and the trees and wildlife will continue to prosper.