Let the rain linger with rainwater collection or rainwater harvesting

Heavy recent rains remind us that we do have the blessings occasionally (even if the occasions are three years apart!) Let this be a lesson to you to  collect that rain the next time it falls. The winter is a great time to plan and implement a rain saving program. There are several projects that can help you keep water on your property longer: install rain barrels or rain collection tanks; design and create a rain garden; design and install other landscape features to capture rain.

A rain garden is a depressed area in the landscape. Not necessarily a pond, but a low point in the yard where water can settle. Plants are grown in the area that like their feet wet for extended periods. Sedges, rushes, grasses, lilies, standing cypress, some penstemons, and iris are examples of plants that appreciate standing in moist soil. 

Installing some rain barrels around your house will be the easiest way to capture some water to save for a dry day. Rain barrels come in a variety of sizes and styles, even setting out 5-gallon buckets under downspouts will catch some rain for those precious plants you love. However, I suggest starting with at least a 50-gallon barrel of some type. 

Before installing your barrels, you want to be sure you know where the water runs off your roof. Roof valleys are the best location, as are the ends of long runs where the gutter downspout is located. Keep your gutters free of leaf debris so the downspouts are not blocked and leaves or shingle particles don’t fill up the barrel. If you don’t have rain gutters, look for the most worn out spot of soil around the eaves of your house, it shouldn’t be hard to miss.

Once you have selected the best spots to place barrels, level the ground where they will go. Fill the area with pea gravel then stack some landscape bricks, cinder blocks or paving stones on the gravel to support the barrel. This will keep the barrel from sinking into the mud and possibly tipping over. In most areas where I have installed rain barrels, I raised them up so gravity can flow the water for me. Stack the bricks higher on your pad for this.  

Make sure your barrel has a screen on top where the water enters to keep out debris and mosquitos. If, however, you are starting with the five gallon bucket set-up, be sure to put some mosquito dunks in the water. Mosquito dunks contain a bacteria that keep mosquito larvae from maturing, this keeps you and the neighbors happy. 

Many commercial barrels come with or can be outfitted with a hose bib or faucet. This makes utilizing your fresh water easier than dipping it out with a watering can. Hook a hose up to the bib and add a valve on the other end of the hose to close it off when not in use. 

All of the barrels pictured here were available in the Austin area at local nurseries. A new favorite of mine is the green 100-gallon barrel purchased at Plastic Mart in Burnett and western Travis County. http://www.plastic-mart.com

But there are numerous rainbarrel and tank resources in the Central Texas area. I encourage you to look around and have fun designing yourwater collection system, it will be such a benefit to you and your landscape or veggie garden!

If you live on a larger property or have a commercial property, consider installing a rainwater harvesting system. These systems generally collect and store 500 gallons or more and include filters and pumps. For great examples of these visit the Windsor Park Library, the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, or the LCRA headquarters on Lake Austin Boulevard.

A great reference for rainwater collection is “Rainwater Harvesting” by Brad Lancaster from Tucson, Arizona. His book includes easy to understand diagrams. He also highlights innovative approaches in other cities to collecting and keeping rainwater in planted areas rather than allowing it to run off parking lots and roads. Believe it or not, there are other cities in the country much more advanced than central Texas for water conservation and use. 

The city of Austin is offering rebates to water customers for installing rainwater harvesting systems (500 gallons or more)

http://austintexas.gov/department/rainwater-harvesting-rebates

Hays County offers rainwater collection incentives

http://www.ci.san-marcos.tx.us/index.aspx?page=336

The LCRA provides information on rainwater collecting

http://www.lcra.org/water/save/rainwater.html

Reliving Rain, what is this stuff in my rain barrels?
(originally written on September 12th after first rain of the season)
By Plantsy Drew

While working inside, I could hear a tick, tick, tick like a small smack. I looked all through the house thinking squirrel, bird in the attic, something broken. Finally I looked outside–after taking off the insulating layers of curtain, blinds and plasticboard installed to keep the heat out–I viewed the glory that was rain! Water falling from the sky, life giving, heat calming, seed sprouting natural water!

Oh thank the heavens for the relieving rain! Such a glorious end to a brutally hot, dry summer. I hope everyone was dancing and oogling the wet stuff falling from the sky as I was. Quickly I lined up all my spare 5-gallon buckets along the roof line, flip flop feet splashing in the puddles, and neighbor kids jumping up and down in the mud. And oh, what a relief with the toned down light, a few days of cloud cover to break the eye strain from the glaring yellow orb of life. The long sustained turmoil of the atmosphere was such a complete change from the sky we had been living with for the past four months–and really for the past year!

Why was there flooding? Will there be more? If there is more, how can we best plan for it and use the rain to benefit ourselves and our surroundings? Now that the environment has changed, what to do?

The ground has been so dry for so long, it had really hardened. Not quite but almost rock solid. So, when the rain falls, as it has a tendency to do here, all at once, the water just runs off the ground to the low creeks and washes. Then these gullies fill up to capacity rushing to the next low spot, the nearby river. If a road happens to be in the way, it gets a wash out. Let the ground soak in the moisture and after this first rain, get ready to plant!

There is so much we can do in the garden now, and the rain reminds us to plan for future downpours. It is time to disperse wildflower seeds, plant winter gardens, most important of all-install a rain barrel!

Wildflower seeds to sow now are spring and summer bloomers, especially bluebonnets-get them in by September if possible, October if you forget. All the other standards too, Indian blanket, Mexican hat, coreopsis, skeleton leaf golden eye, showy primrose, get a mix, get them all!

Get ready to plant hardy perennials-yellow bells, lantana, salvia greggii, trees especially. Any tree planting you want to do, get it done by February!

And lastly, install a rain barrel. The city of Austin offers rebates for small barrels, over 75 gallons, and large rebates for rainwater harvesting systems, 500 gallons or more. Go to their website to check out details
http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/watercon/rbrebates.htm

Enjoy the coolness. Your plants will. You are going to notice a big change. Some plants that had started to fade to yellow will re-green (rosemary, bamboo, some trees) And everything is going to bust out blooming. Even plants that normally bloom in summer have been in a holding/dormant pattern due to the continued heat and lack of moisture. It will be a pleasant few days.