Using Rainwater Collection To Water The Lawn & Garden.

Posted: July 6th, 2009 | 3 Comments »

I have always wanted to collect rain and snowmelt off my roof, and this is the first house I have lived in where this has been possible. We got very lucky when we rented this house, as there was already a 1,500 gallon cistern buried in the backyard For quite some time now, I I just haven’t seen the point of either A. depleting a well or B. paying for fresh city water, to water flowers or plants! Water and snow falls from the sky for free, lands on the roof, and then drips to the ground – why not collect it and save it for later when you need to do some watering? Your water bill or your well water levels will most certainly thank you. Why pay for what comes down to earth for free? For a little bit of work and a few bucks, you can start collecting rainwater off your roof tomorrow — just in time for this hot summer weather when your plants and lawn need a drink the most!

As I mentioned above, in my yard I didn’t have to do anything at all — the cistern was already in place, collecting thousands of gallons of water and keeping it ready for me to water with. Here is a picture of the hatch to the cistern that I took last winter:

I have an electric pump that I lower down into the hatch which connects to a hose that I can drag anywhere in my yard. I water the plants, the grass, the trees, and even fill up the birdbaths with this water. And even after 20 minutes of using the water, the level in the cistern barely even moves. I have not once had to hook the hose up to the house water supply, and have not come close to running out of collected water either. Seems 1,500 gallons is quite a lot of water being stored down there!

But even if you don’t have the space (or don’t want to dig a huge hole and spend the money) for an underground cistern, you can still use rain barrels to collect the water. Most store-bought rain barrels are 55 gallons in size, but you can loop them together to store even more water. I saw plastic rain barrels for sale at my local Ace Hardware for less than $40, so the upfront investment is not all that much. You just hook your downspout from the gutter to the top of the rain barrel, and attach a hose to the spigot near the bottom – voila, free water for watering everything in your yard! I know people in Los Angeles who had $500/month water bills in an effort to keep their flowers and lawn alive. If they had been collecting the water from the roof during the rainy season, I bet they could have significantly lowered that bill with a $40 investment. If you are not already doing so, I recommend you set up a single rain barrel under a downspout and give it a try – I think you will be pleasantly surprised by how much water you can store and how long it lasts!

Related posts:

1. Be Prepared: How To Be Ready For Any Emergency.
2. Is Apartment Living Much Simpler Than Home Ownership?
3. 3 Week Road Trip & What Did I Miss? Nothing.

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