Now that you’ve done the work, it’s time to enjoy the rewards of water harvesting.
In this episode, I’m looking at them via the three activities of water harvesting. I’m also offering a bonus reward: Photo op!
That’s because water harvesting-fed plants, like the hesperaloe flowers and mesquite leaves shown above, make great photographic subjects.
Transcript
INTRO: From Tucson, Arizona, welcome to the Water Harvesting 101 podcast. My name is Martha Retallick. I’ve been a water harvester for 20 years, and I’m looking forward to helping you get started.
Before we do that, here’s a little Tucson secret: For most of the year, we’re in drought. That’s just how life is in the desert.
But when the rains return, oh, do they ever. They often bring an unwelcome friend called flooding.
How do we reduce the risks of flooding? We do it with water harvesting.
Water harvesting encompasses three activities:
- Redirecting rainwater away from where it isn’t wanted to where it is.
- Storing rainwater for later use, for example, during a drought.
- Recycling “used” water. At my place, I don’t let laundry water go down the drain. Instead, it’s for the fruit trees.
We’ll be covering all of these topics and more, so let’s get started.
EPISODE: Well, wouldn’t you know it!
After I recorded the last podcast, where I said that the long-term forecast for this part of the world predicted above-average temperatures and below-average rainfall during the winter, it rained!
And it was only three hundredths of an inch, which brings the grand total in my rain gauge to 7.33 inches for the year.
Come on, rain deejay, we could use some more rain. Pretty please?
And that leads me to today’s talk, which is about the rewards of water harvesting.
I’m going to look at those rewards through the lens of the three activities of water harvesting, starting with activity one, moving rainfall away from where you don’t want it to where you do.
During that little rainstorm we just had, my water harvesting features, my passive earthworks out there in the yard, they worked as advertised.
They moved the rainfall away from where I don’t want it, like in the house or right next to the house, and they moved it out into the yard. That gave the plants a nice drink.
And I must say that this fall and this winter, with all the rain we have had, those plants are looking pretty nice. They get irrigated by that great watering can in the sky, and occasionally when I feel merciful, I take buckets of water out to them.
Let’s roll on into the second activity of water harvesting. This is where you store rainwater for later use, and I have to say, there’s a big reward right there. My 1,500-gallon cistern is full. And that’s good because a full cistern is like money in the bank.
I’m rationing that water very carefully, even though it’s cold and a little bit damp in the mornings. I’m doing that because I need that water to last me probably until next summer, maybe even beyond.
And I’m saying probably because we often get a summer monsoon season. This past summer, we really didn’t.
Which brings me to the third activity of water harvesting. And, oh my goodness, do I have a big reward to talk about there.
The third activity is recycling used water. And as mentioned before, I have a laundry-to-landscape graywater harvesting system here, and it feeds three of my fruit trees, two pomegranates and a lemon tree.
I have to say that the lemon tree is really doing well this year. I’m predicting that the harvest off of that tree is going to be somewhere between two and three dozen lemons.
That’s a good bit off of last year’s record, which was almost 60 lemons. But, since it was so dry this year, two to three dozen? I will take it all day and every day.
So we’ve talked about the rewards of water harvesting as seen through the three activities of water harvesting. Now, I have a bonus reward!
Around here, with all these wonderful plants being fed by water harvesting, I have quite the photo opportunity. Nature photography – this place is like a nature photographer’s paradise!
And you can see examples of my nature photography over at the mothership, WesternSkyCommunications.com.
If you’d like to learn more about water harvesting, sign up for my monthly email newsletter. If you do, I’ll give you a free copy of my Water Harvesting Cheat Sheet.
And if you’d like to support the Water Harvesting 101 podcast, the PayPal email address is info@westernskycommunications.com.
OUTRO: Thanks for listening to this episode of the Water Harvesting 101 podcast. If you’d like to learn more about water harvesting, meet my book family.
First, it’s City Nature, the book that’s guaranteed to look great on any coffee table. City Nature reveals my secrets to water harvesting through my 20-year journey of transforming my Tucson home into an urban oasis. Get the details at CityNatureBook.com.
And if you’re on the go, take water harvesting with you. Water Harvesting 101 is an audiobook and eBook combination that will teach you the nuts and bolts of water harvesting and show you how to put them to work. Available exclusively at WaterHarvesting101Book.com.