I like to look at water harvesting as a decades-long experiment.
In this episode, I’ll take you back to my 2004 home purchase, when this place consisted of a bare lot in front and out-of-control Bermuda grass in the backyard, and I’ll describe my landscaping successes and failures in the urban Tucson environment.
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: I like to look at water harvesting as a decades-long experiment.
When I first bought my property back in 2004, this place had no landscaping. The yard, if you can even call it that, consisted of a sun-baked expanse of crushed rock in the front yard and out-of-control Bermuda grass in the backyard.
Let’s take a little detour here. In this part of the world, Bermuda grass is considered to be an invasive species. You don’t want it in your yard.
And that’s the end of the detour. Let’s go back to 2004 when, shortly after my offer was accepted, I was showing my house-to-be to a friend.
She saw my barren front yard and said, “That’s your palette.”
To put it mildly, Martha was inspired.
In essence, my vision for this place would be to create a landscape that would integrate nature with the built environment.
Two decades later, I am still working on that vision.
I’d say that the biggest success story here has been with my drought-tolerant desert native trees. I have two ironwoods and one mesquite tree. Those are the three surviving trees of the four that I planted, and they live off of rainwater.
The great watering can in the sky provides them with all they need, and that’s why I’d like to put in a plug for native plants in your landscape. Wherever you are, the native plants already know how to survive.
You don’t have to guess on, oh, does it need this much water? Or is it out in the sun and it really should have partial shade?
Natives know how to live in your environment.
Unfortunately, there is the flip side to Martha’s survival-of-plant stories here.
Know what hasn’t done well here? Get ready for a big surprise because this is southern Arizona, desert territory.
Cactus. There. I said it. Cactus.
Cactus here have proven to be much more disease-prone and insect-infested than I ever thought. So, I’ve had to remove a lot of what I have planted.
The cactus that still does pretty well here are the bunny ears cactus. And these are these cute little things with, oh, they don’t look like they have thorns on them.
They look like they’re soft and furry, but believe me, they have thorns. I have found this out the hard way many times.
Right now, when it comes to plant life, I’m working on my understory. In other words, what grows beneath the trees.
I’ve had pretty good success with plants like chuparosa, ocotillo, Texas ranger, and, in the backyard, feathery senna.
But uh-oh! Northeast corner! Oop-oop! There’s a problem! The quail brush and wolfberry that I planted back around 2006!
During the drought – that we’re slowly emerging from – a lot of the growth on those two plants died.
And I have been trimming them, and trimming them, and trimming them, and trimming them, and trimming them for months. It’s been three months now.
Those plants look like they’ve really gotten scalped. (See above photo.)
Well, there’s a name for this. It’s called extreme rejuvenation pruning.
Basically, what you’re doing is whacking the plants back to where the good stuff is.
There are a lot of bare branches on those plants, but they are starting to show signs of green.
And that green – in time – will turn into branches.
And that’s a brief look at water harvesting successes and failures as seen from an experimental perspective.
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.