Rain Barrel Harvesting (Photo by Sunset Magazine)

I’ve been researching some ways to “green” up an existing home, in case we end up purchasing a “fixer-upper”. Some of these ideas are less inexpensive, like losing the lawn and planting drought-tolerant plants in a semi-arid region, others are more expensive like installing solar panels and running a portion of your household energy off of it, then reselling the excess to your utility company (a sweet deal!). But an idea I researched a while back, and the recent rain storm made me recall this idea, is rain collection in arid and semi-arid areas. Indulging my continued curiosity, I further investigated this idea through Sunset Magazine, I love the photos in this mag. They had some inspiring, and unusual, ideas for collecting rain. However, before I begin describing some methods, let me explain a few laws about rain water collection that I didn’t know existed:

• Colorado: If you live in Colorado, the rain that falls from the sky is not yours to keep! Did you know that? Because many of their streams feed into rivers that deliver water to other states, all rain water is supposed to end up in the streams. So rain water harvesting (I like this word) in this state is out for now. (source: Wikipedia)
• Utah and Washington: You may harvest rain water only if you own the rights to your ground water. So if you are using well water, you may then collect your rain water. I’ve read on other sites that this law is not enforced, so you could probably get away with collecting it on the down low. (source: Wikipedia)
• New Mexico: In contrast to neighboring Colorado, some areas require rain water collection on new dwellings. What a terrific idea! Most likely, this is due to their desert-like region. (source: Wikipedia)
• Arizona: Due to their desert topography, homeowners can receive a tax credit for capturing and recycling rainwater. (source: Sunset Magazine)

Other states and regions may have laws regulating stagnant water and collection techniques, so if you’re unsure, you may want to check with your city.

Now on to some rain water collection methods (all require containment or lids to avoid open, stagnant water):

• Rain (whiskey) barrel collection: With a little work, and a gutter system, you position your rain or whiskey barrel at a point where your gutters drain, usually at a corner of your house or structure. Affixing a hose or pipe from your gutter to the rain barrel, the rain collects into the barrel. They can hold about 50-60 gallons. A spiget towards the bottom of the barrel makes it easy to use the rain water.
• Rain Chain: This is a beautiful way to collect rain. The rain drips down from small bowl to small bowl, then eventually ends up in a catchment of some kind. It can fall into a creek or rock covered area of your lawn. Beneath the rock area would be a tank that holds the water until you need to use it.
• Cistern: Using a gutter system, cisterns can hold hundreds to thousands of gallons of rain water. It’s a more complex system, but if you have a huge yard or garden, this might be a feasible option.

Here are a few links I came across that describe in detail how to build a rain water harvesting system (and sell the supplies you would need to start this process!):

• A beautiful way to catch rain water.
• A huge assortment of whiskey barrels.
• How to collect rain water. Treehugger also has additional links at the bottom of this article on how to store it as well.

How many of you reuse your rain water? How do you collect it? Have you thought about installing a system recently? What if you live in an apartment, can you find a way to use rain water to water your house plants?

Our Current Water Level - Yikes! We're almost out of H2O

Most of my life I’ve lived in Southern California, a fairly arid region. We hardly ever experience thunderstorms, or summer rain showers. From June through late November or December, our precipitation is minimal to none. Over the past few years, however, we have experience prolonged periods of dryness (prolonged meaning it stops raining in March and doesn’t rain again until the following January!), so that officially puts us in a state of drought. Our municipal department of water and power has put us on alert and is limiting how much water we can use. They are prohibiting spraying off sidewalks and driveways, limiting our garden and lawn watering to twice a week, and sending out tips on how to conserve water in the home.

My husband and I have been very good at conserving our water. We have stopped watering the lawn altogether; it’s really very hard to have a beautiful green lawn with a minimal watering schedule, so we’ve given up on the lawn for now. We have purchased drought-resistant container plants, we only have to water them twice a week. We have reduced the amount of laundry we wash, I’m trying to get better at wearing pants that aren’t dirty twice instead of only once and drying towels in the dryer instead of immediately throwing them in the laundry if they are still clean. We’re even doing the whole, “If it’s yellow, let it mellow” routine in one of our bathrooms. Our toilets are old, and since we live in a rental, we aren’t replacing them anytime soon. Our water usage over the past few months has been below our limit (28 HCF), which makes me feel like our efforts are paying off.

What made me think about our limited amount of rain are the trees around our house. Lately, they have been shedding their bark, splitting and cracking right though the branches, and looking like they are in distress. These aren’t immature trees, they are older trees that we have never, in our four years of living here, had to water individually. I’m beginning to think that the lack of rain, and our limiting the amount of water we are using around the house, is causing them to die.

One particularly stressed tree is a huge shade tree in our front lawn. It basically shades the whole front of our house. Its branches reach over our roof. One large branch, that leans over our roof, has a huge, gaping crack down the center. I’m afraid that in our next big wind storm (fall is the season for wind here in Southern California) that branch is going to crack in half and topple onto our roof! My dilemna is should I water the trees deeply and hope to reduce the amount of damage that’s been done or wait it out for the rain to come? What if the rain doesn’t come? Perhaps Southern California will turn into a desert in the coming future and all the large trees will eventually die out due to lack of water. Obviously, to resolve the current distressed trees, I think I can use a little bit of our water and give them all a deep watering this weekend!

When my husband and I first moved into our rental house a few years ago, we had lofty dreams of fixing up a house that hadn’t been taken care of in 20 years. We were excited to begin painting and carpeting our new rental. Our friends thought we were nuts! Yet we hadn’t discussed purchasing a home because it was during the peak of the housing boom; starter homes started at $550,000. So our original plan was to live in our rental home for many years.

One area that desperately need improving was the lawn. Years of neglect, infrequent watering, and lack of nutrients had left a brown patch covered in weeds in both the back and front yard. After mowing 3-foot weeds, my husband hired a handy man to till and seed the yard. The lawn was beginning to become a luscious sea of green. That was until the owner of the house finally decided to replace our roof, which badly needed replacing. My husband organized all the labor and materials for the roofing project, and over a period of 3 weeks, we watched our newly grown lawn become a trampled mess. So, we ended up with a brand-new roof, but a lawn that was dead.

Over a period of 3 years we’ve reseeded the lawn 4 times. Each time, the lawn began to come in great, but the amount of watering needed to maintain it in such a state made us grimace each time we received our water bill. At one point the owner of the house suggested we plant sod, but we had spent so much on reseeding, we decided it wasn’t cost-effective at that point. Again, this is a rental house, not our own house and the lawn currently looks better now than when we first moved in.

Photo Credit: Sunset Gardens

We’ve learned a lot about lawns throughout this 3 year process. What I’ve realized the most is that we live in a semi-arid climate and a lawn may not be the most cost-effective or environmentally friendly choice. So, I’ve begun researching alternatives to a lawn that my husband and I can use for our new home. Sunset Magazine and Better Home & Gardens have great garden plans online and have given me some wonderful ideas. One alternative is to remove the lawn completely and plant a garden of drought-tolerant plants and ornamental grasses. My husband isn’t thrilled with this option since he likes the idea of a green lawn still. Another alternative I’ve researched is having a smaller patch of more durable grass amongst a bordered drought-tolerant garden. This may be the route we choose.

Saving money on not watering a water-hungry lawn is a great first step, but my husband and I have also researched some watering alternatives that we think we could install ourselves once we are in our new house. Something we’ve discussed, and almost installed on our rental, is a rain barrel collection system. This is a fairly easy system to install, you really only need rain gutters, a drain, and a couple of whiskey barrels. Where we live, we’re lucky to receive our annual 15 inches of rain, but the collection could help water my container plants at least.

Another water reclamation project we’ve discussed, an idea that was due to a leaky washing machine flooding our kitchen multiple times, is using our house-hold grey water to water larger parts of a lawn or garden. Basically, water from baths, showers, dish washers and laundry washers drains into an outside septic tank or separation tank. That water can be diverted directly to a planter or garden. There are more sophisticated grey water models that include permeable gravel beds, but this is the simplest.

Currently, since we still live in our rental, we’ve opted to watering only the front lawn and focusing on container gardens. We’ve reduced our watering in half, so the money saved is money that is going towards our ‘house fund’. The container plants are drought-resistant and easy to care for and at least we can take the containers with us when we move.

I love the idea of gardening; the smell, the wildlife, the colorful flowers. But trying to say within my budget, and not plant anything in the ground that I won’t be able to take with me when my husband and I purchase our own house, I’ve had to get creative with planting.

As a renter, it seems silly to plant in-ground. One main reason I avoid this is that when we move,  the last thing I’ll want to do is dig up, transport, and transplant a multitude of greenery. The alternative is leaving plants behind, but that seems like a waste of money in the first place. Besides, as most renters will agree, you don’t want to be too generous with your landlord. Leaving behind plants, in my opinion, is just too generous. So my alternative is container gardening.

I wouldn’t say that I’m the ultimate green thumb, actually I avoid high-maintenance plants. Yet, I have been able to select some different varieties that make my containers interesting and easy to care for. Living in an arid climate, I try to choose plants that are drought-tolerant and will do well in a container. A few of my favorites are succulents, like ice plant, and Coco Lavender; the hummingbirds love this one.

Feather Grass in a container

I enjoy browsing Sunset Magazine and Better Homes & Gardens for gardening ideas and have fallen in love with ornamental grasses. Again, because I don’t want to leave anything behind at our rental house, I have planted feather grass in one of my containers and it’s flourishing. This is also one plant that will do well if I decide to plant in-ground at our new house. The movement of it’s leaves in the wind adds life to a garden.

I have been able to keep my cost down since I haven’t over-planted, meaning I only have a few containers (about 6).  On a side note, I once had a neighbor who had to move 50 container plants, and let me just say, they weren’t having much fun moving them. I’ve also chosen in-season plants and perenials that will flourish all year. I browse online for sales, before actually going out and making a purchase, and I’ve found that Osh is a great place to purchase plants, they have terrific prices and healthy varieties of plants.

As much as I drool over large gardens and beautiful landscapes, I can presently enjoy my container garden for now, and save money at the same time.