Rainwater and Grey Water Use

Keeping all of the water that falls on your property and using it effectively is one of the smartest things that you can do as a responsible resident of our planet. If you had all the free water you could ever use, what would you do with it?

Starting simple and small, a 5-gallon bucket under the eaves by my shop catches water that is used to cool metal when soldering or welding. The placement is very convenient.

A rain garden is not something we recommend. Most of the time they wind up being a non-beneficial, weed-infested hole in the yard.

A single 50-gallon rain barrel is probably not very practical, either, especially for irrigating your property. You have to figure out how to get the rain out of the barrel. You have to empty it frequently if there’s a heavy rain. It may look like you’re being a responsible earthling, but it’s best to think bigger. The average home and attached garage roof will shed about 1,500 gallons of water during a one-inch rain. One inch! Capturing 50 gallons at a time means having to empty that rain barrel 30 times in that one-inch rainfall. You could be capturing much more.

On our large rainwater collection system, there is a small clean-out valve that drips out about a gallon of water a day from roof condensation. It goes into a bowl for fresh water for the chickens, and automatically refills every morning as the dew runs off the roof. We never have to carry water to the chickens.

Getting to the larger program, we have a 2500-gallon concrete cistern for catching some of the water that reaches our property. If you have space, these cisterns can be put anywhere that water will drain into. Ours is equipped with a solar panel and a 12-volt pump for outdoor shower use and emergency irrigation. With a water filter, this water could be used for drinking and household use. The tank and plumbing costs less than $5,000 and there is virtually no maintenance. We even placed a solar chicken coup on the south side of the tank and insulate the above ground tank with mulch to prevent freezing during the winter.

How will any of these things fit into your lifestyle? Many times, we often suggest that people think smaller or bigger.

Swales

Less costly ways to use all of that free water coming off the roof are swales. On contour (level) and off-contour (pitched) swales are great ways to use and reuse all of the water that falls on your property. Swales can be part of your landscape, used as paths and roads, allow water to slowly seep in to benefit plants that you are trying to grow, used to direct water to certain areas of your property, and to take care of drainage problems closer to your home.