By Joel Berlin
SDUN Columnist
“Is the heat on?” It seems summer finally came to San Diego when the heat hit a few weeks ago. It’s times like those when we realize water is a precious commodity in Southern California. And even though it seems that we had a lot of rain last winter, the reality is that we did not—San Diego merely hit its normal rainfall numbers.
San Diego is going to continue to grow as new housing tracts are developed and built, which means the county will never be out of a drought and must continue water conservation measures and laws. Yet with the “normal” rainfall amount here last winter, not even 1 percent of this free water was collected.
As a property owner you might wonder, “How do I harvest this precious, life giving water and use it to hydrate my garden and landscape?”
Glad you asked. By adding gutters to your roofline and tying them into collection tanks, one inch of rain falling on a 1,000-square-foot roof can harvest 600 gallons of rain. By collecting rainwater from your roof, not only will you treat your garden, plants and lawn to clean, free rainwater, you will help save energy by reducing demand on our drinking water supply!
Over the past few years, “rain barrel” collection tanks have evolved into complete landscape watering systems. Many companies have designs now that are sleek and trim, fitting along the narrow side of a house. These tanks come in a variety of popular house colors, allowing them to blend into your house exterior and disappear. Other options include bladder reservoirs that lay flat in the crawl space under your house.
Once these tanks and bladders are full and our rainy season has passed, these systems use a pump to create pressure and push water to your plants and garden. It is important to use a drip-line system to water all your plants and even your lawn since this will slow down your water use rate from the tank. I will talk more about converting your sprinkler system into a drip system in a future article.
Another benefit of a rainwater collection system is it reduces water pollution as a result of rainwater runoff, which carries pesticides, fertilizers, sediment, oil and trash into local rivers and lakes. It also helps reduce soil erosion and improves water’s ability to infiltrate the soil at a reduced intensity.
For more information, go to sandiego.gov/water/conservation/rainwater.shtml or do an online search for “rainwater collection tanks.”
The Urban Garden will bring you the newest technologies to green, urban gardening and landscaping. It is my hope through this series of articles you will be inspired to look to new directions in sustainable gardening and landscaping practices. The face of San Diego is changing as water diminishes and urban sprawl continues to grow. Be inspired and make a change.
