How to Harvest Rain Water

Waste, whenever it rains I see first hand evidence that our society; one- takes water for granted and two- still has a long way to go to understanding reuse and recycling.

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We use water, still, as though it was in endless supply. A turn of the tap and there it flows. But this is a fallacy and water is much scarcer, potable drinking water than we think.

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I was out for a walk the other morning, the day was going to be hot, I knew, as I could feel the ehat seeping up from the ground and the wind was warm. There were no clouds in the sky. This was the fourth day in a row of heat and no rain. Partially thankful but a bit concerned because I knew my vegetables needed water and I would have to do that later that night after the day cooled a bit.

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As I neared home I saw a guy washing down his driveway, the hoes running and he was bathing the asphalt. I though we had gotten past this ridiculous pass time but reality check.

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Whenever it rains, I watch the streams of water roll down the street and into the sewers; water that could be used to look after fruit trees, vegetables, herbs and more.  Sure the rain was giving them a drink now but what about two days from now?

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It is time that we understood the catching the water that falls freely from the sky and rolls off of roofs all around town is an important, vital and relatively simple activity. Not only will we be able to save water for the dry times but we will divert it from the sewer system and basements, think of the possible savings.

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The simplest way to catch rain water is to use a rain barrel that is incorporated into your eaves trough system. You can buy them or build them, how you go about that is up to you.

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You can hook up the faucet to a soaker hose which can be run through your vegetable garden and used to deep water the tomatoes and so on when it is needed. You will not be using any water from the house so may even save a few bucks. How much you save will depend upon the size of your system.

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The rain barrel is the entry level rain water harvesting system. There are larger systems that will collect and hold much more than water for the cabbages.