Rain Water Collection
Rain water at My house
I've been collecting rain water at my house for around 3 years now. I really like using these collapsible rain barrels. They were inexspensive about $50 for a 100 gallon, maybe $75 for a 200 gallon. The cheapest place to get them was Temu... but things being what they are...Im glad I already have mine.
How much water to save? We will probably get into that deeper on the classes side... Chef Marly or Farmer Kizzy can probably, from memory, quote how much water a plant family, requires per day. I know for some plants it can optimally be almost a gallon of water, per plant, per day.
Also... right now, through say the end of May its going to rain fairly often and it will be slow, soaking rains.
June -October , rain will be infrequent, fast and hard.
My aim is to have enough water so that my plants dont dry out... for a month.
Rain water in the Urban setting
My Urban garden consist of a front and a backyard. Probably 12x17 (rear) and 10x12 (front). Last year my life long neighbor added a deck to their backyard and the downspout happened to flow... into my yard. To make a wet story short... I realized that I could capture that water and use it to my advantage.
Before I had that revelation... I had already cut my front down spout... and was collecting that water.
I started to do irragation last year... I ran... I think it's 5/8" supply line at both houses. And Ihave drained the front tank into the front yard. I have the smaller lines and emitters already. Hopefully this year... I'll get it all set up.
Front Yard set up
This is how I collect 200 gallons for the front garden. This does fill up fairly quickly. I bail water from the tank under the downspout to the adjacent tank and then pump it to the 800 gallon tank in the back. I can pump it back to the front if I really need to...
I let gravity drain the front tank.
I havent really used the irragation hose in the back, yet.