Rainwater Harvesting for Your Garden: Follow Easy Steps
If you have a beautiful backyard or a garden, maintaining it requires efforts. If you want to see your garden flourish with lush green grass and blooming flowers, you need to provide them with all the resources including fertile soil, exposure to the right number of natural elements, and water. However, some of the resources require money. You can expect a higher water bill when you have an entire garden to water every day. It is then when people think about rainwater harvesting.
Rainwater harvesting can help you cut cost on your water bills, and simultaneously, it is an excellent way of moving towards a sustainable environment. You might have read online or in several books regarding how people are indulged in installing rain barrels, recycling water and using it for various purposes. The thrifty idea of recycling water from precipitation has solved problems associated with the limit access to groundwater.
Coming back to rainwater harvesting, here are some easy steps to follow with most of the things present in your house required for the process.
Step1: Select a section of your roof- If you are looking for a catchment area for water to roll into your collection tub directly, you must consider the roof of your house. Choosing your roof will make you collect water immediately without setting up any other catchment area. All you need to do is, find the steeper side of your roof and designate the downspout for the accumulation of water that is installed on the steeper edge.
Step2: Look for a steep area where water collects naturally- Mostly people choose the site of their gutters for rainwater harvesting since the water from downspouts falls a few feet away from them. That place could be used to install rain barrels for collection of water. Besides, you are not limited to the gutters as you can go for choosing any natural shallow area around the foundation of your house.
Step3: Purchase a rain barrel- Rain barrels make the perfect choice for harvesting rainwater, especially for your garden. Make sure to install the rain barrel just below the downspout so that the rainwater directly pours into the rain barrel passing through the downspout. Remember to keep the opening narrow so that the critters like birds and small wild animals don’t litter the water inside.
Step4: Water storage must be closer to your garden- Since the barrels upon filling will become quite heavy to move, make sure they are near to the area where you wish to use the harvested water. It will be easy for you to drive water from the barrel to your garden if it is placed near to it.
Step5: Filter the harvested rainwater if you want- Filtered and stored rainwater can be used for drinking purposes too. If you wish to filter the rainwater, you can use a mesh to screen the water or other filtration methods. Doing so will filter the germs, bacteria and other sorts of microorganisms in the rainwater. So, harvest rainwater to make the most of natural resources and cut down your energy bills.