When a tree limb broke off in a spring storm and poked a hole in our garage roof, we had to get a new roof and new gutters on the house and it sparked an idea that we’d been kicking around for a while: let’s get some rain barrels and catch some rainwater to water our fruit trees and vegetables! After quickly reaffirming that I am no good at staying organized and not the least bit handy with tools, we found Catching H2O online and contacted Brook Sarson to provide us with a consultation and a plan for how we could maximize our ability to catch and store water, both in tanks and in the soil, as well as use our laundry water with much greater efficiency. The plan was epic!
In three separate phases, we put in 1000 gallons of rainwater storage in the front yard, put in a greywater system from the washing machine, and added a 660-gallon tank in the back yard. The front tanks and the greywater system were installed by a group of community members that were part of a training program led by Brook, it was totally awesome and got done in a day. It was inspiring! The systems are working really well now, the greywater helps irrigate fruit trees, ornamentals, and vegetables out front, to the tune of about 6k gallons a year, and the rainwater tanks collect over 700 gallons for every 1″ of rain. We use the rainwater to water all of our plants, inside and outside of our home.
Lastly, I accidentally drained all the rainwater out one day from the front tanks, 1000k, gone! There was no damage to anything, the system worked perfectly well in the owner-inflicted overflow, further proof of CatchingH2O’s strong design. If you’re considering adding rainwater and/or greywater, I’d highly recommend it and would be happy to show our setup to prospective rainwater and greywater harvesters!