Plant the rain—don’t drain it—to end the drought with passive water harvesting
This video was shot in early summer 2021 coming out of the driest year on record with record heat, and finally got 1.7 inches (43 mm) of rain 7-2021. But almost everyone let the vast majority of that rain drain away!
For them, the drought continues.
But for those who planted and harvested the rain, the drought ended where water has deeply infiltrated and abundance has been renewed!
Watch the video below…
In this video Brad shows you how simple street-side stormwater-harvesting basins or “rain gardens” turn wasted “runoff” into harvested “runon”, which is right on! Because this banks the water in the soil where newly-planted food- and medicinal-bearing native vegetation can access and utilize that free stormwater for months–even if we don’t get another good rain for many more weeks. And mosquitoes can not get to the water because we store it below ground in living soil, NOT by pooling it above ground (this also reduces water loss to evaporation).
The idea is to create water-harvesting earthworks that plant the rain, then plant multi-use vegetation, which once established will be able to live on just the passively harvested rain—no supplemental irrigation with costly imported waters. You typically need to irrigate the newly planted plants for 1 to 3 years to get their root system growing well and established, before you can let them go on passively harvested water alone. (The exception is appropriate native plant seed that you plant in the rain gardens with the first good rain at the beginning of the rainy season. The seed that germinates will often make it on rainfall alone (unless it is a severe drought – then a little supplemental irrigation that first year would help).
Note that these street-side eddy basins perform best when there is a runoff event (so they can capture that runoff). In my hometown of Tucson, it typically takes at least a half-inch rain event to generate runoff, but ultimately runoff is determined by the intensity of the rain and how pervious or impervious the catchment or runoff surface is.
Get more info on how to do this and harvest many other free, on-site waters at: https://www.harvestingrainwater.com/ where you can buy Brad’s award-winning books, “Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond” at deep discount direct from Brad at: https://www.harvestingrainwater.com/shop/
For more info on the community water harvesting and native food forestry work check out: https://dunbarspringneighborhoodforesters.org/
For more videos that expand on this one subscribe to this channel at: https://www.youtube.com/user/HarvestingRainwater?sub_confirmation=1
and check out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4aQrZtG-LVg
and
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdvmJ-AFlRA&t=17s
My apologies for the low volume audio for the first few seconds of the video – three seconds in all is good!
See the new, full-color, revised editions of Brad’s award-winning books
– available a deep discount, direct from Brad:
Volume 1
This is the big overview book showing you the potential of all your free on-site waters, along with the harvest of sun, wind, and more.
Volume 2
This book gives you the step-by-step info you need to design, create, and plant your eddy basins and more.