From Drought to Flood: Rainwater Harvesting at Work

With rain so scarce these days, it may seem pointless do rainwater harvesting. I imagine the neighbors scratch their heads at our sign "Rainwater Harvesting Basins at Work." But through the hot summer, that basin has become a refuge for wildlife. I'm amazed how many birds gather in our yard. Sometimes as many as 30 or 40. The birds peck around and manage to find something to eat in the remaining mulch. They particularly enjoy the seeds of the purslane I planted there.  

Here it is mid-September and we finally got two good storms thanks to Hurricane Mario. Needless to say, we are overjoyed! The rain has perked up our parched plants. The birds are enjoying the evaporative cooling sitting on the mulch after the rain. That sign finally makes sense. 

Every rainstorm is an opportunity to see if anything needs adjusting in the basins. This downpour uncovered areas where the mulch has gotten too thin and where the gravel berm needs to be reshaped after some plumbing work we had done. 

The area in front of the sign needs some mulch.

One of the issues of a long time drought is that native grasses and wildflowers die leaving behind parched ground. With nothing to slow down flood waters, any remaining soil and mulch is washed away often causing erosion on the wall of the basin. This year I made an effort to mitigate flood damage in the main basin by planting some durable pollinator plants and purslane that I kept watered. 

I also left the dried native bunch grass and dead looking globe mallow in the jujube basin.

They slowed the stream that rushed down from the roof while holding the "mulch" and soil in place. By mulch I mean the fallen leaves and globe mallow branches I had "chopped and dropped" in the basin.

NOTE: After watching the bunnies nibbling on the dried grasses, I regret cutting off the seed heads - a much needed food source for bunnies and birds.  I'm happy to see those grasses finally greening up and some horse purslane popping up.

Dan and I are blessed to have several cisterns that got us through most of the long dry spell. Now they are full again and ready to get us through the hot days ahead. One more rain should fill up our overflow tanks too.

For the tanks that aren't connected to an overflow tank,  I have the challenge of deciding what to deep water before it rains again. That's a good challenge to have.

And there is always a little maintenance after a big rain - like replacing mulch and building up leveled berms.

Yesterday I built up the berm around our volunteer fig trees in our little veggie garden and added more compost to replace some that had been washed away. (I hand water it with rainwater from a cistern, so the berm helps contain the water.)

I love any excuse to be out in the yard listening to the happy birds after the rain.