My favorite places in Tucson to bring visitors

Gazing at Brad Lancaster's house and cisterns in Dunbar-Spring neighborhood

After a day exploring the rainwater and greywater features in our yard, the sun went down. We decided to harvest some tasty (and slightly sour) barrel cactus fruit to prepare for Watershed Management Group's Family Saturday event. 

Slice and bake barrel cactus leaving the seeds in place

The next morning, we were off to Watershed Management Group where I gave Lillie a quick tour of the Living Lab and Learning Center. Check out the chicken coop that Dan helped to build. The chickens compost the lab's kitchen and garden scraps so they can be used for fertilizer for the nearby food forest. 

Also on the campus is a big underground cistern that holds 10,000 gallons of water collected off of two roofs on the campus. The wooden hatch in the foreground is the access cover to the cistern.

And in the background is their stylish blue bathroom with composting toilets that provide humanure for the many trees at the Living Lab. 

Since Lillie is a civil engineering mayor with an emphasis on the environment, Dan figured she would benefit from an explanation of their water filtration system. The water pumped out of the underground cistern is filtered so it can be used for drinking. 

Those are just a few of the conservation efforts demonstrated at the Living Lab. You can learn about more on the Living Lab Tour. Dan might even be your guide! 

Always the trooper, Lillie was game for a tour of Brad Lancaster's Dunbar-Spring neighborhood. 

We saw a roadrunner enjoying a path shaded with native palo verde trees in rainwater harvesting basins.

On the path was a sign that showed BEFORE AND AFTER the rainwater harvesting features were installed. The area in front of Brad's house used to be nothing but hard, stark ground. Now there is a lush desert food forest and habitat for all kinds of desert critters! 

We were inspired by the community spirit in this neighborhood as well as the street art, rainwater and traffic calming features that the industrious neighbors installed. 

We saw the famous "garottage" (garage cottage) where Brad lives. Dan explained the passive solar that the positioning of the house provided. 

Sign explaining passive solar

I couldn't wait to show off the many rainwater features like the curb cut that directs water into the rock-lined catchment basin to water that native mesquite tree.

This is on the same street where Brad installed the first guerilla curb cuts that are now legal and eligible for rebates in Tucson and are part of neighborhood Green Stormwater Infrastructure projects being installed by the city.

Just look at all the shade this traffic calming chicane provides the neighborhood! 

Water from the street nourishes the native trees and plants in this chicane

Jeremy reminded me that they need to be able to explore for themselves.

Jeremy and Lillie explore a traffic circle that serves as a habitat for desert critters.

And make their own discoveries... 

But it always comes back to this...

We celebrated with a yummy dinner at the nearby La Indita restaurant on Stone. 

Then it was off for a well deserved day of fun at the Desert Museum!

Where Lillie made her own discoveries...

But we can't help to point out the reason that all of that water conservation matters. From a platform at the Desert Museum, we spotted the Central Avra Valley recharge basins. Our CAP water is pumped 326 miles from the Colorado River which we share with seven other states and Mexico - who are also suffering from a severe drought. 

Rainwater harvesting is one tool for water security in Tucson and helps to cool our neighborhoods. Since Tucsonans use 30-40 percent of their residential water on their landscapes, if everyone planted native trees nourished with rainwater we would save a lot of municipal water.

Central Avra Valley recharge basins from Desert Museum

It was great spending a few days exploring some of the most inspiring places in Tucson with Jeremy and Lillie! 

See our tour of my yard here:

https://www.sustainablelivingtucson.com/2024/05/sharing-my-passion-with-next-generation.html

To find out how much water you can harvest at home, try out this simple water budget calculator from Watershed Management Group.

https://watershedmg.org/water-budget-calculator

#lovemyrainbasin

Sharing my passion with the next generation

I always enjoy sharing my knowledge about sustainability with the next generation. So I was especially excited to give a tour of our rainwater basins to my son Jeremy's girlfriend Lillie, a civil engineering major with an emphasis on the environment. Can Jeremy pick 'em or what?!!! Jeremy tagged along to find out which plants to water when Dan and I go away on vacation. He took some photos while he was at it. Thanks, Jeremy! 

Our first stop was filling up my water bucket at the slimline tank. I explained how we get a lot of rainwater off of the roof (nearly 11,000 gallons a year.) Some of that water is directed from a gutter to a downspout and into our jujube basin. Gutters also direct water to the various cisterns around the house. 

I was delighted to share how the nearby jujube trees had grown three feet last year on just rainwater collected in the basin. And they were starting to bear the first fruit of the season. Even after this long dry spell! 

I had recently chopped and dropped some dried native plants (that some people might call "weeds") into the basin to create organic mulch. That observation inspired this story. Five years ago, Dan had removed a row of aging oleanders and dug a basin there for three baby jujube trees. The one planted farthest from where the oleanders were grew four times as fast as the two planted in the soil poisoned by the oleanders. But native grasses, organic matter (chopped weeds and fallen leaves) and rainwater mitigated the soil, so now the other two trees have caught up with the biggest tree!

The next stop was our shallow front yard basins. (See the pic at the top of the page.) The wood chip mulch has mostly broken down into soil. (We need another truck load.) So a bunch of poppies and native grasses grew there. When they died, I broke the stems of the poppies into hay-like mulch and left the dried grass (that had gone to seed) to feed the ants, birds and squirrels. 

Doves eating grass seeds in the shade of a desert acacia tree by the PLANTS FOR BIRDS sign.

Here I am pointing out the bird bath in the mesquite guild. (It is so important to provide daily water for the birds - especially in this heat!) The mesquite tree acts as a nurse plant providing shade and nitrogen for the nearby hackberry and a young saguaro. Notice that even during this dry spell, the native trees are green and thriving.

Next we visited the right of way basin where our moringa is coming back nicely after dying back in the hard freeze. Lillie gamely tasted the leaves of the nutritious "horseradish plant." 

Then I filled up my watering can and watered our flowering hibiscus plant that we recently planted in the greywater basin. There it benefits from greywater from our outdoor washing machine. The drought tolerant heritage pomegranate in the basin was also bearing fruit! It's always good to have that extra washing machine water for higher water-use plants like fruit trees.

I pointed out how the big slanted roof on the neighbors house had directed so much water into our yard that it had dissolved a wooden shed. Our kind neighbor gave Dan permission to install a gutter there to direct rainwater into a cistern to water our little garden. 

Jeremy followed me and Lillie into our fenced-in garden where he took this picture of his loved ones and learned that I use one watering can full of water on our little veggie garden. 

Lillie learned that the Palo Verde trees shade the garden from our hot summer sun and provide nitrogen to the soil. Bird netting cages keep the squirrels out of the chard (that grows year-round here.) And we use our dirty dishwater (with salt free soap) to moisten our compost pit. Every drop of water is precious in the desert.

It was so fun sharing my passion with Lillie and Jeremy. Can't wait to see what the next generation does... 

Continue our tour of my favorite places to bring visitors here:

https://www.sustainablelivingtucson.com/2024/05/my-favorite-places-in-tucson-to-bring.html

Share the love! Join our campaign and show your friends the joys of rainwater harvesting basins.

Just post a pic of your basin with the hashtag #lovemyrainbasin

https://www.sustainablelivingtucson.com/2023/04/love-my-rain-basin-campaign.html

#lovemyrainbasin

Our St. Patrick's Day Tradition

St. Patrick's Day is kinda sentimental to me and Dan. Our first meeting (a tour of Colab) was expanded to include Dan's favorite spots downtown and a deep six hour conversation that resulted in our first kiss. But it finally sunk in that Dan had stressed that he wasn't looking for a relationship because he had come to Tucson to work on some projects - so I decided to end it right there. After all, I was 51 years old and didn't have time for a workaholic - even a charitable one. But I found myself buying corned beef and cabbage to celebrate Dan's Scotch/Irish heritage. (Only to discover later that he was cutting back on red meat.) Well, he came over for dinner and never left.

Our romantic gestures continued on that theme to include the Tree of Life - which became a symbol of our relationship and our commitment to our new (then) sustainable lifestyle. Dan even had a Celtic knot wedding band tattooed on his finger and wore a kilt to our wedding. 

So it became a tradition in our house to have a St. Patrick's Day feast. But our traditions have shifted slightly to a more sustainable lifestyle.

making zero waste broth with kitchen scraps

 We adapted our St. Patrick's Day classics to delicious vegetarian versions. Some of our favorites are cabbage soup, homemade Irish soda bread and vegetarian Bangers and Mash. Tonight we plan to have Shepherd's Pie. Yum!

We've found that we can adapt our traditions to be even more meaningful to fit into our sustainable lifestyle. And it's a joy to do it.

False Spring or Just Crazy Tucson Weather?

First poppy of false spring

If you strolled past my yard yesterday morning, you might have caught me outside in my pink housecoat. On our sporadic cold winter days, I love to hang around the house bundled in my cozy robe. Who would have thought that I would be inspired by the sunny 57 degree weather to snap photos of the wildflowers sprouting in our rainwater harvesting catchment basin! I just had to capture a photo of the first poppy of False Spring.

The term 'false spring' refers to a period in late winter or early spring when temperatures become unusually warm, before suddenly growing cold again. The warm weather tricks the seeds that are waiting for spring to sprout prematurely - just be frozen again. I'm not sure whether that the term "false spring" really applies. Our weather this past year has been all over the place. For example, it snowed twice late last February and early March - when it rarely snows in Tucson. As the snow melted, our yards filled with wildflowers last April. Looks like it's gonna be another spectacular year for wild flowers! 

Poppies filled our basin last April

After an excruciatingly long summer with the most days over 110 degrees in Tucson's recorded history, it actually hailed in our back yard wreaking havoc on our poor agaves. After suffering from the brutal "non-soon" we are getting plenty of rain this winter. While the rain is a welcome relief, I'm afraid it isn't a good sign for the coming monsoon. I found out from a meteorologist at the Southern Arizona Heat Planning Summit that a wet winter means a dry monsoon. Doh! We are grateful to have cisterns to collect some of this winter rain to help us get through the dry summer ahead and desert trees that can handle these extreme shifts in the weather.

In the meantime I am enjoying seeing our basin green up - a sign of the wildflowers to come. #lovemyrainbasin  What else can I do?

It's fun to see the globe mallow springing back with all those leaves! 

I can't wait for all the orange flowers to bloom!

Globe mallow last April

One of the neighbors who caught me in my pink robe invited me over to take some of the succulents that had overgrown in her yard. (Of course I changed into my street clothes first! lol)

I planted a couple of agave in the right of way basin (leaving plenty of room for them to grow.) Thanks, neighbor!

So... False Spring or just crazy Tucson weather? You decide.

More poppies February 23rd

The life cycle of a Mexican poppy:

https://www.sustainablelivingtucson.com/2023/04/the-life-and-death-of-california-poppy.html

Harvesting Before the Freeze

Thursday, I heard it was supposed to freeze overnight so I went ahead and harvested the moringa leaves that were big enough for tea. I rinsed them off and laid them out to dry.  (When I have longer branches, I hang them to dry.)

It didn't freeze that night. 

But it snowed yesterday! 

So our moringa survived to live another day. I went ahead and grabbed a handful to add to some left-over moringa and chayote soup. The hot soup warmed me right up. 

Pulling the moringa leaves off of the little branch.

You may have noticed that our largest moringa tree (shown above) looks kinda scrawny this year. That was the result of a little experiment I conducted to see how well they would do on just the rainwater collected in our right-of-way basin. (After all, it had grown so big and full after the monsoon storms of 2019...) But I hadn't counted on the long dry spell we had this summer. Our poor moringa really suffered. The two smaller trees actually looked stunted. We finally gave in and watered them with harvested rainwater (a total of three times this year) in an attempt to get some leaves to harvest. In retrospect, we should have done it sooner. Live and learn.

Deep watering stunted moringa in basin.

It was a good thing that I harvested the leaves, because I woke up to a frosty 28 degrees this morning! It's COLD! 

Overflow from our cistern was frozen.

By 11 a.m. our biggest moringa looked like this...  

sad

On the bright side, it always comes back from the roots in the spring. 

Though...I am trying another experiment... (I never learn!) In past years I wrapped insulation around the bottom of the trunks to protect them from freezing. This year I decided not to since moisture had gotten trapped under it.  And it's supposed to rain soon. So cross your fingers.  

 In the meantime, at least I saved moringa tea to send to my mom... 

Dried moringa tea leaves.

MORE INFORMATION: 

Harvesting and Prepping My Winter Garden for the Freeze

NOTE: Our moringa trees were planted in the right of way to take advantage of the rainwater in the catchment basin. But they have no protection from the cold so they die back after a hard freeze. But there are large moringa trees in Tucson that don't freeze because they are sheltered by a wall or other trees. 

Catchment basins sink in winter rain

What a joy! There has been a nice steady rain all day long - the kind of flow that sinks so well into our catchment basins. If only our photos could capture that. Rainwater streams from the roof into gutters where the downspout directs it into the jujube basin (shown above.) The leaves and palm frond pieces create a layer of natural mulch that (along with some native grass) hold the water like a sponge to nourish the soil.

Again, this photo doesn't do the basin justice, but this is how the front yard basin looks after raining all day long. It has sunk in beautifully. 

The front yard basin continues to sink in and store water for our native plants and trees - long after our largest cistern fills up and overflows. 

In case you're wondering why the cistern overflows onto the patio (rather than to another basin which is the best practice), it is because the water from the patio flows into our Mexican Honeysuckle plants (shown in the background.)

We have been meaning to get a truck full of Tank's Green Stuff organic mulch to replace the mulch that is breaking down. Here you can see how we leave the leaves to build the soil.

Sure, our winter basin may not look as green as it did when the trees were full of leaves, but I still #lovemyrainbasin as it continues to feed the soil and give a habitat to native bees and other pollinators.

For move information on our basins, go to:

https://www.sustainablelivingtucson.com/2023/04/love-my-rain-basin-campaign.html

I would love to see your basins too. Please, post them on your social media page with the hashtag #lovemyrainbasin