The Best Gift: Rain on Christmas!

After suffering through a scorching hot year without our seasonal monsoon and winter rains, it has been a real delight to have our winter rain return! Our best gift was rain on Christmas Eve that lasted into Christmas Day. 

In addition to filling up our cisterns, the steady gentle rain was perfect for our front yard basins.  

Our jujube basin was full of fallen leaves ready to hold the moisture....  

... and nourish the soil as it breaks down.

Some of the best techniques we've found for our basins are Leave the Leaves and Chop and Drop. 

While waiting for our Christmas Eve festivities to begin, I spent some relaxing time in the garden cutting palm fronds into mulch for our basins. It was nice to use what nature gives us in our own yard. 

I put another layer of palm frond mulch in the greywater basin - where the previous layer was breaking down nicely. 

Jeremy and Lillie with the sign he drew. 

Earlier in the week, we were blessed with lovely weather for our outdoor Christmas sing-along party. Our native plants looked so green from the recent winter rains. 

We directed guests to walk on the gravel path to protect the plants in the basin. But late season purslane was growing in some of the gravel, so I made a sign with the back of a repurposed rocking chair back that read: WALK ON GRAVEL, NOT PURSLANE. 

My sweetie surprised me by lighting it up for the party!

Hmm... Maybe we'll have purslane scramble for Christmas breakfast! 

We celebrated the holiday by enjoying one of our favorite traditions - singing! 

We are so thankful for the Christmas rain that pepped up the native plants in our cherished basins. 

Wishing you and yours a Happy Holiday, too! 

#lovemyrainbasin

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. 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 all of 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 since it rained. 

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 them with rainwater from a cistern, so the berm helps contain the water.)

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

UPDATE: Hurricane Priscilla supplied .35 inches of rain on October 12th. It filled most of the tanks but not the overflow tanks. The thirsty basins sank in the rain immediately.  

On October 13, it rained pretty heavily most of the day. We got 1.08 inches of rain. Rain from the roof rushed out of the downspout, filled the whole jujube basin and even started to flow into the street. It filled the overflow cisterns. The basins filled up several times, even pooling for a while.

Greywater basin pooling

The smaller 5 gallon water barrels were overflowing, so I caught some of the water in these barrels...

NOTE: In our neck of the woods,  our shallow basins in our front yard can handle a pretty heavy rain - with the help of a gravel and dirt berm built up by the foundation of the house. But if you are at the bottom of the floodplain or near a wash, you might need to install some deeper basins lined with rocks to prevent erosion or damage from a big storm. I've seen some excellent rock-lined basins in right of ways that prevent a big flood from getting to the foundation of the house or to cause erosion in the yard. 

#lovemyrainbasin

Observations of a Crazy Winter on our Rain Garden

As a "would-be citizen scientist", I guess it's time to share my observations about the impacts of our crazy weather on our front yard rain garden this winter. 

The leaves on the jujube trees have fallen, as expected this time of year. We have taken the advice of local rainwater harvesting guru Brad Lancaster and left them in the basin to nourish the soil and retain as much moisture as possible. 

The globe mallow (the green shrub above) seems confused by our crazy winter weather. Is it sticking around in response to the unseasonably warm weather? (Many days around 80 degrees.) We haven't had our usual winter rains, so there isn't enough moisture to allow it to grow flowers. 

But take a closer look... Tiny yellow wild flowers have come up in the mulch. I spotted some little butterflies and bees pollinating them. (There is actually a species of native bees that burrows down in the mulch.) 

Our poor moringa trees also seem confused by the variable weather. They haven't frozen yet, so that's good. We still hope to gather some leaves for tea. (We have already harvested them twice this year. But they usually grow back...) They have sprouted new leaves. But I have watched in anticipation for weeks, and the  leaves don't grow big enough to harvest. And a few leaves have turned yellow. 

The latest development is some buds sprouting, but even with some additional rainwater from our cistern, they are struggling to bloom. (Thank heavens for the one winter storm in November that filled our cisterns.)

Moringa story continued here: 

Wrapping up for the freeze

Despite being watered daily, our sunchokes never grew beyond a foot before they withered up and died. They grew 3 feet last year and had yellow flowers. Last December I harvested more of the yummy tubers than we could eat...

As passionate rainwater harvesters, we always look forward to the winter rains filling our basins and cisterns. So it is pretty discouraging to have such a dry winter. Believe me, this isn't normal. Check out the normal highs and lows and rainfall in December and January from the National Weather Service. 

Our mesquite trees are starting to turn yellow and lose their leaves (which is normal this time of year.) The leaves that are left after the leaf cutter ants get their share become a part of the mulch in our front yard basin.  

 I'm afraid we won't have the abundant wildflowers we had last year. But I still find joy in seeing a variety of birds digging around in the mulch for food. I recently caught this goldfinch (below) getting a drink in our bird bath. 

Every morning Dan and I watch from the dining room window as the birds land on our decorative saguaro rib and then dive down to get a drink or splash around in our bird bath. 

Some regular guests are the Gila woodpeckers (pictured below), mourning doves, curve-billed thrashers, mockingbirds, sparrows and finches. We even had a red tail hawk once. 

This particular day there were so many birds all around our rain garden. I shooed away a stray cat that was hiding under the hackberry ready to pounce. That's why we keep ours in doors. Here is Freddy watching safely from his perch in the house. 

So, what have I learned from my observations during this unusual winter? That it is important to leave the leaves in the basin. The pollinators and birds really appreciate it. Cold weather or hot, rain or no rain, I still love my basins!  #lovemyrainbasin

More information: 

Basin Observations from a Would-be Citizen Scientist

Basin Observations from a Would-be Citizen Scientist

The nurse tree mesquite provides shade and nitrogen for the baby saguaro and hackberry

It's been a while since I've blogged about my beloved front yard basin. But I figured this was a great time to celebrate our basin with a new sign! Thanks to Abril for making it! #lovemyrainbasin

During these trying times I have found solace in tending the new pollinators I planted, watering them daily with rainwater from our cistern. All the while I have been recording the progress with pictures. Scrolling through google photos over the past nine months, I felt like a citizen scientist observing how our unpredictable, fluctuating weather has affected the plants and soil in our basin. 

The first thing I noticed was that through the extreme heat and long periods without rain our native trees (mesquite, acacia, and hackberry) thrived - even as our prickly pear cactus shriveled and drooped.

Our jujube trees did incredibly well too with just the rainwater from the roof that sunk into their basin. Rainwater flowed off of one side of the roof into the gutters and downspout then into the long basin. The trees grew 3 feet and produced an abundance of fruit. The waxy leaves stayed green until recently. Now they are showing their fall colors - which is kinda nice. 

You might be wondering about the dead "weeds" in the basin. But the reason the jujubes did so well was that I kept the native plants and grasses in the basin long after they turned golden brown to retain the moisture longer and to provide nutrients to the soil.

The dry grass and globe mallow slow down the rainwater so it can sink in rather than leave the basin.

I planted a desert senna plant in the basin last January. It struggled in the freeze, but the mulch helped keep its roots warm. 

It came back in August along with horse purslane that acted as living mulch to nourish the soil.

Look at that senna now! It seems confused by the warm weather and recent rain. It is starting to bloom!

When we first put in our basin, we filled it with mesquite chip mulch. But as that has been breaking down into soil, we allowed the basin to be covered with a living horse purslane mulch. 

As the horse purslane died, I broke it down into straw-like mulch. Here I am showing some to my son's girlfriend. She looked a little concerned about the dry grasses, but I reassured her that native bunch grass was a part of a working basin.

We were delighted when Arizona poppies popped up in that same area in March. 

When those poppies died, I also broke their stems into a straw-like mulch. I even gathered some extra from a neighbor and spread them in the basin. I saved 6 buckets full from the landfill! 

Check out how the poppy stems floated when the basin filled with the June rain...

When the water sunk into the basin, the poppy stems settled back down and the doves enjoyed evaporative cooling!

All that mulch created richer soil...

So I could plant more pollinators in the basin... And the cycle goes on.

Have I mentioned lately that I love my rain basin? 

How about you? Share the love by posting pics of your basins on your social media pages with the hashtag: #lovemyrainbasin.  

Read more about the campaign here: 

Love my rain basin campaign

More stories about our front yard basin here: 

Our Yard the Bird Feeder

Create your own Sonoran Desert Food Forest

Storm to Shade Across Tucson

 by Blue Baldwin, Storm to Shade Program Manager

Grabbing the water off the road to grow a healthy tree.

In the cool early hours of a midsummer morning in Barrio Kroger-Lane, long-time resident and community organizer, Josefina Cardenas, prepared breakfast burritos to share with her neighbors to fuel their morning’s work. With the support and expertise of Tucson Clean and Beautiful’s green stormwater infrastructure (GSI) maintenance team, Josefina and her neighbors took to their neighborhood streets to care for the GSI assets built there over the past decade. As they pulled weeds, collected trash, and spread native seed mix, nanas and tatas worked alongside younger generations, sharing their knowledge of desert plants and their healing properties and memories of the nearby river that once flowed perennially.

Tucson Clean and Beautiful is one of six maintenance contractors deployed seasonally by Storm to Shade (S2S), the City of Tucson’s GSI program housed at Tucson Water, to ensure the safety and functionality of some 450 GSI assets located throughout the City’s six wards. This cohort of specialized contractors provides routine maintenance as well as certified arborist services, invasive plant control, reconstruction of assets, community outreach, and stipends to pay community members who wish to be involved in caring for their neighborhoods’ assets. With this workforce in full effect for almost two years, Tucson’s GSI is thriving—providing shade, cooling, habitat, and beautification—thanks to the energy and resources being invested in our City’s urban infrastructure. To view a map of GSI assets throughout the City, see https://climateaction.tucsonaz.gov/pages/s2s-about.

In another neighborhood, over a dozen children and a handful of adults gathered at the intersection of Holladay Street and Santa Clara Avenue in the Elvira Neighborhood to celebrate the completion of a brand new GSI project with Eegee’s and a native plant give-away. Among them was Beki Quintero, a lifelong servant of the Tucson community. For years Beki had advocated to decrease the size of this awkward and potentially dangerous intersection situated in a neighborhood teeming with kids. When Ward One’s Budget de la Gente Program launched, this project was selected for funding and Beki and her neighbors’ dream was finally realized. To minimize project costs, S2S collaborated with the Department of Transportation and Mobility’s special projects team to accomplish much of the work in-house--removing pavement, excavating basins, and re-striping the intersection. S2S contracted local GSI experts, Productive Patches LLC, to add the finishing touches--microbasins and swales--and a landscape contractor to plant native trees, shrubs, and succulents. These days if you drive by after school, you’re likely to spot a gaggle of neighborhood kids hanging out near their new green space.

Intergenerational stewards of Barrio Kroger-Lane celebrate work well done.

To date, Storm to Shade has constructed six new GSI projects, most recently at Ironhorse Park, El Rio Neighborhood Center, Lower Lincoln Park, the intersection of 11 Ave. and Flores St., and the traffic triangle at Holladay St. and Santa Clara Ave. The Aviation Greenway between Kolb and Calle Polar, a collaboration with TEP, will be complete July ’24 and an additional handful of projects are set to break ground by year’s end. Many more are in the design pipeline. For a complete list and story map of projects, visit https://climateaction.tucsonaz.gov/pages/gsi  

S2S is also celebrating the completion of several large-scale projects funded by Pima County Regional Flood Control District, which serve primarily as flood control facilities but also provide the greening, cooling, and beautification benefits of GSI. S2S provides landscape maintenance for these facilities, which include Cherry Avenue Park, El Vado Basin, Sunland Vista Wash, and soon-to-be-completed Alvernon Park Basins, as well as several others constructed by the District over the past years. 

In the shade of the mature mesquites in the GSI area of Highland Vista Park, a dozen participants in the Pima SmartScape GSI course practice proper pruning techniques under the exacting eye of certified arborist, GSI expert, and SmartScape instructor Emma Stahl-Wert. The group consists of S2S maintenance contractors, a newly minted City Parks project manager, and other landscape pros and community members interested in expanding their knowledge of GSI. This GSI course is one of three new courses offered by SmartScape (funded by Tucson Water’s Conservation Program) developed in partnership with City of Tucson. The others are a one-day SmartScape “Bootcamp” designed as a crash course in best practices for landscape maintenance, and an Urban Forestry Management course. The goal is for every City employee who touches landscape to complete all three courses. This investment in staff significantly reduces unintended damage to landscapes, boosts morale, and creates a ripple effect as folks transfer knowledge among their peers in the field.  

Emma guides SmartScape participants through proper pruning technique.

Looking forward, S2S hopes to better align with the City’s equity goals by evaluating new models for prioritizing capital investment that center equity as the primary driver for investment rather than equality. Currently, S2S capital investments are divided equally across the six wards and the Mayor’s Office. Given vastly different demographics, green space, and climate vulnerability across the wards, equal investment is not equitable investment. Tucson is not alone in grappling with this issue. The conversation around GSI and equity is happening at fever pitch across municipalities and utilities in North America and is the central theme of myriad conferences, webinars, and publications. S2S, the Urban Forestry Program, and other Tucson programs’ use of Tree Equity Score as a tool for prioritizing investment within wards has positioned us a leader among our peers in North America, and we are excited to continue to lead by making S2S a truly equity-driven program.  

path to Tree Equity 

-reshared from the City of Tucson Climate Action Report

#lovemyrainbasin