It’s a perspective thing...your message is spot on, but a 55 gallon drum is many times that first baby step into rainwater harvesting because it’s affordable and easy. Much easier to increase the size once you have the system in place. You, my digital friend, are the messenger to encourage us to think bigger. Improving water retention, creating ponds of different sizes, water catchment... it’s all part of the solution matrix.
I'm in Spain and when it rains it really rains... I couldn't afford to buy anything so i dug trenches all around the garden filled them with wood / wood chips and covered with hay..and made them in to paths.... It works so well my garden doesn't flood like it used to and the trees grow so fast which i use for chop and drop.... I love Permaculture everything just falls into place as it should with little work ....
Much of the land we see as wild, or pristine, is in fact a post-industrial landscape. Here in the far north of Scotland the land was deforested during the neolithic, but the effect is essentially the same. Much of our work on the site involves deepening the soil and restoring the hydrology of the landscape, to better resist drought. Even here, we're facing the effects of the climate emergency. 3 out of the last 4 summers have been droughts, most recently the worst since the late 60s.
In our Michigan location, our general issue with regard to water is an excess, but even so, our house design incorporates roof water catchment with a 500 gallon tank as the starting point. Most of our site tends toward marsh, our design for the overall site includes measures for increasing evaporation and transpiration and drainage because we have anaerobic soil conditions. Yet, even with these conditions, I'm looking at a 500 gallon storage as my starting point, with ponds as additional storage areas and potentially more tanks.
Hii Matt, Few people realise how much water they actually use, and think a 3000 gallon tank will last forever. I remember back in the late 90's in Queensland we had a severe drought, and the local authority had placed severe restrictions on water useage (for gardens, lawns etc) and promoted installing water tanks for those purposes and for toilets. One of my neighbours put in a 9000 litre tank, we were able to get recycled water from the treatment plants for free, and he filled it up and returned to his former watering regime, the tank was emply in two days. I am totally relaint on rain water and tanks, and have around 50000 litres capacity currently, but have on order a 386000 litre tank and have plans to put another 25000 litre tank at the highest point on my property so I still have water in the event of a power failure, which is a reasonably regular event. I do have a creek on my northern border I can pump from for gardens also which to date has never run dry but doesn't flow all that well. I remember watching one of Curtis Stone's videos where he was using reticulated water for his urban farming, and he commented what his water consmption was and the area of his beds, and it was enormous, I cannot remember the exact figure, but it was around 25 mm rainfall per week, that is an enormous amount of water to have to store. I also listened to one of Gabe Brown's video's years back, and he was comparing his neighbours property to his, where the neighbour tilled 2 or 3 times a year, but Gabe had built his organic matter to around 6% and the rain all soaked in, keeping the landscape seemingly dry but absorbing the moisture and holding it where plants needed it. There have been some very destructive practices used in agriculture and land clearing over the years, and I would agree that the indigenous inhabitants were far better custodians of the land than current inhabitants. Regards Dennis.
I like Andrew Millison's sandbox AR water videos, and I'm always also thinking... where do you put the house and the garden so you can gravity feed impact sprinklers and drip without messing up your design in general , or if you're on flat land in TX what solutions can reinforce the solar approach to pumping. I've also wondered about passive irrigation like mini canals.... all good questions about stretching water
One way of looking at this that I find useful is to think in terms of inches per square foot rather than gallons. Tomatoes need, on average, an inch of water per square foot per week. Just as an example for scale. A 100 square foot catchment will collect 62.3 gallons of water in one inch of rainfall. So a 100 square foot catchment overflows a 55 gallon barrel with one inch of rain. And that barrel is not enough water for a 10x10 patch of tomatoes for one week. Close, but not enough.
I'm a civil engineer and I design drainage systems for a living. It's surprising how people greatly underestimate the volume of rain that can fall on a piece of land in a year. I've always thought rain barrels were a joke, unless you have a tiny vegetable garden.
It's one of those things that makes me so upset that it's hard to talk about. It's so obvious once the pieces are put together. I feel more and more that almost all the larger problems are like this which means we can fix them.
55,000 is what I've been thinking I could sustain with. For the last 20 years I've had around 5000 gallons of mostly underground, which is good for domestic, but I haul all the water for my crops and trees.
Hey Matt, California - especially Sebastopol - lost a valuable asset, environmental advocate and educator when you and your family went to Texas. Best to you!
No question that you are accurate in your assessment. Only .1" on the rain gauge fills a 55 gallon rain barrel...I have only one rain barrel on one of 5 downspouts. So, even with a minimal rain of 1/10 of an inch 80% of that gets wasted. Obviously it rains far more than a tenth of an inch in most rainfalls or even drizzles...what a waste !!!
Very hard to store enough water for sure. The will aquifer water is contaminated now and what they spray on the ground you drink now after 60 years here in Central Florida. So I like to catch the rainwater. But we are downwind from a power plant 100 miles or 200. A lady was raising her dogs on the rainwater. And the dogs were dying. They found out there was contamination in the rainwater.
Matt, can you recommend a particular type of water storage tank? Yours appear to be made of plastic---are you not concerned about leaching? Is it better to use stainless steel? Where can I get these large tanks in CA?
Hi Dorothy, there are many types of plastics. Most plastic tanks are made of Polyethylene, which is a food grade plastic. Polypropylene is also food grade. What is of greater concern is what your gutters on the house and the downpipes (down spouts I believe in the US) are made from as PVC is often used for those, and that leaches into the water. If you have tanks that are fed by underground pipes, many of those too are PVC and I have seem many instances where the pipes ries out of the ground to enter the tank, holding water in the pipe, that is possibly one of the greatest potentials for contamibation. Matt did comment on first flush diverters, where the initial discharge off the roof is run to waste, to remove contaminants, and that could be done to the underground pipework as well, and either manually drained after rain or done automatically. In Australia we have a lot of steel rainwater tanks made from corrugated iron, bacically roofing iron, or flat metal tanks, as well as the polyethylene tanks and also a lot of precast concrete tanks. The thing that would concern me with above ground plastic tanks in a bush setting is fire, as they will melt and collapse, so you need a large cleared area around them for protection. Stainless steel tanks are possible but they would be multi times the cost of plastic or steel tanks. For suppliers in your area, I would use the internet to search for suppliers of rain water tanks.
Hi Matt, In northern Massachusetts it has not rained more than 1/4 of an inch all spring and summers - this is new for us thinking about water harvesting and storage. Where do we go to set this up on the east coast? CA
Have you installed groundwater recharging "pits" (not sure what the system is called)? Using the rain to recharge the water table could reduce the water requirements.
What is the best way to make biochar? I have a lot of brush to burn but then you are left with powder white. Maybe the fires out west will make biocharf they did not burn so hot to make white powder
Thanks Matt, you’re a real joy to watch and listen to! God bless you!
It’s a perspective thing...your message is spot on, but a 55 gallon drum is many times that first baby step into rainwater harvesting because it’s affordable and easy. Much easier to increase the size once you have the system in place. You, my digital friend, are the messenger to encourage us to think bigger. Improving water retention, creating ponds of different sizes, water catchment... it’s all part of the solution matrix.
I'm in Spain and when it rains it really rains... I couldn't afford to buy anything so i dug trenches all around the garden filled them with wood / wood chips and covered with hay..and made them in to paths....
It works so well my garden doesn't flood like it used to and the trees grow so fast which i use for chop and drop.... I love Permaculture everything just falls into place as it should with little work ....
Yes they are, FOR SURE! Anyone who has caught a little water knows that. Thank you for referencing what you say.
Much of the land we see as wild, or pristine, is in fact a post-industrial landscape. Here in the far north of Scotland the land was deforested during the neolithic, but the effect is essentially the same. Much of our work on the site involves deepening the soil and restoring the hydrology of the landscape, to better resist drought. Even here, we're facing the effects of the climate emergency. 3 out of the last 4 summers have been droughts, most recently the worst since the late 60s.
You are a good man. Say it like it is!
In our Michigan location, our general issue with regard to water is an excess, but even so, our house design incorporates roof water catchment with a 500 gallon tank as the starting point. Most of our site tends toward marsh, our design for the overall site includes measures for increasing evaporation and transpiration and drainage because we have anaerobic soil conditions. Yet, even with these conditions, I'm looking at a 500 gallon storage as my starting point, with ponds as additional storage areas and potentially more tanks.
Hii Matt, Few people realise how much water they actually use, and think a 3000 gallon tank will last forever. I remember back in the late 90's in Queensland we had a severe drought, and the local authority had placed severe restrictions on water useage (for gardens, lawns etc) and promoted installing water tanks for those purposes and for toilets. One of my neighbours put in a 9000 litre tank, we were able to get recycled water from the treatment plants for free, and he filled it up and returned to his former watering regime, the tank was emply in two days. I am totally relaint on rain water and tanks, and have around 50000 litres capacity currently, but have on order a 386000 litre tank and have plans to put another 25000 litre tank at the highest point on my property so I still have water in the event of a power failure, which is a reasonably regular event. I do have a creek on my northern border I can pump from for gardens also which to date has never run dry but doesn't flow all that well.
I remember watching one of Curtis Stone's videos where he was using reticulated water for his urban farming, and he commented what his water consmption was and the area of his beds, and it was enormous, I cannot remember the exact figure, but it was around 25 mm rainfall per week, that is an enormous amount of water to have to store.
I also listened to one of Gabe Brown's video's years back, and he was comparing his neighbours property to his, where the neighbour tilled 2 or 3 times a year, but Gabe had built his organic matter to around 6% and the rain all soaked in, keeping the landscape seemingly dry but absorbing the moisture and holding it where plants needed it.
There have been some very destructive practices used in agriculture and land clearing over the years, and I would agree that the indigenous inhabitants were far better custodians of the land than current inhabitants.
Regards Dennis.
Great presentation of water, a precious gift from our one and only creator 🌞⛅🌩🌠☄🔥💧⛈🌦🌊🌻🐝🕊
THE SOIL PROPHET Matt Piwers!
!!!
Good points, doing small water storage is a good/usefull cheap learning experience for people to start getting real experience 👍🏻
I like Andrew Millison's sandbox AR water videos, and I'm always also thinking... where do you put the house and the garden so you can gravity feed impact sprinklers and drip without messing up your design in general , or if you're on flat land in TX what solutions can reinforce the solar approach to pumping. I've also wondered about passive irrigation like mini canals.... all good questions about stretching water
One way of looking at this that I find useful is to think in terms of inches per square foot rather than gallons. Tomatoes need, on average, an inch of water per square foot per week. Just as an example for scale. A 100 square foot catchment will collect 62.3 gallons of water in one inch of rainfall. So a 100 square foot catchment overflows a 55 gallon barrel with one inch of rain. And that barrel is not enough water for a 10x10 patch of tomatoes for one week. Close, but not enough.
I'm a civil engineer and I design drainage systems for a living. It's surprising how people greatly underestimate the volume of rain that can fall on a piece of land in a year. I've always thought rain barrels were a joke, unless you have a tiny vegetable garden.
great video!
Omg Removed all the water from the foothills that makes so much sense
It's one of those things that makes me so upset that it's hard to talk about. It's so obvious once the pieces are put together. I feel more and more that almost all the larger problems are like this which means we can fix them.
55,000 is what I've been thinking I could sustain with. For the last 20 years I've had around 5000 gallons of mostly underground, which is good for domestic, but I haul all the water for my crops and trees.
Hey Matt, California - especially Sebastopol - lost a valuable asset, environmental advocate and educator when you and your family went to Texas. Best to you!
Thank you
No question that you are accurate in your assessment. Only .1" on the rain gauge fills a 55 gallon rain barrel...I have only one rain barrel on one of 5 downspouts. So, even with a minimal rain of 1/10 of an inch 80% of that gets wasted. Obviously it rains far more than a tenth of an inch in most rainfalls or even drizzles...what a waste !!!
Very hard to store enough water for sure. The will aquifer water is contaminated now and what they spray on the ground you drink now after 60 years here in Central Florida. So I like to catch the rainwater. But we are downwind from a power plant 100 miles or 200. A lady was raising her dogs on the rainwater. And the dogs were dying. They found out there was contamination in the rainwater.
Do you think there’s any contamination to the water from the roof shingles?
Matt, can you recommend a particular type of water storage tank? Yours appear to be made of plastic---are you not concerned about leaching? Is it better to use stainless steel? Where can I get these large tanks in CA?
Hi Dorothy, there are many types of plastics. Most plastic tanks are made of Polyethylene, which is a food grade plastic. Polypropylene is also food grade. What is of greater concern is what your gutters on the house and the downpipes (down spouts I believe in the US) are made from as PVC is often used for those, and that leaches into the water. If you have tanks that are fed by underground pipes, many of those too are PVC and I have seem many instances where the pipes ries out of the ground to enter the tank, holding water in the pipe, that is possibly one of the greatest potentials for contamibation.
Matt did comment on first flush diverters, where the initial discharge off the roof is run to waste, to remove contaminants, and that could be done to the underground pipework as well, and either manually drained after rain or done automatically.
In Australia we have a lot of steel rainwater tanks made from corrugated iron, bacically roofing iron, or flat metal tanks, as well as the polyethylene tanks and also a lot of precast concrete tanks. The thing that would concern me with above ground plastic tanks in a bush setting is fire, as they will melt and collapse, so you need a large cleared area around them for protection.
Stainless steel tanks are possible but they would be multi times the cost of plastic or steel tanks.
For suppliers in your area, I would use the internet to search for suppliers of rain water tanks.
Hi Matt,
In northern Massachusetts it has not rained more than 1/4 of an inch all spring and summers - this is new for us thinking about water harvesting and storage. Where do we go to set this up on the east coast? CA
wouldn’t a forest fire destroy your plastic water storage tanks?
How is your new property in Texas?
Have you installed groundwater recharging "pits" (not sure what the system is called)? Using the rain to recharge the water table could reduce the water requirements.
Yo dude! This is David W from Baker Creek. hit me up man! I miss you, friend!
❤❤❤❤
What is the best way to make biochar? I have a lot of brush to burn but then you are left with powder white. Maybe the fires out west will make biocharf they did not burn so hot to make white powder
How do get the water in those tanks? I'm not seeing any roofs?
LOVE YOU Life more abounding!!!