by Texas Homesteader ~
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The heat & humidity here in Texas during a typical summer can create some gardening challenges. And in our area of NE Texas, we’ve been in drought conditions for several years in a row. It can feel like an expensive losing battle to keep your garden watered.

But I don’t pay for treated water to irrigate my gardens. They’re all watered with harvested rainwater. Come see three rainwater harvesting systems that work best for us.

Keeping Water Requirements Low

First of all I’m careful to make sure my plants are mulched heavily to conserve water & protect against heat. Sometimes I use living mulch such as a squash or pumpkin vine, similar to a 3-Sister’s Garden. And sometimes I use spent hay from the hay rings or even the deteriorated straw from the bales I keep around my grapevine. But whatever method I use, I make sure to keep that soil covered.

Thankfully that means most years – even in drought – I’m able to keep the garden going using the 3 rainwater catchment systems we have in place.

NOTE: Now here in NE Texas it’s perfectly legal and oftentimes encouraged to capture & use rainwater. But from what I understand there are some areas/states that don’t allow it for whatever reason. So be sure to check with your local government & make sure it’s allowed before you proceed with any rainwater catchment system.

Underground Cement Cistern

My vegetable garden measures about 40′ x 20′. I can’t stand the thought of commercially-treated water pumped miles to reach our home just to be dropped onto the ground. So I keep my garden irrigated & productive using only captured rainwater.

A 20-ft deep cement cistern was already here when we built our house. So we decided to put it to good use! One of our home’s main downspouts was tapped & rainwater from the roof is sent through an underground pipe to the cistern.

To retrieve the water RancherMan obtained a small 1 hp *shallow-well jet pump. That gives me decent pressure for the water coming out of the deep cistern. Then I just run a water hose to my garden. I use a spray nozzle to direct the water precisely where I need it.

Sometimes you’ve got to know when to give up though. When yet another drought hits & I run out of water in the cistern, I just have to admit that it’s a losing battle this season. When that happens I let the big garden go for the rest of the summer. I’ve already preserved the bounty and often replant for a fall garden anyway. So that gives me something to look forward to as the garden slips away to the death-grips of drought.

Inexpensive 55-Gallon Food-Safe Barrel

We also have a Porch Addition that I landscaped with large galvanized troughs planted with pretty edibles. My edible landscape garden is irrigated with water from one of two different rain catchment containers we keep.

One of our backyard water catchment systems is just an inexpensive 55-gallon barrel that has an inlet from a downspout and a spigot for a water hose. We set it up on cinder blocks so there would be a gravity-feed ease for it.

I also placed a huge 40-gallon open-top tub next to it to catch the overflow for even more rainwater when the barrel is full. (I dip a watering can into it).

Galvanized Trough Rainwater Catchment

The other backyard rainwater catchment is actually part of our back porch addition. It’s a 100 gallon water trough connected to another downspout.

I added feeder goldfish to the trough to keep mosquito larva away. They only cost about $0.30 each and I enjoy them so much. Time will tell if they are successful at keeping mosquitos away.

If harvested water runs out I’ll often use gray water to keep the container gardens watered. But typically during the spring those bad boys fill & I have water for a long time, even during drought. And any little 1/2″ or so rain will fill them up again!

So that’s how 100% of our outside irrigation is rainwater. (or gray water during prolonged drought.) None of the systems are fancy or expensive, but they all work great to keep our gardens watered with free, untreated water!

~TxH~

Links In This Post

• A Symbiotic Planting Strategy: 3-Sisters Garden
• Using Natural Materials In The Garden To Conserve Moisture
• *Inexpensive Shallow-Well Jet Pump
• Landscaping On The CHEAP!

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