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Post by feather on Jun 15, 2020 14:28:20 GMT
I saw this picture.
And thought about how much water comes out of our downspouts, A LOT, and all at once. I don't know if this is a good idea or not. What do you think about it?
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Post by Deleted on Jun 15, 2020 14:41:53 GMT
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Post by mogal on Jun 15, 2020 14:44:04 GMT
How very clever. I would remove the rocks and add holes for drainage into each group of plants. I would open the end and extend it past the bed into a barrel to catch excess water for later. I wonder if a very low angle incline would allow the water to drain yet leave extra in the trough to prevent overflow. Just a thought.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 15, 2020 14:46:45 GMT
feather, PS I don't see your picture?
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Post by feather on Jun 15, 2020 15:17:18 GMT
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Post by farmerjack on Jun 15, 2020 15:23:45 GMT
Great idea. Just don't try that if you live in the state of Washington. The first state has declared that water falling from the sky belongs to them. You are not allowed to catch or use it. Dummies. Dummies!
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Post by Deleted on Jun 15, 2020 15:49:29 GMT
Very nice set up for a small roof area.
I think that would fall under feast or famine. Our YTD rainfall is 10.5 inches (not counting snowfall) That works out 9000+ gallons in maybe 4 months. That is a LOT of water for a 2x8 garden. You would need to work out HOW much water you will be getting and plan from there.
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Post by feather on Jun 15, 2020 15:55:32 GMT
farmerjack, that's terrible. How is that practically enforced? Do they inspect your property and hand out tickets? @thewolf, it would have to be put on a decline of some type, maybe adjustable decline with buckets at the bottom. I don't know. We get 32 inches of rain per year. I'd have to do some calculations on the square footage (at an angle) of the roof that drains into that downspout. And start from there. (we have 4 or more downspouts)
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Post by Maura on Jun 15, 2020 16:14:30 GMT
We have a catchment system, two actually. We call them ponds. Might not work for everyone.
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Post by solargeek on Jun 15, 2020 16:45:52 GMT
We built the house with a white metal roof and tied all covered gutters into a drainage system that goes to our man-made pond (1.5-2 acres depending on the season) -- man-made by the county decades before we bought here.
We thought we would use it to water the garden (7500 sq ft) and had the original yard scape include a pipe to pump it from the pond to the garden. BUT then we decided to stock it with fish and noticed a LOT of algae blooms so not using it as watering. We don't need bacteria/algae growth in the garden.
But now our pontoon in on there at a new pier and we float and troll (trolling motor) and will fish in fall and spring.
So best ideas not always the best in practice.
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Post by feather on Jun 15, 2020 17:01:10 GMT
solargeek, I thought bacteria/algae was good for gardens.
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Post by feather on Jun 15, 2020 17:01:56 GMT
We have a catchment system, two actually. We call them ponds. Might not work for everyone. I wish we had that kind of space.
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Post by mogal on Jun 15, 2020 17:10:53 GMT
mogal , I'm married to someone that loves his raised beds and he's good at putting those things together. We have one down spout that is in a bad place, between the top edge of the driveway but gets in the way if someone wants to walk to the front door. If we put in a raised bed it would be MORE in the way but no one would try to pole vault over it. (or run over the spout with a bike, or hit it by accident with a mower, or trip up a delivery person) Nope, don't want to create a hazard for delivery people, but Miss Feather, darlin', you didn't include any info re: location or Mr. Feather's fixation on such things. I just responded to what I saw in the picture and your question about viewers' thoughts on it. We too have places where one like this would be a royal pain in the neck and only one where it might be even vaguely useful. I say vaguely since our place isn't convenient to tend or harvest and might put excess water where it definitely would be a problem. That said, I think an arrangement like your picture would be very handy beside a patio.
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Post by solargeek on Jun 15, 2020 17:23:22 GMT
solargeek , I thought bacteria/algae was good for gardens. No, many pond algae, like blue/green, are hamful and since we water from spray watering (sprinklers and such), these would fall on the plant leaves and fruits (strawberries, tomatoes, peas beans) we want to eat! We don't water from below for many reasons. If only the roots were getting it, maybe ok.
homeguides.sfgate.com/information-using-pond-water-plants-54265.html
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Post by feather on Jun 15, 2020 17:24:21 GMT
mogal, I didn't explain it well. The current downspout has a long section going out into the lawn, that is a hazard that gets beat up every year, which we could avoid if we put in a little raised bed like the one in the picture. We have already decided to move the area which would be a walk way from the driveway to the front door, moving it down the driveway a bit, and then the walkway would move people from the driveway and on an angle to the front door. (instead of straight from the garage to the front door) Mr Feather loves the idea and loved the picture. He thinks it would be handy to have a barrel INSIDE the raised bed at the top, with hoses coming out the bottom as well, like the wolf, to water the plants along the front of the house (without running the front spiket)
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Post by feather on Jun 15, 2020 17:25:41 GMT
solargeek, I never knew that about pond scum/algae.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 15, 2020 17:38:41 GMT
feather, If you have Google Earth you can figure out the SQ FT of anything. Here is our pole barn.
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Post by Skandi on Jun 15, 2020 17:57:08 GMT
If you don't know how.. open google maps, find your property right click on a corner of your roof and then pick the bottom option "Measure distance" click each corner as you go round, when you close up the shape it will tell you the area. 826,64 m² (8.897,87 ft²) Is what it tells me for my barn which is about 40m2 to little according to the plans but close enough for this use. I could never do the little box thing as we get 25 inches of rain a year and even if the tank was only taking 1/4 of that water... eeks!
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Post by Jolly on Jun 15, 2020 18:39:26 GMT
Wonder what system would look like after a good four inch rain.
Which we have several of, every year.
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Post by midtnmama on Jun 15, 2020 20:35:36 GMT
I remember reading once that around 1900 all homes in Pasadena, CA had gravity fed water catchment systems on the roof (ala petticoat junction). Within 10 years almost none had this because city water was piped in. Think about the waste of water. Around here, older homes, especially in the country had underground water catchment. These were all filled in when city water came in. We catch water off the roof. Ten minutes of a light rain yields 150 gallons.
When we allow nonstop development that does not include trees and shrubs we shouldn't wonder why there isn't moisture rising to the clouds.
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Post by feather on Jun 15, 2020 20:38:03 GMT
@thewolf , Skandi , you two are google earth freaks, I love it. okay the area of the roof going to that down spout is 333 square feet. Rainfall per year is 32 inches. We have 123 days of precipitation. 32 inches divided by day of precipitation is .26 inches. I love math.....I might need a refresher course. So one rainy day can bring, how much water through that downspout? Rainwater collection calculator says 6,638.688 gallons for the year...divided by 123 the average water collected would be 54 gallons (potentially double that, and half that depending on the raininess). I don't know if this is true, but in order to raise a crop, each yard of soil needs 40 liters of water. Does anyone know if this is true? (I got this from an unreliable source.) Edit: It needs approximately 0.68 inches of water per square foot per week, and we get about 20 weeks of garden here. This might be helpful IF we were going to use the water catchment for crops. Maybe in the future we might figure that out.
Front middle down spout: 54 gallons per rain. Back middle down spout: 54 gallons.
Front east down spout: slightly less than 50 gallons. Front west down spout: 100+ gallons per rain. Back west down spout: 100+ gallons per rain.
Gardens are all south, and slightly downhill, which is good.
More edits: Our gardens needs .623 gallons of water per square foot per week. 1246 gallons of water for 2000 square feet (approx)/week. 178 gallons /day.
The water is pumped out of the well at 20 cups/minute or 1.25 gallons /minute. Watering will take 140 minutes per day for the 20 weeks (140 days) of summer during garden season. (without rain)
The front and back west downspouts together give 24000 gallons per year. The 2000 sq ft gardens need 25000 gallons of water per year minimum. The cost of 4 or 8 (50-70 gallon barrels), tubing/hoses, fixtures to put tubing/hose into barrels, pedestals built into the ground, fencing around them to hide them is: $something. How long will it take to recoup the cost of wear and tear on the well, well pump, and the kilowatt hours of pumping well water for 15hrs/week for 20 weeks:?
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Post by willowgirl on Jun 17, 2020 11:15:15 GMT
Those tomato plants certainly look happy!
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Post by Deleted on Jun 17, 2020 11:56:52 GMT
If you have a bit of room you might look around your area for this: 1,100 Gallon Vertical Storage TankIt could be a whole lot cheaper then the blue barrels! There is one at the local TSC, it been there for some time. Come the end of Fall I am going to ask them to make a deal I can't refuse.
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Post by feather on Jun 17, 2020 13:36:46 GMT
I see the vertical tank is $599 at F&F and $799 at TSC.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 17, 2020 14:28:54 GMT
feather, I priced the one at TSC it was 1200 gallon, and was quoted at $550( and some change). I don't trust their website so much.
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Post by farmchix on Jun 17, 2020 14:31:12 GMT
I was able to get some IBC totes from a local distillery. We haven't gotten them set up yet, but will be collecting from the two barns.
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Post by Ken on Jun 20, 2020 13:48:19 GMT
Bear in mind that if you don't cover (or use dark paint on) the ibc tanks, you will get algae growth in it. That's not necessarily a problem if the water is for gardening, but it will begin to look unsightly after a time. Edit: example pic
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