Water harvesting system

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Revision as of 20:03, 25 January 2012 by Peggy Brennan (Talk | contribs) (Additional Points)

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To fully understand our philosophies on water and our research into our water harvesting systems, please see our Natural Water System - Drainage and Harvesting page. This page is intended to describe the water systems as they were set up.


Water Harvesting for Gardens

  • Our water plan divides the roof into sections to have the water go to where it can be stored, used or placed into the drainage fields for the plants around to use.

Natural water system.png

Goal

Our goal is to use NO water from the city system for plants at the Green Garage.

Storage / Usage

Our water harvesting plan calls for the following storage tanks:

  • 500 gallon tank on the roof of the building above the 3-season room at 12 feet high. It will act as the water supply for the front of the building and into the alley. The pressure will be approximately 20 psi (normal city water supply is in the 40 - 60psi range).
  • A 1,200 gallon tank under the parking lot for parking lot and front garden plants.
  • A rain barrel in the greenhouse to take care of the greenhouse plants.
  • A rain barrel in the back yard to help with the back and alley.

Water Distribution

We are currently planning to move the harvested water around the site to the point of use with minimal use of power. The specific plans are:

  • Front / Parking Area / Wall Gardens - will use a hose attached to the parking lot tank in the parking lot of the building. We will attach a pump to the tank to assist delivery of water.
  • Back yard / Alley - will be from the rooftop cistern and a rain barrel in the back yard.
  • Garden Workshop / Garden Roof - the water will come from faucets connected to the rain barrels. It will go into buckets / watering cans that will be carried to where it's needed.
  • Greenhouse - Water will be distributed from the rain barrel with watering cans or buckets.

Design Areas

  • rooftop cistern (for front gardens, parking lot area and alley - can we use this for rooftop plants?)
  • parking lot cistern (for front gardens and parking lot area)
  • back yard rain barrels (for back yard and alley)
  • rain barrel in greenhouse (for greenhouse plants and other indoor plants)
  • rooftop rain barrels (for rooftop plants if can't use cistern)

Materials Needed

  • rain barrel construction items?
  • more or different pumps?

Annual Maintenance Routine

  • consider drainage each fall
  • parking lot tank will need to be cleaned each year

See also