Water Salvage and Conservation
by Blue Fox
Rain barrel with hand pump
On our little homestead in the southern interior of British Columbia the summers can be long and hot, with very little rainfall. To collect as much free water as possible for our organic vegetable garden and extensive landscaping we capture any rainfall in barrels and buckets under eaves and downspouts on the many sheds. A small old fashioned hand pump will fill watering cans, and a gravity system on another barrel will top up the fish pond. We've also been known to move snow around to water mulch beds as it melts, and making rivers in the driveway to direct heavy rainfall and snowmelt to gardens is a favorite activity. |
