Water Catchment: Collecting All that Rain

Ways to collect rain water.

  • Topic: Watering
  • Author: Cindy Bellinger
  • Keywords: water, Watering
  • Date: July 2004

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Plants love rainwater, as you’ve undoubtedly noticed after a storm. They just perk up and look so happy.

But if you never think it rains in Santa Fe, even in a drought, until it starts raining, and then you chastise yourself for not catching some of that water—well, there’s nothing like getting prepared now for the next deluge.

In Santa Fe it’s not illegal to construct cistern or other water catchment mechanisms within the city, and it can be as simple as setting a bucket under a downspout or as complicated as an entire system that hooks into a 1,000 gallon tank.

A few years ago David Salman, chief horticulturist at Santa Fe Greenhouses, installed a water harvesting system at the nursery. Water runs off the sloping roofs of five large cold frames, which then filters through gravel into a slotted tank system. The holding capacity is 42,000 gallons.

“Catching water is long overdue,” Salman said, “and I’m glad we’re finally using this available resource. Rain is scarce in Santa Fe and anyway you can store some of it will help with the water problems here.”

The most common water catchment system for homeowners is rain barrels. Here at Santa Fe Greenhouses we have several different sizes and colors and they all have spigots at the bottom to attach hoses to. All have overflow valves, which makes them easy to put into a system.

They also have screens on top to keep debris out. The screens also keep mosquitoes from breeding in the standing water. Barrel sizes range from 50, 75, 100, 200 gallons, but the stock on hand changes.

Typically a barrel needs to be raised higher than the ground it will water. Set a barrel on a stack of cinder blocks, two or three high, under a downspout.

The approximate roof runoff calculates into this: about five inches of rain produces 3.1 gallons per square foot. The average annual rainfall for the surrounding areas is as follows: Santa Fe, 13.99 inches; Pecos, 16.21 inches; Espanola, 10.12 inches, Albuquerque, 8.66 inches, Los Alamos, 18.53 inches.

Other things to consider-

  • the natural drip line of trees when planting in yards. Water is designed to drop off the tips of needles and leaves so the roots will absorb the moisture. It’s a natural drip system.
  • maintaining a two-inch mulch in your garden and making sure the ground can absorb the water when it does rain.

From buckets to cisterns catching water is the garden-wise thing to do.