Earth Care

From the research section, it has become apparent that setting up a water harvesting system is going to involve a fair selection of additional equipment, specific to the design I choose. Most if not all of this equipment will be plastic, including barrels, fittings, and pipes. Plastic is not the best material for the environment, it’s certainly not sustainable but this is one of those times the benefits out way the negative side of things. Plastic is certainly a very useful material and when it comes to moving water around it comes into its own. Due to the location where the plastic will be used, I expect to get a long shelf life out of it all. There is no reason why any equipment should get damaged, it will also be able to be kept maintained and cleaned regularly.

Harvesting a natural resource that will be used to grow food from an existing roof where the rainwater would have been going to waste adds value to building such a system. It also enables the garden to become more sustainable by not having to be reliant on a water source (tap water) that would be better used elsewhere. We also need to remember tap water comes with a huge impact on the environment through its collection, processing, and distribution.     

People care

Along with harvesting rainwater so it can be stored to water the garden, having the equipment set up and running in times of emergency the stored rainwater may also be used in the house for cooking, washing, or drinking. I have a Berkley water filter that would be used if I needed to drink the stored water.

Having a rainwater harvesting system that aesthetically fits into the garden will be beneficial to avoid complaints from neighbours. The solution I’ve chosen looks tidy and can be placed in a location to not upset.

Fair share

The addition of a large birdbath in the front garden will provide the garden birds with an extra area to drink and bath, in the back garden, are two small wildlife ponds used by many birds and small creatures to fulfil their water needs. All these water stations will be filled and topped up with rainwater.

Before I can set up a water harvesting system, I need to have a solid foundation I can build the system on. This goes for both the front and back gardens. Water stored in bulk weighs a lot, and the need for a level area to stand the system on is paramount.

The front garden

This year 2021 I will be doing a full redesign of the kitchen garden, incorporated into this design will be an area where I can set up a water harvesting system. The location is going to be pretty much dictated by the location of the downpipe from the roof.

Below is the layout of the final design of the kitchen garden upgrade. In the bottom left of this plan you can see the location of where I have placed a water butt, this is next to the downpipe and will be the area in 2022 where the water harvesting system will be located. This area will be levelled and covered with gravel ready for the system to be built.

The back garden

As with the front garden, the downpipe from the roof will also dictate the location of the water harvesting system in the back garden.

Here I will need to clear away any tat and level the area ready for the following year when I will be setting up the water harvesting system. As you can see from the below photograph taken at the beginning of April 2021, this area needs a little thought as to what I want this space to end up looking like and what it will be used for other than just the location for the water system.

In year two I will be building a watering harvesting system in both the front and back gardens.

In the following section, I will map out the ideas I have decided open and layout the design which I will build this spring.

Equipment

Additional equipment that I will need to purchase will be

2x 230L water butts including stand - cost £68 each = £136

1x water butt stand for existing 100L water butt - cost £12

30 metres of 25mm PVC black flexible reinforced hose - cost £43

2 metres of 32mm PVC black flexible reinforced hose - cost £10

10x 25mm barbed hose tail, water butt overflow connector - cost £50

Pack of 20 double wire hose clips – cost £12

Set of 3 step drill bits – cost £13

2x 3P Filter Collector Universal, Rainwater Diverter, and Filter with link kit – cost £52 each = £104

1x pack 100 cable ties – Cost £3.50

Total Cost £383.50

Existing equipment

2x 220L plastic ex-food barrels (gifted)

1x 100L water butt (gifted)

The plan for this garden is to add a water diverter to the downpipe which will then pipe water into a new 230L water butt situated next to the downpipe, this butt will have an overflow into a second water butt, the 220L plastic ex-food barrel which will be sat next to the first butt, once full this butt will have an overflow into a third water butt, the other 220L plastic ex-food barrel. This third water butt will be located around 5 metres away so will involve running the water through a 25mm PVC black flexible reinforced hose along the fence and then into the water butt. Lastly, this third butt will have an overflow pipe using a 25mm PVC black flexible reinforced hose that can be placed into one of the three growing beds located near it during the growing season. In winter when the system is full the downpipe water collector can be turned off.

Did you manage to follow that! the images below will help to understand how I vision it looking.

For the back garden, the plan is to add the diverter to the downpipe and send the water into the new 230L water butt, once full this butt will have an overflow into the 100L water butt. When this water butt is full the overflow will be taken through a 25mm PVC black flexible reinforced hose along the side fence, then down across the fence at the end of the garden, before coming back into the top end of the garden to a growing bed. This bed is the highest part of this side of the garden so the intention is that the overflow water will come into this bed and then spread out using the slope of the garden into the soils below.

The photographs below show how I see the watering system will look.

Additional water storage

After a full growing season behind me working with the rainwater harvesting design, that I designed and implemented in year two, I now should understand if the number of water butts in this design was enough or whether I need to think about adding additional butts.

Overflows

The overflow in the back garden is certainly an experiment, now in year three after a growing season watching how this overflow worked and how much extra water came into the garden, I will now be able to decide if it was worthwhile.

If it was, I may consider digging some drainage pipe into the top of the bed that the overflow water comes into, to help spread the water over a larger area of soil.

I’m not expecting very much overflow from the front garden water butts into the raised beds but again some tweaking may also be needed to improve what I originally set up.

It will be important to take notes on the performance of each of the rainwater harvesting systems during the season so I can refer back and gain a greater understanding of what needs tweaking.  

Due to the amount of plastic equipment I need to buy for this design it only makes sense to keep everything clean and in good working order, this will help the system to perform at its best along with helping to get the longest possible use out of all the equipment I have bought.

Cleaning the diverter water filters – this will need to be monitored regularly, heavy rain will continuously send moss from the house roof, down into the gutter and the downpipe. The front is the only side of the house that has moss growing on the roof but it will be wise to clean both the back and front at the same time, otherwise, the back may end up getting cleaned far less than needed.

Water butts – When appropriate these should be emptied and cleaned. Out of season when less water is needed and when rain is forecast would be a good time. Cleaning before the rain will give the water butts time to fill up again when the rain comes.

Pipes and fittings – these need to be kept free of blockages and where possible removed and cleaned.