Garden smart: Harvest rain and pick right plants
I must admit that despite the naysayers, I prefer to focus on what we as gardeners can do during this extended drought to have healthy sustainable gardens. So I was not surprised to hear that garden design firms like Fockele Garden Co., based in Gainesville, have been installing drought-tolerant landscapes for the past five years. This includes soil preparation and careful plant selection. They have also installed rainwater harvesting systems that can be used to irrigate the gardens they design and plant. Rainwater harvesting is not a new concept. Historically, people in dry climates have been collecting water in buckets, barrels and cisterns for years. Given our extended drought and the forecast for the future, Georgia gardeners need to re-evaluate their approach to gardening, which includes not only cultural techniques but the plants we grow and the best use of our precious water. After talking with landscape designer Julie Evans of Fockele Garden, I am excited about the possibilities of using a cistern in my own garden. For me, it seems like a good investment, since I plan to garden for many years. Typically, cisterns are large-capacity containers or storage tanks for holding rainwater (or water that is trucked in) that comes off the roof. They can be above or below ground and are made out of many different materials including, but not limited to, high-density food-grade polyethylene, fiberglass, concrete and stainless steel. For one client, Fockele put in a rainwater harvesting system that has the capacity to collect 2,400 gallons of water, (two 1,200 gallons tanks above ground). For rain harvesting, all the downspouts flow into the tanks, which are located downhill from the house and screened off from view with a wooden fence. The water for the backyard, where the tanks are located, is gravity feed. A pump is used to move water to the front yard as needed. The tanks all have overflow valves if they get too full.
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