Rainwater Harvesting

How to Develop a Rainwater Harvest Plan For Your Own Property

Learn how to keep rainwater from ponding next to your house and other structures, and route it towards plants that need the water. This will prevent water damage to your structures and reduce your reliance on pumped groundwater to water your plants.

The presentation will focus on how to assess your home for flooding risk, and plan where to put rainwater harvesting features to route stormwater away from structures and towards areas of your yard where it can sit and infiltrate. Besides rain barrels and rain gardens, rainwater harvesting features can include:

• creating berms of earth topped with dense plantings to direct stormwater or provide a barrier around structures
• using plastic drain pipes or paved paths to route stormwater to places where it can infiltrate
• using rocks to slow water down to prevent erosion.
• increasing the water holding capacity of your soil by adding organic matter and mulch.

The presentation will be followed by a tour of the rainwater demonstration features outside the Sweetwater Cafe.

Afterwards, anyone who is interested can sign up to join a Rainwater Harvesting Club whose members will meet at the Cafe on Sundays to discuss your own properties and receive advice from Diane Willis, a Certified Rainwater Harvesting Practitioner.

If there is enough interest, we can meet monthly, or Zoom online, to discuss our properties and learn how to harvest rainwater. Potentially, members could meet at each other’s properties to help install rainwater harvesting features. Diane has special tools for installing rain barrels (like hole saws) that she could share.