The Rainwater Harvesting System

For the first couple of years that we have lived and gardened here, we have used water from our well as primary irrigation source and the occasional raindrop as the secondary source. My wife has pushed to have a rainwater harvesting system for some time now and I have finally come around to favoring the idea.

My resistance to rainwater harvesting was due to the expense of setting up a system and the usefulness of a system. What I mean by usefulness is...if it is raining enough to keep a good supply of water in the tanks than we really will not need to be watering much anyway...if it is NOT raining much and refilling the tanks than we will probably run out and still need to water with well water. Also, if it isn't raining very often (which seems to be the normal around here) I really want the runoff to be watering my lawn area and house foundation area and not filling up rainwater tanks.

Solutions to the above problems have been reached. Right now anyway, we do not have the house hooked up to any collection system so the rainfall on the house still waters things as it always has. The collection areas we are using are from the greenhouse roof (55 gal) the garden shed (55 gal - but we will add more tanks here) and from the larger side of the barn's metal roof (1600 gal).

Price for the tanks and materials was about $1200. The biggest expense was the large tank...the "Black Monster" with its 90" diameter and 68" height...followed by the cost of the guttering.

To fill the 1600 gallon tank only requires about 2.7" of rainfall over the 33' by 30' metal roof. To fill the 55 gallon plastic drum on the greenhouse only requires about 1.7" of rain and even less than that to fill the one off the shed. Hopefully we will get enough sporadic showers and storms to keep us watering through the summers here in the parched area we live...and garden.

UPDATE 3/12/2009: Well, we had a nice rain event. 2.9" in our gauge so far, rain still in the forecast. And, it filled the 1600 gallon tank! What fabulous timing.

The Beds

We live in a rural area of west Texas. The land that we live upon is mostly rock and clay or clay loam where the scant decent soil does exist. So, gardening takes a little effort and much of our gardening effort has been towards creating raised beds. At the current time we have five raised beds for our vegetable growing. All of them are filled with "imported" soils.


The first and oldest raised bed is also the largest. It measures about 35' in length and 8' in width and at its highest is about 2' tall. It is constructed of cement blocks and faced with mortared flagstone and all-in-all is a very attractive bed. It is filled with mixtures of sandy loam, sandy "top soil" and various composted amendments. With my handy-dandy Rapitest pH meter I measure the pH of the mix at around 7.5, which is roughly the same as the native soils in the area, and a little higher than I would ideally like it to be for veggie growing.

The second bed is constructed of a single row of concrete blocks, mortared in place and capped with concrete pavers. We took some leftover concrete floor stain from our house construction and prettied the bed up a little giving it a fair color match to the other raised beds, and to get rid of that plain concrete look. This bed is filled with more of the above described mixture, plus bags of top soil and composted cow manure.

Beds three, four and five and a rocked composting area were built of limestone. They are of various dimension and shapes and probably total 350 to 400 square feet. We filled these beds with a different mix...one that was called "planting mix", purchased from a place that sells stone, mulch, compost and such. It really looked awesome as the two dump trucks were delivering the small mountain to us. But the first growing season was dismal in those beds. Maybe it was still too "green" and needed a year to break down more.

In the works are beds six, seven and maybe eight. These will be outside of our fenced backyard, which is of questionable logic given that deer reside all around us. They will be built with rock taken off of our property and mortared in place. I am thinking they will be something like 8' wide by about 30' in length and will serve to grow the stuff that takes more room, such as melons and beans. I am going to try and use about half native soil/dirt and half "imported" to keep the cost reasonable. But, a lot of work to accomplish between now and filling it with dirt.

The Shed

The garden shed is built in a style that is similar to our house. We hired the framer that built our house to come out and do the framing of the building and put on the Hardy siding. We did the initial and final dirt work, built the foundation, did the concrete work and the painting and the roofing. The size of the building is about 10' by 12' enclosed and then it also has a smallish covered porch with cedar support posts.

The flooring inside was originally dirt, no solid concrete. My wife installed concrete pavers instead and filled the gaps with sand. The floor works well for a garden building.

The south side of the building has two large windows, and there are individual smaller windows on the east and west sides. The idea for the large south facing windows was that this building could function somewhat as a greenhouse, which it did the first year we had it.

We had an electrician come and run power to the shed and to our greenhouse. It cost a few bucks, but it is nice to have the light in the shed and the power in the greenhouse is a necessity for running a space heater to overwinter plants and veggies. The power is also handy for running the small aquarium-type air compressor that I use to brew compost tea.

Inside the shed is the usual garden stuff...shovels, rakes etc, and also shelving for seeds, sprays and sprayers, small tools, and the miscellaneous stuff you might need in gardening. We also have a potting table and several bags of purchased potting mixes, top soils, composts and mulches that we draw from for potting up the various plants we have around.

The Greenhouse

OK, so my wife wanted a greenhouse. I have to admit, I really didn't want one in the beginning, but I have really come to enjoy the thing, though the road to where we are today has been a test of patience.

The greenhouse is a Rion, and is the Prestige model, 8'6" by 12' with 8' of interior height. I DO NOT recommend this greenhouse or any Rion for that matter. They are of plastic construction, which we knew, and even though they come with a 7 year warranty, at least in my opinion thusfar, of questionable durability.

We received the greenhouse in December of 2007. It took me a day to prepare and level the site we had selected. It took about another two and one-half days to fully construct the greenhouse...the first time.

It seems that my wife told me, or that I read, that the Rion greenhouses were supposed to withstand winds of 75 mph. Well, a windy thunderstorm a couple of months after construction must have had 76 mph winds. The greenhouse puffed up like a big balloon and we found pieces scattered for nearly a quarter mile downwind. After examining the remains we determined that the foundation that was provided with the kit was the most likely reason for the failure.

The foundation that they gave us consisted of black interlocking plastic pieces about three feet in length by maybe 6" or 8" tall and 2" deep and open on one side creating a "C" shape. The pieces are buried into the ground to nearly the top with the idea being the weight of the dirt piled into the "C" portion and piled against the plastic members will create a stable foundation. One Texas thunderstorm proved that that foundation design was meant for more peaceful climes than the one where we reside.

So, we took down what was left standing and ditched the black plastic fiasco of a foundation. Instead we switched to what we should have done in the first place - concrete footers. I dug post holes at each corner and in the mddle of each side and also added one under the front doors. I dug the trenches anywhere from 8" to about one foot deep and about 8"-10" in width. We also elected to construct a smallish porch area. I added rebar to the whole thing and we called out a concrete truck and filled 'er up. We got greenboard 2x4's and bolted them to the concrete to serve as our new foundation. If this sucker fails now, it will not be due to the foundation.

The reconstruction went very quickly and we had it back up in less than a day. Now the biggest issue is the front doors. Again, this issue has to do with wind. If the wind blows hard from either the north or the south, which it always does where we live, the doors can and will blow open from the cheesily designed door stops that came with the kit. After an attempt at bolstering the design with some wood pieces screwed into the threshold, it was quickly determind that the easiest remedy is a 5 gallon bucket filled with rocks and placed in front of the door at the end of the day...

So, my bottom line is, I love the greenhouse for what it offers...that being a place to grow a few winter veggies that I wouldn't be able to otherwise, overwinter plants and to get an earlier start on spring gardening through seeding and growing plants in the dead of winter. It is really nice to go out on a cold, sunny winter day and step into the greenhouse's 80 degree warmth. But, if I had it to do over again, I would shell out a few dollars more and get one with a metal frame and at least partially of glass construction. I think for the long term that would pay off.