We live amid natural abundance that can be made even more
abundant just by using what we already have for free. If you can see
it, you can plant and grow it.
Let's begin with water. Even in my dry hometown of Tucson,
Ariz., (and most other communities in the United States) in a year of
average rainfall more rain falls on the surface area of the community
than all its citizens consume of utility water in that same year.
Nonetheless, 30 to 70 percent of the drinking water consumed by the
typical American household is used to irrigate landscapes.
Rainwater is the best water for our plants and soil. It is free
of the salts common in our groundwater and imported surface
waters, which build up in irrigated soil and impede plants' ability
to photosynthesize and utilize water. Rainwater is a natural fertilizer,
containing sulfur, beneficial microorganisms, mineral nutrients, and
nitrogen. And it's free.
Nonetheless, we drain the vast majority of that high-quality
rainwater (along with precious topsoil and other sources of fertility
picked up by the runoff) out of our communities almost as quickly
as it arrives. This occurs via mound-like landscapes, soil scraped
and raked bare, excessive paving, and our streets and storm drains.
We then turn around and pay to import water from elsewhere. This
further dehydrates us in dry times, increases flooding in wet times,
and costs more money in all times. What are we thinking?
This unnaturally exposed soil and pavement — along with the
sun-baked exterior walls of our homes, schools, and other buildings
— then drain still more water by absorbing the heat of the sun
during the day and re-radiating that heat back out at night, increasing
summer temperatures by up to 10 degrees Fahrenheit, which leads to
another statistic that may shock you — but which can also empower
you: In dryland communities, and during the dry seasons of wet-
climate communities, more water is lost to evaporation than is gained
by rainfall. For example, Tucson's average annual rainwater income/
gain is about 11 inches of rain a year. But its potential water loss to
evaporation is about 100 inches per year. The more temperatures
increase, the greater the evaporative loss.
Use this information to act, and enhance life with six steps:
1. Improve your water gain by planting the rain before you plant
any vegetation. (Or plant the rain beside vegetation if the plants are
already in the ground.) Plant the rain within bowl-like — as opposed
16 January/February 2015 Landscape and Irrigation www.landscapeirrigation.com
Go with the Flow
Irrigation and Water Management
Planting the rain, and more,
to grow abundance
■ by Brad Lancaster
Scarcity path. Draining of rain, fertility, and potential.
Reproduced with permission from "Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and
beyond, Volume 2"
Abundance path. Planting of rain, fertility, and potential.
Reproduced with permission from "Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and
beyond, Volume 2"
