Rain gardens

[jonsey/downunder]

Hi Glenn
Thanks for the comment on my wed page; it's mostly a bit of fun and a sort of a diary of my progress. It also saves me a lot of emails, keeping my Family up to date on what I'm up to. If it's of any use to anyone else that's a bonus.
I found the rain garden idea by accident when searching for information on rain chains. They seem to be quite well established in the US particularly in Michigan, Minnesota, and Maryland. Here is a link to one site that I found helpful. http://www.raingardens.org/Index.php
They don't seem to have caught on here, although I have seen the odd one about. Probably built more by accident, than by design.
Inland Australia has a big water problem, most of it suffers from drought pretty much all of the time. Our area is no exception. On the local news today they where talking about moving a small town just 180kms north of here. They have been trucking water to the 200 residents for the last 12 months; they are running out of money and a close supply of water for that town. We have been in a drought declared area for the last 7 years, most of the time we are on water restrictions. Our normal annual rainfall is about 350mm (14"), so you can see that any water savings are worthwhile. The norm here is to run all of the storm water into the gutters and then into the river. I suspect this is common practice in most towns and city's.
I wanted to use my greywater on site as well, but the local Shire is not to keen on that Idea. However, I think I can work out that problem given time. I will be making provision for it in my plumbing setout. I would also like to have some sort of rainwater tanks for drinking water, but don't have the room for large tanks. Another problem to work on at some stage.
jonesy

[glenn kangiser]

You could make custom rainwater storage tanks from ferrocrete.  The outside could look like big landscaping rocks while the inside could hold thousands of gallons of water.  Ferrocrete is several layers of poultry netting wired together covered with a strong mix of sand cement plaster, well forced into the wire.  The strongest tanks would of course be round but you could make curving walls that would also be quite strong.  Jute landscape erosion control netting is cheap,makes good stucco lath and could be used to fill out the non tank areas.  It does not deteriorate in the concrete where it is off the ground and able to dry.  Buildings are made from it in India per Ken Kern.  Ken also made a custom hot tub out of ferrocrete.  You would probably have to seal the inside to be safe, however since ferrocrete has a stronger mix of cement than stucco it is more waterproof.  There are books on ferrocrete storage tanks.

My brother has made large ferrocrete rocks.  He used cement coloring to make them look realistic.

Glenn

[Amanda_931]

The Australian permaculture guys (where the concept started!) have been doing some pretty amazing stuff with low-water gardening.  You might check out their site-there's a video on growing fig trees without irrigation in Jordan.

An odd story turned up in on Planet Ark last night--did early Europeans change the plant life, and therefore the climate in Oz enough that the monsoons don't go inland?

Here's the permaculture link.

http://www.permaculture.org.au/

There are a couple of different kinds of greywater usage.  Some are pretty low-tech--e.g., washing dishes in a dish-pan, not a sink, and tossing the water out onto the flowers.  Just a thought.   It's true that the real systems often don't use kitchen sink water at all.

[glenn kangiser]

Sink water can be cleaned up with a grease trap set up like a very small septic tank that is cleaned periodically, leaving cleaner water to go to a sand filter or other greywater system.

Here is a link to some interesting info.

http://www.oasisdesign.net/greywater/buildersguide/index.htm#brancheddrain

[jonsey/downunder]

Thanks for the links guys. And Amanda you are dead right, Swales! Didn't even connect those two things.
jonesy

[gandalfthegrey]

I know this is 3 years old, but here is a link to a gray water guide you might be interested in.

http://www.owue.water.ca.gov/docs/graywater_guide_book.pdf

[glenn kangiser]

No problem, gandalfthegrey.  When you see something you like or can add to just resurrect it.  It's good for us to review it or new ones probably haven't seen it.

Thanks for the link.

[jwv]

I was wondering about Jonesy just the other day. I really liked the design of his home.

Judy

[glenn kangiser]

He got off to NZ for a bit and got a new computer with Vista problems and has been a pretty busy guy so hasn't made it back yet.  Hopefully he will find time soon.