Harvesting rain water gaining favor in drought-plagued Calif.

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It never fails, lamented David Roberts.
"Tuesday, I was driving around in that pouring rain," related the Sacramento, Calif. landscaper, "and there were homes with their sprinklers on. What a waste!"
That's literally water down the drain. Last week California water leaders urged all Californians to voluntarily cut their water consumption by 20 percent as a third consecutive drought year approaches.
That has homeowners and professional landscapers alike looking for ways to make the most of the water we have. That includes designing conservation-minded gardens and eliminating runoff as well as "harvesting" the rain itself.
"It's not exactly breakthrough technology," said Bethallyn Black, a University of California master gardener who has been harvesting rainwater since the 1980s. "People started collecting water when they first started building homes (in ancient times). Even our grandparents had catch basins. But we got out of touch with it the last couple of generations. We got used to just turning on a tap and expecting water to come out."
Harvesting rainwater is again growing in popularity.
"In California, any water that falls on your property belongs to you," said horticulturist Robby Flannery, a former University of California, Davis, football player who has become a conservation advocate. "A lot of people take water for granted. But with drought and the price of water going up, people are becoming more interested. This is an up-and-coming issue."
Flannery, who serves as senior horticulturist for the San Francisco-based PlantSense company, suggested setting up a simple capture system to redirect rainwater off the roof to a barrel.
"That's a quick and easy way to do it," he said. "You can use a wine barrel; coming from Davis, that's very easy to do. There are a lot of them around. It's a fantastic idea and a fun thing to work on."
Besides banking your own water, there are many simple ways to just use less of it.
Said Roberts: "It's easy to get started. There's lots of low-hanging fruit. You don't have to rip up your yard and plant all drought-tolerant plants, although I wouldn't mind if you did."
Roberts is particularly sensitive to water waste. He is president of EcoLandscape California, a consortium devoted to promoting ecologically sustainable landscape and horticultural practices and programs.
Interest in this topic is booming. About 250 people -- mostly professional landscapers and horticulturists -- attended EcoLandscape's fourth conference.
Saving water was a popular theme, presented in such discussions as "Turning Drains into Sponges and Water Scarcity into Water Abundance" by Arizona rainwater harvester and author Brad Lancaster. He showed how collecting rainfall from rooftops coupled with recycling wastewater from household sinks, bathtubs, showers and washing machines could cut homeowners' water bills in half.
Black, who manages the UC master gardener urban horticulture program in Contra Costa County, installed a 1,500-gallon, above-ground cistern at her Walnut Creek home. The storage tank is nearly 8 feet tall and 7 feet wide.
"We get about 17 inches of rain a year," she said. "I could fill my tank three or four times. Storing water is the biggest hurdle. A tank this size is very difficult to fit into the urban landscape. I'd recommend to anyone tearing up a driveway to consider putting in an underground tank."
That level of water conservation takes major commitment. But there are several simple things people can do right now to start saving.
"No. 1, turn off the sprinklers," said Julie Saare- Edmonds, landscape specialist with the California Department of Water Resources' Office of Water Use Efficiency. "You just don't need them on this time of year. If it's real dry and windy, you may run them once. But otherwise, don't."
Many homeowners treat their sprinkler systems as a mystery that they never think about, she added.
"People buy their home and never set (the sprinkler controls) again," Saare- Edmonds said. "If it's a new home, that system was set for maximum irrigation to establish new lawns. Two years later, they're still running it full blast.
"Or they've lost the system's instruction booklet and don't know how to reset it. But you now can get those instructions for virtually every system made off the (Internet) for free. Learn how your sprinklers work and adjust them."
For areas with shrubs and trees currently on sprinklers, consider an in-line drip system, wherein supply tube and emitter tubing are all in one, she noted.
"It's easy to install. A converter attachment slips into the sprinkler riser and converts it to a durable drip-irrigation system. This system cuts down on weeds, too."
Saving water is a mind-set.
"Don't water automatically," Saare-Edmonds said. "Water only when your plants need it, and then water deeply. A little stress is a good thing for your plants. They're designed for survival. Deep watering makes deep roots. It's like exercise for your plants."
E-mail Debbie Arrington at darrington(at)sacbee.com.

(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
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