Water Harvesting 101

Second installment in a five-part series on passive water harvesting earthworks creation.

First installment in a five-part series on passive water harvesting earthworks creation.

Starting with a bare lot? Don't plant any plants before you make your water harvesting plans. That's called planting the water first.

How I tried -- and failed -- to control flooding my property. This is the story of my swale fail.

Introducing diversion swales, basins, and berms.

Getting to know the three principles of passive water harvesting.

Discover two ways to capture rainwater: passive (guiding water naturally through landscape design) and active (using systems like cisterns and gray water recycling). Learn how each method works, their benefits, and real-life examples—from watering gardens with stored rain to giving fruit trees a drink from laundry water. Tune in to make every drop count! 💧🌿

I hate to send perfectly good water down the drain! That’s why I’m a big fan of water recycling. This episode features the greywater recycling system that makes laundry day into watering day for my four fruit trees.

An introduction to cisterns, including what the water is being used for,  and how to calculate the amount of rainwater needed to fill the tank.

This episode introduces the first of the three main activities of water harvesting, redirecting rainwater away from where it isn’t wanted to where it is.