Water, Part 4: Save the Bay, Get It In The Ground

On previous posts I've touched on rainwater harvesting into tanks for later use. But another way to harvest rainwater is to put right back into the ground where it can replenish the groundwater and be stored for future use by landscaping. Typically we take that water falling from the sky and send it away as quickly as we can, wherever away may be, which in my case is the bay. This happens via downspouts, street gutters, and municipal drainage systems. But instead of sending that water "away", you can manage it locally and sink it back into your local soil where it will happily stay until it's needed by your plants, trees, etc. I've been planning on implementing this into my own property in a couple different ways and this year I got both methods up and running.

First is the rain off my roof and the rest of my property. I can't harvest all of into tanks, especially when you consider the total amount of rain falling on my property. Using some rough numbers of 5000 square feet of property and 24 inches of average annual rainfall we get 5 * 550 gallons/1000 square feet/inch of rainfall * 24 inches = 66,000 gallons of water! If I wanted to put it into a tank, I'd need a 20' diameter tank that's 28' tall. Yikes! But the ground can hold that no problem. So how do you capture it? With berms and swales.

A swale is the low side and the berm is the high side. We took the front yard and dug a swale parallel to the house and piled the dirt on the sidewalk side to make a berm. We filled the swale with wood chips and then we directed the downspouts to drain into that swale.

Here you can see one of the downspouts with a pipe extension to get it to the swale.

We're on a corner so the swale makes a 90-degree turn and runs parallel to the front of the house until it reaches the entry walkway.

This is a shorter piece between the walkway and the neighbors.

The second source of rainwater doesn't necessarily come from your property but from your neighbors and the street. Since we live on a corner, we have rain flow in the gutter that builds up to quite a large quantity by the time it reaches the street drain, which is old and can't always handle that much water. So using more formal examples that I've seen, we implemented a more guerrilla-style solution by cutting out the concrete at the concrete strip, excavating down a few inches, and then filling it with wood chips. Then to give the water a place to enter and exit, we made a couple curb cuts.

This is the entry cut. I'm still working on how to direct the water from the gutter into the parking strip. A lot of the water flows right by with entering the curb cut.

The minor excavation before the wood chips went in.

And the exit cut. I ended up using a piece of hardware cloth to keep the wood chips in and let the water out.

It looks like this should be a wet winter so I should have plenty of opportunity to observe and tinker to make sure things are working how I want. The front parking strip also needs a couple curb cuts but there are some additional challenges there. If this kind of thing interests you, I highly recommend Brad Lancaster's Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond: Volume 1 for an intro and Volume 2 for a more detailed look at earthworks.

I'd also like to offer a special thanks to Christopher Shein of Wildheart Gardens for help with the earthwork and Kevin Jefferson of Urban Releaf for help with the concrete and curb cutting.

Little Free Library

I can't remember for how long Verónica had wanted a Little Free Library but I think it had been since we moved here in 2009. Via a little publish shaming of myself for not building one in all that time, our friend Carrie created a Kickstarter campaign for Verónica's birthday so that her friends, family, and neighbors could all participate. Once funded we ordered the library and waited for delivery. It came in time to be installed while my father and his wife were visiting from Rhode Island so after building a support stand, I set it in concrete during a little celebration. Now you can find it at the corner of 57th Street and Genoa Street in Oakland.

La familia Martínez Williams

 The first book to go in was Gabriel García Márquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude from which we chose our daughter's name, Úrsula.

Drain Repair

Well, my last post was almost six months ago and I had high hopes for a rainy winter. No such luck and we're in something like year three of a serious drought. The rain tanks are full, though, and I need to figure out what to do with the 600 gallons that I have in the large tank. But more on that later.

This past weekend I had to deal with a more urgent plumbing issue. Our shower had been draining very slowly lately and then it just got to be almost completely plugged, which meant showering while standing in a few inches of water. I knew what had to be done but it needed some dedicated time to deal with it. The first step was exposing the piping, which involved enlarging a small that I already ha in the kitchen ceiling.

As you can see, the plumbing is old galvanized pipes. There's a rubber connector where some plumbing was redone when we redid the bathroom upstairs. The first step, and the most committing, was to cut out the section of pipe that I wanted to replace. So with a reciprocating saw (aka Sawzall) and a metal blade, I made two cuts and loosened the rubber connector.

And voila, a large section of pipe is removed. To keep the standing water at bay and also to keep in the sewer gas, I stuffed in an old undershirt. As you can see in the next photo, there was an obvious blockage in the pipe.

The right end in the picture wasn't fully blocked off, which is why it let at least some water through. But the other end was completely plugged by decades of gunk. That's the end that goes up to the vent pipe and it doesn't look like it was doing any venting so who knows where the sewer gas was escaping to. Maybe it went back out to the main stack. I scooped as much gunk out as I could with a spoon and then even shoved a coat hanger into the remaining vent pipe but I'm still not sure if I opened up a hole or not. For the remaining pipe that headed out and down to the main drain, I scrubbed it with a brush and wiped it down as much as possible. I got it pretty clean so it shouldn't give any more problems in the near future.

After that it was just an issue of connecting the right pieces together and then using more rubber connectors at the old pipe. Plumbing is pretty satisfying in that it's fairly easy when everything goes right. But often times you're working in tight spaces, like under a sink, and it doesn't go exactly as planned and water leaks so you have to redo it. This time, fortunately, I got it on the first try and the tub is back to draining like normal. Now to patch the hole in the ceiling.

Rain, Finally

We're still in a drought here in California and will be for the foreseeable future but we have been getting some much needed rain. We actually got an unexpected storm a couple months back and I woke up in the early morning to the sound of heavy rain, which wasn't quite music to my ears yet. I had been working slowly on drainage but I didn't have everything connected so I was just picturing the water dropping straight down to where I didn't want it. In the end it wasn't a big deal but it did speed up my work.

I'm harvesting rain in a couple places with the big tank and the older smaller barrels but those have first flush diverters that need to allow the initial water to pass and then go somewhere as well as the tank/barrel overflows. For the large tank, I ended up only connecting one downspout since on even a relatively small roof the tank can fill in just a few storms. This one required the first flush diverter to be mounted a bit higher but then it was just a matter of connecting three-inch drain pipes together using glued and rubber connectors.

Here you can see the first flush diverter with horizontal piece that goes to filling the tank. The vertical piece allows the first flush water to continue down and then out to the daylight end.

Here is the rest of the system. The first flush comes from behind the end of the tank and then parallels it until it connects with the overflow pipe and continues on with a couple jogs to where it daylights at the corner of the carriage house and waters a timber bamboo.

The barrel first flush and overflow connections were a bit more complicated. When building the deck I ran a 3" piece of pipe along the house and under the deck to be connected later. After a bunch of contemplating, I decided on the best way to connect everything, which you can see below.

The filling piece was easy as it just needed some 3" pipe and one connector. The first flush also just needed 3" pipe and connectors but the alignment was a bit more tricky with the 45-degree connector and a Y-connector. The overflow, though, took some thought but with a flexible elbow, 1 1/2" ABS pipe and connectors, plus a reducer I was able to get it to work. It then all connects up with the under deck pipe via an elbow.

At the other end of the deck it got complicated again because I needed to connect a downspout to the drain line. Using a combination of rubber connectors, 1 1/2" ABS, and the reducer, I got that connected in and the water continues off to the left in the picture where it changes from 3" hard pipe to 3" flexible corrugated drain pipe. It then hooks up with the neighbors' downspouts and out towards the front where the plan is to dump the water in the new swales that were put in as part of the neighbors' new landscaping.

There's one other spot I want to show but I don't have any photos so I'll need to add it here or write another post. I also have a few other projects from the summer and fall to show so stay tuned.

New Deck

I don't think I've mentioned this before but I do actually have a master plan for the backyard, which I'm slowing implementing. I had a general layout put together in CAD and then I handed that off to Christopher Shein of Wildheart Gardens, who helped with the planting layout for an edible and somewhat perma-cultured backyard. Some projects I can piece together over long stretches of time; others I feel I have to do in a concentrated burst. Our back deck was one of those since it's a main thoroughfare out the back door to the backyard and workshop/garage. So I took a week off work and with the help of my stepfather, we built it in six days.

I was searching for "before" photos and couldn't find that many. I need to document "before and after" a little better. This photo is from way before, like October 2009, about six months after we moved in. The original deck was five-sided with untreated Douglas Fir decking and framing that was sitting on Home Depot blocks. The wood was rotting but still fairly functional.

Then I cut it down to its most functional, a landing with a step down to grade. You can just see it behind Verónica and Lida.

We started on Monday morning but were so busy building that I didn't take a photo until Thursday when the whole sub-structure was framed. We spent the first two days digging out the grade below and placing the weed barrier and gravel. I wanted a clean, weed-free space below the deck that I could crawl under in case I needed to do anything underneath. That added some extra time and effort but I think it was worth it. The next two days were spent framing the deck. We used absolutely no concrete and instead supported the whole deck on four post spikes. I had to get a little creative with the step but it worked out well and is super solid.

The (nearly) finished product. I had to source the redwood from a couple different places but was able to get all knot-free pieces. I don't think it has the first coat of stain in this photo but I used a darker stain and it looks pretty spectacular. The right side doesn't require a railing but I'll put one in with a trellis above for a male kiwi. One of the best features of this deck is that it's at the same level as the kitchen floor. It makes a huge difference to be able to walk right out to the deck without stepping down. It feels like an extension of the interior.

Spring '14

Spring is here, although with the winter we had, it felt like it always was here except that the trees are now full of leaves; the comfrey returned; and we planted our vegetable garden.

I didn't think we were going to get to it for a while but sometimes you just have to go get the starts and put them in the bed. We have tomatoes, lettuce, lemon cucumber, slicing cucumber, kale, Swiss chard, beets, squash, and tomatillo. I also have the second bed ready to go; I just need to fill it with the soil mix.

We helped our friends James and Sarah move a couple weekends ago and they gave us this green pot, which had a dead Japanese maple in it. I bought a new one and potted it. I'll plan to give it back as a housewarming gift when they find a permanent place. I also planted our Lisbon Lemon that we got from a couple friends when we first moved in to our house.

After losing my colony, I was exploring options to repopulate my hive. I was hoping a swarm would move in or that I'd catch one but instead the brother of our friend, Brooke, is starting a mead business: Magic Bag Meadery. He's partnering with a commercial apiarist who wanted me to host a couple hives. I was also able to buy a colony from him. His are the fully silver hives and mine has the silver super on top of two blues. I also planted that Japanese maple in the chicken area hoping that something will thrive in there.

The hives. The third one is from my friends Rachel and Sophie and is still empty. Thomas, the apiarist, said he'd bring another colony out next time he comes, which would put four active hives in my yard.

Green Wall

I recently completed this green wall, which was inspired by this vertical garden made from a reclaimed pallet. This is actually the second version and, as I rebuilt it, I documented the process as follows:

This was version 1.0 right as I started dismantling it. I used reclaimed 2x3s from the house across the street and reclaimed tongue and groove sub-floor from our carriage house for the slats, which you can see stacked up in the background. The problem with this one is that I filled it with soil like they did in the linked website above but, as I learned afterwards, this method results in the soil moving slowly downward and compacting the bottom portion over time.

Here you can see all of the succulents removed and most of the soil. The black layers at the bottom are landscape fabric on the inside and pond liner for waterproof-ness on the outside.

I used only a few slats along the back as if it were a pallet and then stapled the two layers to those. This resulted in some bulging as I tried to move it around, which made it feel somewhat unstable.

So I removed the rear slats and cut a piece of plywood to fit from a pallet I found on the street. I screwed it on temporarily for fit.

I then removed the plywood and added two new layers of pond liner and landscape fabric between the plywood and the frame.

I folded the two backing layers towards the front at the bottom and screwed on the bottom slat. The I trimmed the two backing materials on all sides.

This time I created little planter shelves for each row using ripped T&G and fence boards. I screwed the slats to these and then attached the slats back to their original spots.

This shows each level with their shelves.

To hang it on the wall I made a french cleat from a piece of 2x3 and added a 2x3 spacer at the bottom.

For the soil I thought I could just fill the cupped portion but that does't allow the succulents to project out. So I laid the whole thing flat and filled the cupped portion plus the space above it and planted the succulents into the space above. You need to let the succulents take root so that they don't fall out. Theoretically the succulents should grow upwards and the roots should move downwards into the cupped portion and hold the soil completely together. I probably only waited a couple weeks before hanging it, although it could have probably used a little more time.

For the succulents, I got all of them at Home Depot. They sell small succulents for $2 each and each row has six. That adds up with eight rows but almost everything else was free so material-wise it was around $100 or so. You could mix and match for a different look but I like the uniformity of each row having the same succulent so every time I went to Home Depot I would check the selection and see if they had six of something I liked. It took time to assemble all of the rows but well worth it.