5 Reasons Why a Landscaper May Recommend Rainwater Harvesting in Madison, WI

Making sure that your home and landscape have enough water in case of an emergency is one of those projects that can be worth its weight in gold in a particularly dry year. Harvesting naturally occurring rainwater using your home and landscape is possible with some smart planning and a few feature installations. To save water bills and potentially dodge catastrophe during a drought, be sure to read further about these five reasons why a landscaper may recommend rainwater harvesting in Madison, WI.

Related: Include Sustainability in Your Cottage Grove, WI, Landscape Design

Reducing Your Water Bill

There are many reasons that a landscape may use more water than what the rain naturally provides. Watering your lawn or plants in your vegetable garden can use a considerable amount of water every day and water use can really begin to add up during a hot, dry summer. 

Rainwater, on the other hand, is provided by nature for free and is perfectly healthy for these plants in its untreated state. Instead of hooking up your garden hose or sprinklers to a faucet, you can hook them up to your rainwater harvesting system.

Conserving Energy

It takes quite a bit of electricity and other resources to properly treat municipal water. Even homes with a well system require energy to pump water from the ground. By contrast, a gravity-fed rainwater harvesting system will take advantage of the forces of nature to send water where it’s needed, without using a single watt of electricity.

Outage-Proof Technology

Likely the most visible element of a rainwater harvesting system will be a barrel that catches the many gallons of water that fall from the roof of your house. You will also need drain pipes or gutters to divert the water into the barrel, connection pipes if you want to piggyback several rain barrels together, and a spout on each barrel. Rainwater harvesting doesn’t require the complex technology of a pumping system. It’s gravity-fed, which makes it ideal for remote use. Rain barrels have been used by farmers and rural homes for thousands of years, and the technology still works perfectly in the modern age.

Depending on the size of your landscape, you may want to position several rain barrels around your home to make it more convenient to water your lawn and plants. Or, you could create a “rain barrel station” where two or more rain barrels are tied together to create a single, large catchment system.

Erosion Reduction

Heavy rainfall can cause significant erosion in a landscape, carving gullies, flooding, pooling, and creating muddy areas. Even if you have gutters everywhere, the downspouts have to release the water somewhere. Instead of simply letting water run downstream, a rainwater harvesting system will slowly return most of the water that comes off your roof to the landscape, helping to prevent drainage problems in your landscape.

Conservation Techniques

At some point during the summer, your plants are bound to be parched from the heat. You can allow these plants to continue growing and thriving throughout the heat and drought with regular watering from your rain barrels. It’s a sustainable practice that ensures a healthy landscape no matter what Nature has in store. 

In starting a rainwater harvesting project, you’ll end up learning quite a bit about what you can do with the saved water. Beyond just irrigating your garden and lawn, the excess water can also be used for a variety of projects such as cleaning your car, washing your paved surfaces, and more. Soon, you’ll be inspired to learn other conservation techniques as well.

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