June 13, 2007

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FORNEY – Nature can be stingy with rain, so hoard it when you can.

So say members of the Forney Garden Club, who with help from Texas Cooperative Extension, installed a rainwater catchment system for irrigation at a public garden.

"It's foolish to water your plants with drinking water," said Rebecca Parker, Extension's regional program director in Dallas.

Extension and club volunteers installed the 350-gallon unit this spring, said Ralph Davis, an Extension agent in Kaufman County. Funding was provided by a $1,500 federal grant from the Natural Resource Conservation Service.

The system rests in a corner of the 3-year-old Kaufman County Xeric Garden in Forney, about 20 miles east of downtown Dallas.

In addition to providing irrigation for the garden, the system demonstrates how rainwater can be collected for use in home and commercial landscaping, Davis said.

"Like many communities in North Texas, Forney has been under watering restrictions due to an ongoing drought, " Davis said. "We set up the rain barrel to show folks that they don't have to worry about the amount of water they use if they get it from a catchment tank."

The system's galvanized steel tank collects rainwater from the roof of a neighboring county subcourthouse, Davis said. It takes only a half-inch of rain running off 1,250-square-feet to fill the tank.

Untreated, rainwater should be used only for plants and animals, he said. Rain picks up particles and debris from roofs that people should not consume.

Installing a home system shouldn't be difficult, Davis said. A 350-gallon tank may not be necessary since smaller units are available and comparatively inexpensive.

"You can take a plain 30-gallon trash can and make a collection system out of it," Davis said. "If a person's house is guttered already, they probably could do a small one for $200.

"And, really, you could do a little bitty one for less than that. I imagine you could get by with $50."

Extension plans to offer a class on installing systems in the fall, he said.

Harvesting water is an old idea, Davis said. People have been collecting water for as long as they have needed it to drink.

"People have been doing this for thousands of years," he said. "We just got away from it."

Residents in rural areas, for example, collected rain in cisterns through the early 1900s, until water management districts were formed, Davis said. There are unused cisterns all over Kaufman County.

Garden club members were happy to borrow the old idea, said Brad Acerman, a Master Gardener who helped with the project.

The collection system meshes well with the educational theme of conservation at the garden, which was built with $30,000 raised by the club's 60 members, Acerman said.

The garden's plants – including Earthkind roses, petunias and garlic chives -- are native and require less water than those in the typical suburban landscape, he said.

North Texans may not be as concerned about conservation this spring, given recent rains that caused some cities to ease watering restrictions, Acerman said.

"But come July and August, when it gets hot and dry, people are going to start to get interested," he said.