Roof water options

So we are trying to decide what to do with the water from the front of the roof.
So, the backyard drainage will be going several places. One to a planter box surrounding our porch. One to a trench along the fence to promote vine growth. One to a garden we have on the side of the house. And the front... no idea.

So option 1 is a pond.

Option 2 is to a swale I'd put a willow fence in.

Option 3 is swales all the way down to the fence swale, that would have apple trees planted along them. Trees I'd like to keep closer to the house since they are favorites of mine.

Or....any other options?

Ok. Another 2 options. We think we like the pond at the top, flowing through.

Why not all 3? That looks like a big roof. You'd be surprised how much water casts off, plus taking into factor ground catchment

chad Christopher wrote:Why not all 3? That looks like a big roof. You'd be surprised how much water casts off, plus taking into factor ground catchment

You think it'd fill a top and bottom pond? Hmm. I'm unsure about that.

Well I'm being a tad optimistic. But if you get some precipitation records, and the sq ft of the roofs, I could help you figure out what's possible! A small pond is better than none.

chad Christopher wrote:Well I'm being a tad optimistic. But if you get some precipitation records, and the sq ft of the roofs, I could help you figure out what's possible! A small pond is better than none.

1700sq ft not including the garage part which I do not know. 15inches average precipitation.

This, plus 400 more gallons is how much water that one roof will collect per year. Swales kinda catch their own water off the ground so..... http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=20000+gallon&FORM=HDRSC2&PC=SMSM#view=detail&id=C52AF15CAF7C97E3CF2CDD659A9DE7DB4D310CF4&selectedIndex=0 a pond about half that big plus swales.

Yeah but our water comes in snow a lot and it's really dry in between. So a smaller pond would probably be able to stay full. We'll see. I guess we'll start with 1 and see if we might need to add another.

I understand. Details details. So maybe a 5000 gallons pond, about 675 sq ft. So an 8wide, 16 long, 4 ft deep pond, on contour, would do fine. Then build as many swales as needed after experience.

Hi Elle,

We use our rainwater catch pond for water banking. Since we have hot dry summers like you do, we store water accumulated in the fall to spring in the pond with no liner and no attempt at sealing. Hugelbets are on contour, sloping back to the pond. Although I had never heard of a crater garden when we landscaped, that's pretty much what it turned out to be. I love the thread on Zach Weiss' crater gardens; that's inspired me to look to a much deeper and wider plan for our next design. I think the crater garden with hugels on contour and a spiral pathway through it all is the ultimate permaculture landscaping tool for our hot/cold dry climate.

We built ours last spring; here are a couple of photos of the process.

Bill Bradbury wrote:Hi Elle,

We use our rainwater catch pond for water banking. Since we have hot dry summers like you do, we store water accumulated in the fall to spring in the pond with no liner and no attempt at sealing. Hugelbets are on contour, sloping back to the pond. Although I had never heard of a crater garden when we landscaped, that's pretty much what it turned out to be. I love the thread on Zach Weiss' crater gardens; that's inspired me to look to a much deeper and wider plan for our next design. I think the crater garden with hugels on contour and a spiral pathway through it all is the ultimate permaculture landscaping tool for our hot/cold dry climate.

We built ours last spring; here are a couple of photos of the process.

I quite like your pond. I don't believe ours will hold water without sealing though. We have several retention ponds for driveway water and they all filled to over flowing on Friday. Yesterday they were completely empty. This is with heavy clay soil as well. Sinkage here is pretty fast.

Hello Elle,

The pond is not the water bank, the soil is where I am storing water. The pond is only filled like in the picture in the spring and fall. The rest of the time it is a small mud puddle that doesn't look so great, so we don't take pictures of it then. All that water infiltrates and is stored below ground where it will not evaporate so easy.

A little of this water will recharge the aquifer, but most of it will be held all year in the soil, changing the hydrologic dynamics of the soil. The key here is to have lots of trees and other deep rooted plants to bring the water back up as the summer heat hits. When a tree brings water up from deeper areas, it will release nutrients and moisture higher in the soil profile if those areas are drier. This is how I get by without irrigating.

Bill Bradbury wrote:Hello Elle,

The pond is not the water bank, the soil is where I am storing water. The pond is only filled like in the picture in the spring and fall. The rest of the time it is a small mud puddle that doesn't look so great, so we don't take pictures of it then. All that water infiltrates and is stored below ground where it will not evaporate so easy.

A little of this water will recharge the aquifer, but most of it will be held all year in the soil, changing the hydrologic dynamics of the soil. The key here is to have lots of trees and other deep rooted plants to bring the water back up as the summer heat hits. When a tree brings water up from deeper areas, it will release nutrients and moisture higher in the soil profile if those areas are drier. This is how I get by without irrigating.

Ah yes. I see. Unfortunately this will be close to our house. Quite close. So I'm unsure about having trees that close to the foundation. Perhaps if we do the lower pond only, then that can be surrounded by trees.