Rainwater Harvesting: A more responsible way to water gardens

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - Quadra ICAN sells 250 gallon water storage tanks at cost ($200 each).

According to Kris Wellstein, from the ICAN water security team, they have sold about 200 so far. She connected Cortes Currents with two Heriot Bay residents to get further details about their installations.

“Were you around last summer? I think water is a big topic now. Such a dry hot summer. It was a real eye-opener. I think, to a lot of people - if you do garden, you're going to be taxing your well,” said Kathryn Manry.

She and her husband grow all the vegetables they need in their garden.

“I do it because it feeds my soul. It gives me joy. I like feeling that I've produced the food we eat. It's probably more nutritious food, I know where it came from. It just seems the responsible thing to do. It is a lot of work, but I enjoy it - So it makes sense.”

Manry added, “It seems absolutely ridiculous to be using well water if we can store what's coming out of the sky the rest of the year.”

Jason Overend has a shallow well which was ‘pretty low’ last summer, luckily “the five or six tanks we have up at the house fed our garden all year.”

While he has not yet become food self sufficient, this is Overend’s goal.

He would like to use rainwater for household needs as well, but there are alders by his house.

“I've been trying to figure out how to filter out some of the debris that comes off the roof, all of their little pod droppings and whatnot,” explained Overend.

In the podcast above, they describe their respective water storage systems.

Overend and his wife had water tanks installed on their property when they moved to Quadra Island, four years ago.

Manry has a dozen tanks. Half were installed last summer and she recently purchased the remainder from Quadra ICAN.

“I feel that this is a responsible thing looking forward, and it's something that can be done incrementally. The task would be depending on your configuration of your land, how to use gravity. If you don't have a slope, it's going to be more challenging. And if you don't have a system where your gutters drain, you'd have to figure out a way to continue that, but that's not a monumental thing to overcome,” she said. “it is just a lovely feeling of security. We enjoy using and it makes us feel good when we do water our plants this way.”