📝 In This Week’s Nutty Goodness
This Week’s Focus: Rainwater Can Work For You. Even If You Have Poor Drainage.
This Might Suit Your Fancy: Help spread the news about getting rid of crappy products or those companies force you to pay for what you already bought!
Where The Roots Meet The Soil: 3 Ways To Put Rainwater To Work For You
Inspirational Stories
I've got a packed newsletter full of insights, stuff you should think of doing or getting, upcoming events, and inspiring stories.
🐝 This Might Suit Your Fancy
Consumer Rights Wiki - report or find products & services that have been gated post purchase or made to fail so you have to spend more.
FULU Story On Wired, Freedom from Unethical Limits on Users (FULU), sets repair bounties on consumer products where the manufacturers have deployed unethical, sneaky user limitations.
Right To Repair Laws, a growing number of states are working on laws that prevent manufacturers from forcing you to pay unnecessary/unreasonable amounts to use what you paid for. Take the time to research to see if that includes your state. I haven’t found one site that’s gathering these yet.
🎙️Where The Roots Meet The Soil
3 Ways To Put Rainwater To Work For You
Rain meant garage flooding when I first bought my house 5 years ago. Then I graded the path beside my house away from the garage, the flooding didn’t stop it just moved.
Thankfully, I was taking a class from some amazing people that helped me learn what to do with the water. Those key lessons, are what I want to share with you today.
#1 Send The Water To Where It Can Do Good, Safely
First I had to find out what type of soil I had and where so I could divert the water to the right place without causing another problem. Instead of allowing the water to stand and cause damage, I used the times it was wet to dig because that was the only time the ground was soft enough.
When we could dig, we being me and my two sons, we dug trenches. Then watched to make sure the water would keep flowing all the way through. If not, the trench was dug deeper or cleared.
I noticed that the plants in my garden nearest this trench were doing better even though they weren’t being watered from the top. That’s because of the wicking action soil has, that was drawing it up to where it could do some good.
So we dug a little further, we put down liner and perforated pipe and backfilled with gravel. This made a type of French drain.
🔖Did you miss last week when I talked about garden planning tools like this one? Garden Guide: Website Tool - Free To Use, garden math tool for watering fertilizer and soil. Check it out here: Garden Planning Tools
#2 Poor Drainage No Problem, Redirect Water To Trees Or Down A Gentle Slope To Perennials
Creating a gentle slope is really all that’s needed. You can make a small path that’s lower than the rest of the landscape and fill it will some gravel or small rocks.
The trick to making sure you get the water to where you need it is running water through it. Then don’t stop with just getting it to one tree, make a path around your yard.
Make sure each tree has it’s own bowl in the soil to catch water and allow it to soak in but not get water logged.
Still have extra water?
You have a few options still. In areas that tend to be more “wet,” plant your water hungry plants like corn, tomatoes or willow, fig or eucalyptus trees.
And then resort to the next step.
#3 Keep What You Can Use, Store The Rest Or Release It Gently
Limit what hits the ground by directing water from roofs and other structures into rainwater tanks. But ONLY KEEP WHAT YOU WILL USE in the next 3 - 6 months.
There are limits to what you should keep and why that are beyond what I have room for in this article. What you should think about is:
How much can you use by the next rainy season?
How much will you need to water your trees & plants?
How much can you rainwater can you catch?
For anything extra, the next step is to make a gentle way for it to leave your property and hopefully not be destructive to your neighbor’s property.
🦋 Stay Inspired
Ways That People Around The World Are Staging Eco-Interventions
6 Species Saved By Ecosystem Restoration: UN Environment Program
8 Species Making A Comeback World Wildlife Foundation
Can We Rebuild The Lemur Forest?: Planet Wild (YouTube)
Till next time,
Elisa Navarette
P.S. Was this useful? Have ideas on what I should publish next? Tap the poll or reply to this email. I read every response.