Dryland Harvesting Home Hacks Sun, Rain, Food & Surroundings
When Brad Lancaster and his brother bought their home in downtown Tucson, the streetscape was a dusty place, devoid of trees or any vegetation. In 1996 Lancaster and his neighbors started an annual tree planting project, which up till now has resulted in over 1,400 native food-bearing trees being planted (usually with water-harvesting earthworks) in the neighborhood. In 2004, Lancaster augmented the street tree planting by using a 14-inch, gas powered circular saw to cut away part of his curb to divert street runoff into his street-side tree basins. When the walkway in front of his home sprouted with life- mesquite and palo verde trees- many of his neighbors wanted to cut their curbs as well. Lancaster approached the city to convince them to make his water harvesting technique legal. It took three years for the city to change the rules. Today, three quarters of the neighbors on his block are harvesting rainwater.
Tucson receives just 11 inches of rainwater per year, but Brad argues this is enough. “Tuscon has over a 4,000 year history of continuous farming despite this being a drylands desert community. People thrived creating crops, domesticating crops that are uniquely adapted to this climate, but in less than 100 years we almost wiped it out by becoming reliant on very extractive pumps, extracting the groundwater, diverting the river to the extent that we actually killed our river, we dropped our groundwater table over 300 feet so we didn’t want to plug into that paradigm.”
Today, Lancaster’s downtown Tucson neighborhood (Dunbar/Spring) is alive with drought-tolerant, food-bearing trees and residents harvest from the barrel cactus (chutneys, hair conditioner from fruit), the prickly pear (juice, syrup & natural sweeteners from fruit), the ironwood tree (peanut-flavored nuts, processed like edamame), jojoba (oil, coffee substitute), mesquite (“native carob”, flour) and sweets from the “iconic Saguaro cactus”.
Lancaster’s experimentation continues on his property: he calls the eighth of an acre site that he shares with his brother’s family, his “living laboratory”. Here he plants around the greywater from his outdoor shower, bathtub and washing machine. He captures 100,000 gallons of rainwater per year on the 1/8th-acre property and surrounding public right-of-way. He cooks with a solar oven and heats his water using a 2 salvaged, conventional gas heaters hacked (stripped of insulation, painted black, and put in an insulated box with glass facing south to collect the sun’s rays.
Lancaster converted the old garage on the property into his 200-square-foot “garottage” (garage + cottage) or “shondo” (shed + condo). Nearly all the wood and materials are salvaged. The garage’s original cinder block walls weren’t insulated so he added 2 inches of foam insulation on the exterior to create “ex-sulation”. Lancaster relies mostly on passive solar to heat and cool his home, though he uses an evaporative cooler (swamp cooler) on hotter evenings. His kitchen is outside: a rainwater-plumbed sink, a hacked chest-freezer-turned-refrigerator and a propane camping stove.
His toilet is another experiment. “You can currently get a compost toilet that is manufactured and NSF approved, but it costs $3000 or more. So we wanted to try making some site-built models that only cost $300 for which we got experimental permits.” His models include a urine-diverting barrel compost toilet (the urine is diluted to water plants and the fecal matter sits and composts for a year or more before being used as fertilizer) and a water-less standing urinal.
- Brad’s how-to style book “Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond”
- Brad’s website: https://www.harvestingrainwater.com
- Wild Food Growing and Harvesting: https://www.DesertHarvesters.org
- Street-Runoff Harvesting: https://www.harvestingrainwater.com/street-runoff-harvesting/
- Greywater Harvesting (including tips on soaps and detergents to use: https://www.harvestingrainwater.com/greywater-harvesting/
- Multi-use Rain Garden Plant Lists: https://www.harvestingrainwater.com/plant-lists-resources/multi-use-rain-garden-plant-lists/
- More info on Brad’s garottage: https://www.harvestingrainwater.com/living-big-by-living-small/
- Brad’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/HarvestingRainwater
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Northern Tasmania isn’t all that far behind (although with the soggy winter we just had…) summer seems to last forever down here and we get very little rainfall in the summer months. This information is relevant to we Aussies as much as it is to our American rellies. Cheers for sharing this :)
Brent Cairns great ideas for water harvesting imagine if fruit trees were on the sidewalks too!
Exactly the opposite problem that I have. We received 250 inches of rain.
I live in Tucson. Citrus trees aren’t native but do well. Generally people stick to drought resistant crops, or use tactics to reduce water use such as planting in shallow holes, mulching, recycling water, etc. We use recycled sewage water for grass at schools, apartments and businesses. I tend to stick with sun loving herbs like rosemary and sage because they do well in the clay soils, drought and sun. Only experienced individuals grow lush crops well… Tomatoes, peppers, things like that need much assistance here.
shared :)
Lots of interesting stuff in this video!
Before the Spanish colonized, Tucson (Tsuk Shon, dark-changing water), had a water table so high, the Spanish couldn’t put in cellars. By the time Americans arrived, herding cattle to California for the China trade, they needed deeper wells. Now, the Santa Clara River is a joke, dusty and dry where once people fished for golden trout and enjoyed the water on hot days. as more people move to Baja Arizona, the level continues to drop. Water is ‘borrowed’ from the Native American reservations and returned by finally allowing water to leave the dams on the rivers. Why are ranchers still raising outsider crops? Local from Native American seed savers is the answer. Honey mesquite is a crop for the future, but not so long as the USDA continues it’s kill policy rather than help develop markets. Agave and other local produce are no less tasty than those raised in Mexico.
Move to Wisconsin! We have over 15,000 lakes!
Fred Dean But, Tucson gets the perfect amount of rain fall, less than 24 inches :) I’m pretty sure we couldn’t raise kumquats there, dates, and so on. Word is, you get snow, too. Nasty, especially the yellow stuff. :)
Ricky Gordon
Fascinating!
I did something similar. I dammed the drainage ditch at the front of my property to divert it into a small swale through my front yard which overflows into my vegetable garden.
Mind. Blown. Wonder if you’d get a ticket for that here…