I’ve never been to Arcosanti, but it sounds like a really interesting place to visit or even live. Have any of you ever visited? What do you think?

Arcosanti was started in the 1970s by Italian architect Paolo Soleri, a spitfire who seeks an alternative to a car-dominant, hyper-consumerist society. With his so-called urban laboratory, Soleri, 88, hopes to eliminate the automobile, promote frugality and create a functional metro center run on the Earth’s resources: food from organic gardens, power from the sun, air conditioning from the shade, building materials from the natural surroundings. Though still a work in progress, Arcosanti in theory offers residents the same amenities as, say, a Manhattanite: housing, commerce, culture and dining.

[washingtonpost.com]

Rainwater is one of our society’s greatest forgotten urban resources. We design our developments to drain rainwater from our property turning streets in to rivers. From there, water is directed down storm drains and forgotten about. We’re literally letting billions of gallons of water drain away when much of it could be used to water our landscapes, beautify our neighborhoods, and reduce the heat island effect.

This past weekend I saw Brad Lancaster talk about rainwater harvesting at the Green Living Conference in Phoenix and was moved to start making some changes around my own house. He’s from Tucson and has transformed his house from basically an empty dirt lot to a desert oasis. He’s done all this by “planting” the rainwater in his yard and keeping it there for the plants and trees to use. Seeing his yard and what he’s done with his system of catching rainwater in a cistern, using gray water from his sinks, tub, and washing machine it sounds too overwhelming and expensive to do this yourself, and I was thinking “Yeah, if only I had the money.” He had some great advice though, start small and simple. That’s what I’m going to do today.

With one inch of rain there is 600 gallons of water for every 1000 Sq ft of land. I just looked up the Sq ft of my property and it is just over 5000 Sq ft. Where I live in the desert we average about 8 inches of rain a year which means over 24,000 gallons of water fall on our property a year. Unless you live in Yuma Arizona where they average 3 inches a year, you probably get more rain than the 8 inches I get. Lets see if we can make use of some of this and not let it all wash away.

First thing you should do is think about the last time it rained and where rainwater is collecting in your yard already. This should reveal some low spots that could be ideal for planting. In my yard I have one such low spot next to my house where water from the yard and roof drains to. Unsurprisingly this has turned out to be one of the easiest spots to grow anything in our yard. Now there is even catnip, lavender, sunflowers, and a little chamomile that planted themselves and are thriving.

Second take a look around and see what you already have planted. Is water able to flow to them when it rains? Is there a basin the water can fill to water the plant? In my yard I have a grapefruit tree with a little berm around it. This is pretty good to hold in water from the hose, but when it rains it blocks any water from filling it. This probably should have been obvious, but I never really thought about it. The tree also has not really grown much in the two years it’s been there, I think it’s pretty much been stunted. Maybe it hasn’t had enough water? This morning I pulled out the shovel and started digging out the berm and creating a basin instead. Ideally this should have been done when I planted it a couple years ago, but better late than never. I was careful while digging down because I didn’t want to disturb any roots. When you dig out the basin be sure to make it at least as wide as the branches so that it can collect any water dripping off the leaves. I wasn’t super aggressive with the digging out of the basin because I was worried about the roots, so hopefully it’s dug down enough. I’m a beginner myself, so I can’t wait to see how this works. I gave it a test run with the hose and it held dramatically more water than the berm ever did. I’ll have to do this with the rest of plants in the yard.

See! That was easy! Just these two ideas give you a good start at using the rainwater as a resource and reducing your usage of tap water to water your plants. To get more in depth with water harvesting pick up the book Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands by Brad Lancaster. He lives in Tucson Arizona and has done amazing things with his yard and neighborhood all without irrigating with tap water. Check out his website for some great before and after pictures of his yard [here]. You can also attend one of his lectures or classes he teaches on rainwater harvesting to get some hands on experience. A list of his upcomming events can be found on his website as well. [harvestingrainwater.com]

A few weeks back prescription drugs showing up in tap water was in all the headlines. Today I noticed a article on azcentral.com saying that the City of Phoenix has done extensive testing and found no traces of drugs in their water. This is just another reassurance that tap water is great to drink.

Phoenix drinking water received a clean bill of health Monday after extensive testing found no pharmaceuticals in the water supply.

Tests conducted by an independent laboratory at each of Phoenix’s six water treatment plants showed no traces of drugs and met all standards of the Environmental Protection Agency, officials said at an afternoon press conference.

“I’m pleased today to report that Phoenix tap water meets all EPA requirements . . . and that no trace of pharmaceuticals were found in any of the tests,” Mayor Phil Gordon said. “Providing safe and healthy water to our residents (is something that) we do very well.”

[azcentral.com]

The Green Living Conference on May 3rd was a huge success! The conference featured many local vendors and five excellent speakers and a fantastic lunch provided by That’s a Wrap. Unfortunately Invest Green couldn’t talk due to their compliance not letting them, but you can find out about them here. I’d highly recommend this conference to anyone that wants to learn more about green living. They are holding another conference in November, so be prepared, I’ll announce more about that one when I get more details.

Topics they covered included retrofitting the suburbs for green living, rainwater and gray water harvesting, GM presented on what alt fuel cars they have coming down the line, green building, and what kinds of harmful chemicals are in everyday cleaners and how they affect people. I’ll post a blog covering each topic in the coming days.

Kudos to Greg Peterson of yourguidetogreen.com, Christy Grace, and all the other people that put on this great conference.

On this recent airing of Here and Now on KJZZ they discuss sustainability and what can we do as individuals, and why it makes business sense? They start with Jim Holway of ASU’s Global Institute of Sustainability. Later in the show Thom Hullen of the Arizona League of Conservation Voters and John Neville of Sustainable Arizona discuss sustainability in Arizona with KJZZ’s Steve Goldstein.

To listen click on full story.

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