Five years ago I bought a 740-square-foot dump in midtown Tucson with a large yard full of goat head burrs and Bermuda Grass. Maybe I was a victim of too many episodes of HGTV design shows, but my plan was to transform this territorial adobe into a cute little home with a yard full of desert-friendly plants, fruit trees, and a vegetable garden-- all irrigated with rain water and grey water.
In 2007, the first phase of my remodel was to add a master bedroom suite, utility room, and covered patio-- increasing the house to a modest 1240 square feet. The second phase-- which began in 2007 and is continuing-- was to capture rain water and transform the wasteland that was my yard into a garden retreat. (The attached slide show details this process in photos.)
Before I started the process, I attended a
rainwater harvesting workshop at Stone Curves Co-housing. I spent two weekends digging trenches and installing a cistern with the help of local rainwater harvesting guru
Brad Lancaster, landscapers from
Technicians for Sustainability, and other volunteers.
Armed with new how-to knowledge, the first step was to design my addition to divert rain water to a future cistern. The entire roof of my home and the addition was sloped toward one scupper on the west side of the house. The patio roof was slanted toward the trees on the east side of the yard.
The second phase was digging--
lots of digging. I dug large tree wells around three major trees, a pomegrante bush, and a desert hackberry in my backyard. I even dug in the rain, which is a curiously refreshing exercise in the summer. It also gives you a very clear idea of where the water is and where it goes once you start digging.
The third phase was to hire a contractor to install gutters, downspouts, and drainage pipe on the patio. Initially, three of the trees were watered with grey water from a washer in a shed in the back, and the other two were watered with runoff from the patio roof.
The fourth phase in January 2010 was to finally install a 900+ gallon cistern, dig a cistern overflow ditch, and add more gutters on my out buildings. With all of the rain that we have this winter, it has been very exciting to watch the cistern fill up repeatedly and overflow into the ditch, carrying the water to other trees. It's also been rewarding to plant bedding flowers and know that I am not wasting city water when I care for them.
The final phase will be to attach the cistern to my existing drip irrigation system and to plant fruit trees this spring and maybe a garden after the summer heat.
Using rainwater and grey water helps our desert environment by allowing you to use less ground water, thus reducing your environmental footprint. If you want to learn more about the process, I highly recommend that you read Lancaster's
book, attend a workshop, and buy a good shovel.
As the moon approaches fullness in the fall, you know it's time for the temperature to cool off in Tucson, it's time to think about your All Souls Procession costume, and it's time for The Glow in Oracle.
Saturday, June 12 is the second installment of a new downtown Tucson entertainment event-- 2nd Saturdays.
Art the Heals is the theme for Tohono Chul Park's upcoming show, which will open on March 11 and runs through May 16. Exhibit organizers received more than 400 entries for the juried show and chose 72 pieces--including my mosaic shrine "Letting Go Is True Freedom" (above).
How can we live better in tough economic times? Try doing more with less. In my most recent Examiner article, I give suggestions for simpler lifestyles and ideas for creating useful items (like the yard light pictured here) from discarded items.
The Cascabel Community Festival was last weekend. Cascabel is a ting community along the San Pedro River, east of Tucson and north of Benson. This was my fourth year as a vendor, but I have been to Cascabel many, many times since the early 1980s. Here is a story about Cascabel in the Tucson Examiner.
Central Arts Gallery moved out of its Congress street location last weekend. This weekend, it will reopen at its new location in the Citizen's Warehouse. Here is a link to an Examiner article about CAG's first event in its new home-- "As Is Art Yard Sale."
Anyone who has followed this blog knows that I am an avid dancer and that I have been dancing all of my life. have written several posts about dancing in Tucson.
Halloween is not just a day in Tucson, it's a season! Are you ready? Here are some costume tips for adults in my latest article in the Tucson Examiner.
True Stories, the latest exhibit at the Central Arts Gallery, opens this Saturday, October 3, with an artists' reception from 6-9 p.m. 
$1500 per year for sex? Is sex too expensive? Read my latest article in the Tucson Examiner and learn what you can do about it.
Will the H1N1 flu be as bad as the 1918 influenza pandemic? Who knows? Here are some flue prevention tips from my Grandma, pictured here with Grandpa. They survived the 1918 flu.
If you're interested in progressive issues, Drinking Liberally is the place to be in Tucson on a Thursday night. Check out my article on Drinking Liberally in the Tucson Examiner.
Here is the link to a humorous top 20 list about Baby Boomers and old hippies. I wrote this for the Tucson Examiner. Feel free to forward and comment; I know there are items that I forgot. Several readers have already added more items. Enjoy.
It seems as if the 4th Avenue underpass has been under construction forever!
Erotic Stimulus Package-- the latest exhibit at the Central Arts Gallery-- opens Saturday, August 1 and runs through September 26. 
