A storm! & Update on the Side Yard

A storm!

The side yard is finished! And just in time too -- we were blessed by a big thunderstorm 2 days ago (8/1/2015) that dropped 1.2 inches into the nearby Ward III Office rain gauge in about an hour (Madeline is the Monsoon squad volunteer manager for the rain garden there, so we went and checked it out right after the storm ended). What a thunder and lightening show! Here's a photo from just before the storm hit:

Grant Road as the storm just started to hit.

According to NOAA Atlas 14 data (http://hdsc.nws.noaa.gov/hdsc/pfds/), this ~1 inch, 60 minute storm equates to about a 2 year recurrence interval storm. So a pretty good event.

We visited the Rillito a bit later, that once perennially-flowing river bed, which had a pretty substantial amount of water in it. The USGS gauging station just 2 or 3 miles downstream at La Cholla didn't register any discharge all day, though. I find it hard to believe that the amount of water we saw flowing would infiltrate in 3 miles, so I'm not sure what's going on there.

Madeline overlooking the Rillito, post storm

Culvert draining 1st Ave into the Rillito

Update on the Side Yard

 In addition to being fed by our bathtub, the basin we built on the side of the house also receives rain water from a pretty big portion of the roof -- I don't remember if I mentioned that in the last post. Well, the rain from this storm filled the basin and overflowed it -- good thing we designed for that to happen! The good folks at Watershed Management Group (WMG) will always tell you, so will I and just about everyone else I've met doing this - plan for the overflow! It will happen, it's just a matter of when. Some photos of standing water after the storm ended:

At the farthest downstream end of the basin, right above the overflow (not pictured)

Right by the greywater outflow pipe and rainwater downspout (not pictured, at right)

We also attached more strings to the trellises to guide the vines up -- after a day, the plants are already growing up them and the strings are taut!

Arizona Grape

Passion Fruit Vine

Milkweed Vine in the foreground

The 2-face shrine, a gift from Chris to Madeline that she installed opposite the rain down spout. I'm creeped out by it.

Madeline made a nice bridge out of some random 2x4's lying around the yard. We'd like to put a little arched bridge over the trough instead, a la Japanese style, so if anyone has any leads on one of those let us know. Notice the little 2-face shrine to the right. One real quick thing on the greywater outflow pipe that I didn't mention last time is that the outflow is covered by a metal sock screen to prevent critters from crawling up it. These are pretty nifty screens, just thought I'd let everyone know about their existence. Got them at Ace Hardware.

New bridge over the trough connecting the rainwater downspout and greywater outflow with the basin

The "Lint Snare" -- we place over the outflow pipe to prevent critters from crawling up it

Our rain barrels were filled to the max and also overflowed, but we didn't plan for that over flow. Oops!!! Not following our own advice. That made for a messy sidewalk and standing water for a few hours. Yesterday, I created a new basin that we can later run an overflow pipe to, which will hopefully solve that issue. I'll document it in a future post.

Thanks for reading! The next edition will cover the work party we held about a month ago. :)

Introduction

Well, it's a new blog! I decided to start up a blog to chronicle life in Tucson, and to start I'm going to document the changes that Madeline and I make to our new home near Grant and Campbell. Note that we're renting, but our awesome landlords are down with our improvements.

There was already a lot of great stuff at this house before we moved in. Fruit trees, laundry and bathtub greywater systems, shaded patio, lots of open space, and a really cool interior made it a clear choice for us to move in.

I'll start with the most recent project that we've just about finished -- a water harvesting basin that runs along the south side of the home that collects the tub greywater and rainwater from a substantial portion of the house. Previously, the obnoxious invasive arundo was planted here. While arguably pretty, shade-giving and tall, this plant is not native to the Tucson area and provides next to no ecological benefits (for more about arundo, check out this article from Southwest Hydrology: http://www.swhydro.arizona.edu/archive/V6_N6/feature4.pdf). WHAT A PERFECT OPPORTUNITY FOR IMPROVEMENT!

First step was chopping the arundo down. Didn't get a good before photo, but here's what arundo looks like:

(image from http://www.wildscaperestoration.com/images/SSIP-arundo.jpg)

With help from our neighbor Christopher, we started cutting it down:

With a newfound abundance of canes, what can we do with them .... Madeline knows, we can make trellises! The plan became to attach the trellises from the fence to the roof and grow native, wildlife-habitat providing vines up them.

Next step is digging out the roots. Arundo spreads through its rhizomes, so we did our best to get them all out. We've since seen a few resprouts, and we'll likely have to keep pulling them for a while, but that's all good. The roots are like giant ginger roots. Our friends digging away!!

Thanks friends!!!!


Now the fun parts: reshaping the trough to allow spreading of water, leveling with a bunyip, reshaping some more, putting down rocks to reduce erosion, and allowing for an overflow in case the trough ever fills up. I haven't done the calculations, but given the roof area that drains to this part, it seems likely that it will fill at some point.

Finally, new plants!!!! We got a few native and 1 close to native vines that will grow up the fence and up the trellises, eventually providing the same shade that the arundo did. In this case, though, they will also provide wildlife habitat and forage, a space for us to walk through, and delicious fruit. We got 2 wild Arizona grapes, 2 milkweed vines, and 1 passion fruit vine from Desert Survivors. What a kick ass organization, by the way.

Madeline planting, and notice the trellises installed overhead:

Dirty hands are the best hands:

Close up of the plants!!

Arizona Grapes:

 This one is a little under the weather, but still kicking:

Milkweed Vines:

Passion Fruit:

:) The Arizona Grape is definitely native to riparian areas in the Sonoran Desert, and if memory serves so is the milkweed vine. I think the passion fruit is native to Santa Cruz County in Arizona, right along the border with Mexico. Birds* love the grapes, and butterflies love the milkweed (especially Monarchs). And humans enjoy the passion fruit -- edible! Big thanks to Jim at Desert Survivors for the help in picking out good plants. The area where they are planted is most shaded during the day thanks to the fence, but the plants are able to grow up into direct sunlight. Here's to healthy, vigorous growth.

That is all for now -- plenty more to come!! Thanks for reading.

With love,
Alexander



*Edit August 2nd 2015, "Birds" was formerly "Plants", which didn't make sense contextually!