Rain Water Collection System In Peoria, Illinois

Former Roy-Fisher landscape designer, Bill Chambers, devised a rain water collection system at his company’s, Chamber & Sons Landscaping, headquarters in Peoria, Illinois. The inspiration came when he wanted to cultivate plants but could not, due to the lack of water infrastructure on the property.

He began by purchasing two standard sized garbage cans from the local home improvement store to setup as a test system. He used PVC pipes and fittings to connect the two. One can had the downspout from the building’s roof empty into it. The test system turned out to be a success, and it was time to expand.

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A local plumbing company (C.L. O’Brien Plumbing, Inc.) gave Bill several old water softener tanks to use as more rain barrels. But these aren’t standard garbage cans, these are much larger. With these new barrels the system went from a capacity of 64 gallons to 1,200+ gallons.

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Bill spent several weeks perfecting the rain barrel system. He installed a lower patio for the larger barrels and individual pedestals for each of the smaller containers to make sure the control water level would fill up 100% of each barrel and utilize 100% of the water collected by each barrel. The first barrel (one of the original two garbage cans) that the downspout empties into has screen filters that the water must pass through before entering the other barrels. All the barrels are connected with PVC pipe and fittings and waterproofed using large rubber washers. He installed a hose bib to the largest barrel and a 560 GPH submersible pump resides inside the large barrel as well. A drip irrigation hose was attached to the hose bib which also has an easy to clean out filter.

It rained for a couple of hours on Sunday, September 20^th, 2009, which was more than enough to fill the entire system to the brim. The overflow is piped into the adjacent corn field.

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On Tuesday, September 22^nd, 2009, the first part of the drip irrigation system was installed. At first small spray heads are being used to water trays of seedlings, but eventually each plant will be given its own bubbler if need be. After the system ran for ten minutes, no noticeable change was seen in the water level of the barrels. Currently, only three spray heads and four bubblers are hooked into the system, but it should take quite some time for the water level to decrease.

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Any questions or comments are greatly appreciated as this is an experimental rain collection system. Thus far it seems to be working wonderfully, but any ideas on how to improve it are greatly appreciated.

Right Plant, Right Place

Photo Credit: American Orchid Society, Michiko Kurisu

Putting plants in the right place is the key to ensuring they survive and remain healthy in your landscape. You can reduce the need for water, fertilizer, pesticides and pruning if you plant Florida friendly plants.

Try the following things to Green your landscape:
· Understand the soil, sunlight and water conditions of the area you are planting.
· Plan grass areas to be functional and for easy maintenance.
· Learn about problem or invasive plants and avoid planting them at all cost.
· Plant a variety of Florida-friendly plants, including flowering and fruiting plants that attract butterflies, birds, beneficial insects and other wildlife.

Many Florida native plants are especially good at attracting wildlife. Florida-friendly plants will attract beneficial insects and butterflies to your yard and garden.

Source: http://www.floridayards.org/

LEED and Landscape Architects

I’ve been a LEED ap for three years now. Although I do a number of government projects and I’m active in USGBC, I have not done a LEED project yet. Why?

Part of it is that South Florida is way behind the rest of the country in LEED projects. The economy may have something to do with it as well.

Unfortunately, I’ve seen LEED projects for which a Landscape Architect was chosen that was not a LEED ap. It was apparent in the finished product that they were not familiar with what LEED was trying to accomplish. Why were they chosen for the project?

To me, the site and what happens on it are critical but it is often an afterthought to architects and civil engineers that are the project managers on these projects. Maybe they think anything that is planted is “green”. Maybe we, as Landscape Architects don’t care enough to learn about sustainable ways to do things successfully. Maybe we haven’t done a good job of educating project managers, explaining the benefits of our services enough.

Saving the earth should start with exactly that – making sure that we don’t compact the earth, we maintain or improve the quality of soil, we save or restore vegetation that cools temperatures and reduces carbon and we collect, preserve and clean water just to name a few. SPROUT!

Sources for Sustainable Landscaping

Check out this months issue of Neighborhood Gardener. (link to your right) It's a great source of information on sustainable landscaping. This issue has an article on Florida Friendly landscaping with links to a plethora of information and an article on the latest irrigation controllers being tested by University of Florida.

Local Master Gardeners Program and Florida Yards and Neighborhoods, both run by IFAS (Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences) at the University of Florida educate South Florida residents in sustainable planting, maintenance and water preservation principles. To learn more, call the Extension Service at the Mounts Building in West Palm Beach, 561 233-1759.

What Sprout's About

As more and more natural landscape is erased, it becomes increasingly important to create landscapes that restore, invigorate and inspire. A new idea is often a combination of knowledge and a random event. Knowledge is a concept; the random event can be supplied by nature. A sensory experience combined with a concept often causes one to think or take action out of the ordinary.

Our challenge is to create settings that are structured, yet provide opportunities for randomness and discovery. An architect creates a built environment for people to act or interact. Our purpose adds the component of setting the stage for people to interact with nature. This can give inspiration for new ideas and reveal different perspectives.

This used to be my favorite poem; I thought it described how design/landscape architecture could be used to organize the world around it.

Anecdote of the Jar

I placed a jar in Tennessee,

And round it was, upon a hill.

It made the slovenly wilderness

Surround that hill.

The wilderness rose up to it,

And sprawled around, no longer wild.

The jar was round upon the ground

And tall and of a port in air.

It took dominion everywhere.

The jar was gray and bare.

It did not give of bird or bush,

Like nothing else in Tennessee.

Wallace Stevens

This poem talks about how a built form organizes and influences nature. Here’s a paradigm switch, a change of perspective. What if we turned the tables? Instead of a built form that organizes nature, nature is used to enliven our built forms. What if we worked with nature to bring more life into how we see, how we live, and what we do? This is what Sprout is about.