Passive rainwater harvesting is a great way to optimize your landscape while minimizing water use. So you may ask, “What are active and passive rainwater harvesting?”
Active rainwater harvesting involves collecting rainwater runoff from roofs and other impermeable surfaces into containers such as rain barrels or cisterns for later use. These containers can vary from small (50 gallons or less) to very large (thousands of gallons). The saved water can be distributed with a hose or drip system for use in the garden.
Passive rainwater harvesting channels water from roofs, patios or driveways directly into the landscape via swales (channels) into basins (depressions in the landscape) or into French drains where the water will be stored in the soil for use by the plants. For every 1,000 square feet of hard surface, 1 inch of rain will produce about 600 gallons of water, so it’s easy to see how active systems will produce overflow and why it’s always recommended to send that overflow into a passive rainwater harvesting system. This will lessen the amount of potable water you will need for your landscape while improving plant health.
So, what plants should you choose for your passive rainwater harvesting garden? First you need to realize there will be three different zones with different amounts of water available to the plants.
1. The High Ground Zone is the area around the outside perimeter of your basin or swale where there will be limited amounts of extra water available to the plants. This will be your most xeric (low water use) zone. Plants for this area could include:
Desert willow (Chilopsis linearis)
Grasses such as sideoats grama (Bouteloua curtipendula) or sand dropseed (Sporobolus crytandrus)
Desert four o’clock (Mirabilis multiflora) or blackfoot daisy (Melampodium leucanthum)
Sideoats Grama
2. The Transition Zone is partway up the sides of the swale or basin. Plants growing here will get some extra moisture but will not be at the low points of the basin or swale.
Escarpment live oak (Quercus fusiformus)
Grasses such as blue grama (Bouteloua gracilis) or little bluestem (Schizachryium scoparium)
Salvias such as autumn sage (Salvia greggii), Mexican blue sage (Salvia chamaedryoides) or Mexican red sage (Salvia darcyii), or dwarf goldenrod (Solidago sp.)
Escarpment Live OakLittle BluestemSalvia darcyii
3. The Inundation Zone will be the wettest area during large rain events. Only plants that can tolerate periods of standing water will work here. The basins can be enhanced with soil sponges to increase storage capacity and soil quality.
Netleaf hackberry (Celtis reticulata)
New Mexico olive (Forestiera neomexicana) or fernbush (Chamebatiaria milefolium)
Grasses such as giant sacaton (Sporobolus wrightii) or Indiangrass (Sorghastrum nutans)
Horsetail milkweed (Asclepius) or creeping germander (Teucrium chaemadrys)
Always make sure the sun or shade exposure needs of the plant match your site and remember that you will need to water these plants at least until established.
With our hot summers and low precipitation, growing vegetables in NM can be challenging. This talk will provide strategies and recommendations for growers to cultivate a thriving vegetable harvest in the region. Discussion will include irrigation and infrastructure suggestions, as well as selection of vegetable varieties that are well-adapted to the area.
Instructor:Stephanie Walker, PhD. Professor and Vegetable Specialist, New Mexico State University, Extension Plant Sciences Department.
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Instructor:Laurel Ladwig, M.S. She is the ABQ Backyard Refuge Program Director for the Friends of Valle de Oro National Wildlife Refuge, a part-time faculty member in the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, and Associate Director of the R.H. Mallory Center for Community Geography at the University of New Mexico and is enthusiastic about all opportunities to encourage people to develop a relationship with our wild neighbors.
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Instructor:Maria Thomas is the Curator of Plants at the ABQ BioPark where she manages the botanical exhibits, plant collections, horticultural staff, and related programs for the 150-acre public park and garden. Additionally, Maria is an Adjunct Professor at the University of New Mexico in the Landscape Architecture department.
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Noticing the Ways Plants Thrive in our Yards and Natural Areas Learn how to Recognize Drought-Adapted Traits in Everyday Plants all Around Us.
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Hose Bib Tree Irrigation System for Your Trees: Simple Systems for Thriving Trees!
Instructor:Richard Perce has twenty years’ experience working with trees and irrigation here in New Mexico. He is a former certified arborist and currently holds the Irrigation Association’s Landscape Irrigation Auditor certification and is a certified QWEL irrigation instructor. He worked as a landscape contractor for more than a decade and is the Water Authority’s former Irrigation Efficiency Specialist. He also has a Masters of Community and Regional Planning from UNM and currently works at Anthropopulus Design + Planning.
Passive Rainwater Harvesting
This workshop introduces participants to the principles and practices of passive rainwater harvesting. Attendees will learn how to capture, slow, spread, and infiltrate rainwater into the landscape using simple, low-cost methods such as swales, berms, and basins. The workshop emphasizes working with the natural flow of water to reduce runoff, prevent erosion, and support healthy soil and plant life. By implementing passive rainwater harvesting, participants can conserve water, and create more resilient, self-sustaining landscapes.
Instructors:Anthony Luketich, Natural Resource Scientist, Anthony Luketich is a Natural Resources Scientist for Bernalillo County where he is focused on water conservation and water-wise landscape practices. He received a degree in Watershed Management and Ecohydrology from the University of Arizona where he studied the relationship between trees and water. Anthony has worked across the Southwest US as a research scientist as well as a water harvesting field technician where he became a certified water harvesting practitioner.
Bobby Mullin, Natural Resource Scientist, Bernalillo County Stormwater Quality Program Bobby Mullin is a Natural Resource Scientist for Bernalillo County in the Stormwater Quality Program. He focuses on improving stormwater quality in the Middle Rio Grande Watershed and promoting sustainable and resilient landscapes using Green Stormwater Infrastructure and rainwater harvesting. Bobby received his Bachelor of Science in Environmental Science from Bucknell University in 2011. Before joining Bernalillo County, he had worked as an environmental consultant remediating contaminated soil and groundwater and as a Research Scientist studying the impacts of climate change, drought and plant mortality in New Mexico ecosystems.
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