From water hog to productive sponge garden - San Diego, CA

Description

We replaced 7000 square feet of turf grass with native plants and edibles, including apple, persimmon, fig, peach and avocado.

Rain water from both the roof and the driveway are redirected into the garden, capturing from approximately 2400 square feet of roof. One downspout is directed into a rain barrel, with the overflow from that directed into the existing drainage pipe. The second downspout is also connected to the same drainage pipe, which we then intercepted after it passed under the driveway, and cut it to allow the water to flow into our new rain garden. The driveway also slopes into the same garden bed. In a 1" rain event, we are capturing 1500 gallons of water.

Soil health was built using sheet mulching, and all the plants are heavily mulched. The irrigation system was converted to drip for the trees and we supplement this with "ollas" (clay irrigation pots that allow the plants to draw the water they need, no more, no less).