What I would be mainly concerned about, as applestar suggested, is having rainwater going in to the sewer system, just because that is so wasteful. I don't have a big concern about keeping it all in my garden, because we get 40" of rain a year, spread pretty evenly over the months, with no dry months. I have 150 gallons of rain barrels in case of dry spells, but they don't get used real often.DoubleDogFarm wrote:Watching the videos and reading you will notice most recommend water storage at the top and or berms and swales all the way down. You could also pump water from the lower pond back up.My water situation is pretty OK because my whole property is basically a long steep hill, with a storage pond at the bottom.
Eric
I have put up retaining walls down the hill with dirt paths next to them. I didn't terrace (I.e. it is not flat behind the retaining walls), but still the retaining walls and the dirt paths do help to slow the water down from rushing down the hill and give it some places to soak in. Also as I am adding lots of trees and plants and mulch, the soil is better at soaking some water up.
That pond is a LONG way from any electricity. I know what it cost us to run electricity out to the small artificial pond close behind the house, so there's never going to be electricity down there. But I'm ok with how it is. I do use (some of) the duckweed the pond generates, which is a really good N source for my compost pile. I could use more of it, to add directly to gardens, except it is really hard and heavy straining it out and then carrying buckets of wet duckweed back up the long steep hill. Anyway using the duckweed makes the pond useful in the system.