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Weathering the Weather Whether You Like It Or Not
Weathering the Weather Whether You Like It Or Not
By John E. Ross
There’s little doubt that the weather we’re going to weather this summer will be hotter and drier than usual. But what is usual? Last summer, with its back-to-back drought and deluge, is highly likely to be the new normal.
Data from the National Centers for Environmental Information suggest that mean summer temperatures will continue to notch up a degree or two every year. And spates of intense rain will become more frequent.
Of even greater concern is the likelihood of more flash droughts, the rapid onset of very dry conditions accompanied by high winds. Over the last few years, flash droughts have caused numerous wildfires that consumed homes and vast wooded acreage.
February is an excellent time to begin armoring our residences and preparing our lawns and gardens for long hot dry summers punctuated by storms delivering rain measured in inches per hour.
Mitigations for the summer assault on homes and yards range from selecting drought-tolerant plants for gardens to capturing stormwater runoff with rain barrels, rain gardens, and pervious pavements.
Gardens are a good place to begin, and there’s no better example of drought tolerant plantings than the demonstration gardens at Schoolhouse #18 on Rt. 55 about two miles east of Marshall.
Since the early 1990s, Fauquier and Rappahannock County Master Gardeners have maintained sustainable plantings in 20 small plots that showcase flowers, shrubs, herbs, vegetables, and young trees. Native species, especially those that attract pollinators and butterflies.
Most Thursday mornings, master gardeners are working on various beds. They’re delighted to help visitors plan their own gardens. Small markers identify plantings in each bed. Among features easily adaptable to most homes is the schoolhouse’s rain garden. Stormwater runoff from the parking lot of Fauquier County’s waste collection station next door flows via a long, grassy swale into a bed rimmed with fist-sized rock cobbles.
The bed is roughly 20 feet x 10 feet and about three feet deep, with a thin layer of hardwood mulch on top. Beneath is a layer of compost-amended dirt which may lie on top of a layer of clean sand. Rain gardens capture stormwater runoff and allow it to soak slowly into the water table.
Plants thriving in the schoolhouse’s rain garden include maidenhair fern, swamp sunflower and milkweed, northern blue flag iris, turtlehead, winterberry, sweet bay magnolia, and red twig dogwood. Next to the garden is a plastic box containing printouts with lists of species. And Karla Etten of Etten’s Eden on The Plains Road stocks a wide range of drought-tolerant perennials.
Similar to rain gardens, shallow rock-filled gutters lining residential sidewalks and driveways capture stormwater and allow it to percolate down into the water table instead of allowing it to flow into street-side storm drains.
The amount of water lost in rain runoff is amazing. On a roof of say, 1,000 sq. ft., one inch of rain will deposit 623 gallons of water, and roofs of most houses are twice that size. Within the incorporated limits of Middleburg, an area of about .6 square mile, one inch of rain delivers roughly 10 million gallons of water.
If that inch of rain is spread more or less equally over 24 hours, it will soak down through soil into cracks in bedrock and eventually recharge the water table from which public and private wells draw water for residential and commercial use.
To capture runoff from a gentle rain, rain barrels are a great bet. When Middleburg declared a drought emergency last year and banned outdoor plant watering, we installed a 50 gallon rain barrel.
All we had to do was build a solid and level foundation for the rain barrel and divert a downspout to fill it. Cost of the rain barrel was less than $200, and having a contractor build the base, $250. It should protect drought sensitive plants in our gardens.
Systems for capturing rainwater for use in times of drought vary in capacity, depending on one’s need. Four years ago, Joe Kline bought 17 acres in the lovely Between the Hills Valley close to Neersville and Sweet Run State Park.
Joe and his family put in a 100-foot x 100-foot garden to grow most of their own vegetables. The garden requires about 1,000 gallons of water per week to thrive. To avoid stressing the well serving the household, he decided to capture rain. From the roof of a shed near the garden, one inch of rain delivers 800 gallons.
Next to the shed, he installed huge two tanks, one holding 4,500 gallons, the other 2,500 gallons. The tanks feed a shallowly buried drip-irrigation system. Joe installed an electric pump that is wi-fi controlled allowing him to set-up an automated watering schedule for the garden.
Costing roughly $6,000, Joe’s system might be considered large by some. However to water the garden toward the end of last year’s drought, he had to haul water from a nearby pond.
Rainwater harvesting systems like Joe’s and the rain garden at Schoolhouse #18 are two of a dozen programs eligible for cost-share reimbursement through the Virginia Conservation Assistance Program (VCAP), with funding from the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and other agencies.
VCAP is administered by the Loudoun County Soil and Water Conservation District and the John Marshall Soil and Water Conservation District in Fauquier County.
Reimbursement up to $7,000 for 80 percent of costs of conservation landscaping that includes such projects as planting of meadows, trees, and riparian buffers along streams as well as for filter strips, rain gardens and dry wells.
Those who install systems to harvest rainwater can receive up to $20,000 based on $4 for each gallon captured from a one-inch rain storm. A maximum of $20,000 is also available at $5 per square foot for removing impervious surfaces such as asphalt or concrete driveways, sidewalks, or patios and $14 per square foot for installing permeable pavements.
Establishing dry swales, wet swales, step pools, and wetlands can net property owners 80 percent cost recovery up to $20,000. Bioretention, infiltration, and green roof are reimbursed at 80 percent of costs up to $30,000.
In addition to individual property owners, VCAP funding is available to nonprofit organizations, counties, incorporated towns, and school districts. Details: The best sources of information regarding VCAP are Loudoun County Soil and Water Conservation District - http://www.loudounsoilandwater.com/, and John Marshall Soil and Water Conservation District – 540/422-8490.
