The drought in West Texas continues and I am going to move forward with a system to harvest rainfail that fails on my roof with a series of rain gutters and catch barrels/tanks.

If the drought continues like this the city will probably not let us water our landscaping at all using municipal water next spring and summer (and for who knows how long). I have resigned myself to the idea that the lawn and shrubs can be sacrificed but the whole point of the rainfall harvesting system is to save 4 gigantic oaks (gigantic by West texas standards; roughly 50'60' tall) on my property.

Question: Where is the best/most efficient way and place to introduce this trapped rainwater to these oaks? Near the trunk or not? Should I drip at the surface or run a bit of perforated pipe down into the ground...and where?

Any advice appreciated in advance.

(Cross posted in Home Improvement)

preface: no gardening expert...that said...

i would think that underground drip irrigation all around the tree's root system would work best. Oak roots can extend much further out than the canopy itself.

No gardening expert here, either, but last year I got something like this: http://www.rittenhouse.ca/asp/Product.asp?PG=2330. Got it at Ace, and it was a little different than what's shown on the link. It also doubled as a fertilizer delivery system for trees, and had a hard plastic compartment on the top you could put fertilizer in, and the water ran through it (hose hooked to the hard plastic part). I'm doing a terrible job of explaining it, but it worked pretty well. I'm not exactly sure how the hose attaches on the gizmo I gave you the link to, but the advantage over the one I have is that it looks as if you could hammer it into the ground, plus it has more holes in it than mine does. Anyway, point being it lets you put the water a couple of feet underground, so it's a more efficient delivery system.

contact your local extension office. They have tons of info on both topics....the office in Abilene has a working rain water collection system in front of the building.

also: it has to rain for a capturing system to work.

I'm going to digress a little here. We're New Mexican so I sympathize. I'm about halfway done converting to Blue Grama grass from some other thirsty variety. I've ripped up a number of beds to replace thirsty stuff with salvia and many other nice drought tolerant flowers.

I haven't seen the savings yet, as I watered a good deal to establish the plants, but it has been great fun.

This all doesn't sound like a big deal, but many New Mexicans go to rock yards, which I find deplorable unless you are debilitated.

Good luck with your oak.

Oh and we bought a number of olive barrels , which are huge and made of plastic, to hold rainwater. They have waterhose connectors. Only problem is, once full, they cannot be moved.

I find people who water their lawns in the midst of emergency water shortages deplorable and applaud people for going to rock gardens.


but that's just my skewed view of the world.

Gee, I wonder where I fit in in the Deplorable to Applause Continuum.